The Fleet: Its Rivers, Prison, and Marriages

Only a little tributary to the Thames, the River Fleet, generally, and ignominiously, called the Fleet _Ditch_, yet it is historically interesting, not only on account of the di...

London, for its size, was indeed very well supplied with water, although, of course, it was not laid on to every house, as now, but, with the exception of those houses provided...

The Fleet, as far as can be ascertained, owes its birth to an ornamental water, fed by springs--one of the numerous ponds in Highgate and Hampstead--in the park of Ken Wood, the...

The etymology of Battle Bridge, which consists of only one arch, and now forms a part of the Fleet Sewer, is a much vexed question. At one time it was an article of faith, not t...

As the Fleet was "the River of Wells" it may be as well to notice the Wells, which, although not absolutely contributing towards swelling its volume, are yet closely adjacent--n...

A very fair account of its early history is given in a little pamphlet entitled "A True and Exact Account of Sadlers Well: or the New Mineral Waters. Lately found out at Islingt...

Between this house, and Bagnigge Wells, was Bagnigge Wash, or Marsh, and Black Mary's Wells, or Hole. The etymology of this place is contested. In the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for...

The gardens were pretty, after the manner of the times; we should not, perhaps, particularly admire the formally cut lines and hedges, nor the fountain in which a Cupid is huggi...

A little farther on, it washed the walls of Cold Bath Fields Prison, the _House of Correction_, and we get a view of it in Hone's "Table Book,"[41] p. 75. Here he says, "In 1825...

Coldbath Fields were, a hundred and twenty years ago, fairly rural, for (although it certainly is recorded as an abnormal occurrence) we find, in the _Daily Courant_, November 1...

It is almost impossible to write about anything connected with Spa Fields, without mentioning the famous "Spa Fields Riots," which occurred on Dec. 2, 1816. In every great city...

Still continuing the downward course of the Fleet, an historical place is reached, "Hockley-in-the-Hole," or Hollow, so famous for its rough sports of bear baiting and sword and...

In connection with the Fleet, I have omitted to mention one locality, in this immediate neighbourhood, which certainly deserves notice from its associations, namely Laystall Str...

Close by Saffron Hill, and Fleet Lane, is Hatton Garden, or Ely Place, formerly the seats of the Bishops of Ely; which Shakespeare has made so familiar to us in _Richard III._ a...

Then, close by (still keeping up its title of the River of the Wells) was Lamb's Conduit, on Snow Hill, which was fed from a little rill which had its source near where the Foun...

Hatton, writing in 1708, says: "_Fleet Bridge_ is even with the Str(eet); it leads from _Fleet Street_ over the _Fleet Ditch_ to _Ludgate Hill_; is accommodated with strong Batt...

The Course of the Fleet is nearly run, but, before closing this account of the river, we should not forget the residence of the mighty King-maker, the Earl of Warwick, whose ple...

Bordering upon Bridewell, and almost part and parcel of it, was Whitefriars, which, westward, ran to the Temple, and eastward to the Fleet. It is so-called from a Carmelite mona...

This prison was of great antiquity, and its genealogy, like all respectable ones, dates back to William the Conqueror, at least; for we find, under date 1197,[84] "Natanael de L...

The Fleet was, evidently, a handy prison, elastic enough to suit all cases, for on Aug. 19, 1553, at the Star Chamber, "Roger Erthe, alias Kinge, servaunt to Therle of Pembroke,...

The second count brought against him by his mutinous prisoners was "Remouing a prisoner out of his chamber, hauing 51 lib. 1 s. hid vnder his bed, which the prisoner required he...

Things got so bad that Parliament ordered a Committee to inquire into it, and they began their sitting in Feb. 25, 1729. But, previously, the prisoners had petitioned the Lord C...

But enough of the miserables in connection with the Fleet Prison. We shall find that it is even possible for a prisoner to write pleasantly, nay, even somewhat humorously, upon...

We saw in the lines, under the Frontispiece to the foregoing poem, _Garnish_ was mentioned, and the fact was stated as a Custom then in force of taking the prisoner's coat to pa...

In a Return of the number of persons in the several Gaols of England, confined for Debt, ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, May 13, 1835, we have an "Account of the...

There is no doubt that in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Marriage laws, as we now understand them, were somewhat lax, and it is possible that it was so long befor...

But the Act of 1712 failed to stop these illicit marriages, for one John Mottram was tried at Guildhall, before Lord Chief Justice Parker, found guilty, was suspended from his m...

Of James Starkey, who married from 1718 to 1730, very little is known, except that he had run away to Scotland, and could not be produced when wanted at a trial in the Old Baile...

Keith's written description of a Fleet Marriage is graphic, but a contemporary engraving brings it even more vividly before us. This was published Oct. 20, 1747, and gives an ex...

There are several instances of Committal to the Fleet for meddling with Marriages. One or two will suffice:--1731. "Thursday, the Master of the Rolls committed a Clergyman to th...