By Jean Chatterley

Introduction

A small but very old booklet was donated to the Mourholme archive collection some time ago by Mr R. Clements. Called ‘A Warder’s Experiences in Lancaster Castle’, it gives an interesting insight into prison life there some 100 years ago. The book is based on a lecture read in The Lecture Room, High Street, Lancaster, by ‘the late Mr Isaac Smith’, and it is illustrated by some grim pictures representing scenes of life inside. Written for visitors to Lancaster, the book begins by outlining the Castle’s long history, but the rest is based, as the title suggests, on Isaac Smith’s own experiences.

Part 1 Hansbrow’s Stone Jug and the Cock-catcher

It was my lot to spend no inconsiderable portion of my life inside this venerable pile, having been appointed an officer by the County Magistrates in 1861. At that time the south side of the Castle was used as a Penitentiary for female delinquents, and the north side and Lungess Tower were appropriated to “visitors” who had come to undergo what was familiarly termed the “process of whitewashing”. The friends and relatives of these latter people…were wont to address their letters to “Hansbrow’s Hotel”, “Hansbrow’s Castle Hotel”, Hansbrow’s Stone Jug”, etc, Captain Hansbrow being at that time Governor of the Castle.

Isaac Smith then goes on to explain who these ‘visitors’ were, an account which dealt with a system probably familiar to his audience, but very odd to us:

These gentlemen were really insolvent debtors – ‘about ninety out of every hundred sent in by friendly creditors for the purpose of petitioning the Court to pay off their debts with a piece of waste paper. From 70 to 80 debtors went through this process every month. The whole affair was a huge swindle; only a very small percentage of the cases were genuine. As a rule, a man went into trade and ran up debts to a few hundred pounds, paid as little as possible and put away as much loose cash as he could before his creditors became unduly pressing. When he found he could go no further he would persuade a friend to swear that he owed him over £20, and get him to take out a warrant and consign him to the Castle. I have frequently seen men waiting at the Gateway of the Castle enquiring if the Sheriff’s officer had not yet arrived with their warrant!!

It becomes clear that the City’s lawyers were only too aware of the ‘benefits’ of this system.

There were several lawyers in the town who had offices in the Castle and employed assistants to bring them clients. The most important of these assistants was called the “Cock-catcher’’. It was his duty to meet the trains and bargain with the sheriff’s officer to recommend his prisoner to his (the Cock-catcher’s) firm. This successfully accomplished the debtor was hurried into the Castle and into the presence of the ‘’Cock-catcher’s” master, who after hearing the debtor’s story would tell him he could pull him through the Court for about £10, if he would sign a paper retaining him as his solicitor. Then the lawyer would draw up a schedule of all his client’s creditors with the amount of their claims, and a petition to the Court praying to be relieved from payment on the score of inability to pay. This done, notice was sent to all creditors that if they intended to oppose the debtor’s discharge they must give so many days’ notice before the next Court day. If no notice was given the debtor was discharged as unopposed; but if the case was a bad one and a hostile creditor gave notice of opposing the petition, the debtor would get his friendly creditor to oppose likewise. The hostile creditor would ask the judge to dismiss the debtor’s petition for various reasons, while the friendly creditor would urge him to remand the debtor in prison for a few months, when they would perhaps be able to make better terms with him. The judge would most likely listen to the latter, and remand the debtor for perhaps six months at the suit of this creditor, who, like a good friend, would forgive the debtor after the Court rose, and would lodge his discharge (which he probably had all the time in his pocket) with the Governor, with the result that the debtor would be discharged with the rest, the only drawback being that he could not obtain his certificate of discharge until the six months had expired.

Things did not always go the way of the debtor, of course.

Creditors were often obstinate. Suspecting that the debtor had the wherewithal to pay his debts, they would turn up on Court-days in a body, and persistently oppose his discharge; and thus the game of “tire you out” would proceed on both sides until one or the other gave way.

Isaac Smith then describes what life for the debtor was like once inside the prison – and here we are reminded of Little Dorrit’s father in Charles Dickens’ novel.

Though arrested under the same kind of writ, when inside the Castle the debtors were divided into two classes: the first class maintained themselves, but the second class lived at the expense of the county. There were 22 rooms set apart for the use of the debtors – 20 for males and two for females. ‘Every debtor on entering the prison was charged a certain sum, termed ‘’room-money”, which covered the cost of fuel, lighting, the use of culinary utensils, etc, during the whole period of his incarceration, no matter how long. The money was collected by the “rooms-men”, who had charge of the rooms, did the cooking, cleaning, etc, and waited upon the debtors in their respective apartments. The fee varied with the accommodation – from 25/-, the highest sum, to 5/-, the lowest. Subject to certain regulations, any tradesman in the town had full liberty, at stated times of the day, to convey eatables and drinkables into the Castle for the use of the debtors; and every morning a miniature market, where butcher’s meat, bread, butter, groceries, vegetables, fish, and other commodities might be purchased was held in the Castle-yard. Those among the richer debtors who did not care to purchase for themselves paid 7/- or 8/- weekly to the ’roomsmen” for their board, and this included a bottle of ale every day.

It is not surprising to learn that being a ‘roomsman’ could be profitable; it is more amazing to learn how the debtor inmates themselves made money:

…even as much as £800, or bordering on that sum, is said to have been accumulated by one individual entirely from debtors, by advancing money to them at a most exorbitant rate of interest, as the security of watches, jewellery, and other articles which the borrowers were seldom able to redeem.

Some of the inmate debtors became very well known:

The best room was called the “Quaker’s”. It was a very large room in the Lungess Tower, being its full length and half the width. In my day this room was kept by old Joe Marsden, a man who went in as a debtor and had 32 Christmas dinners in the Castle, He had the place furnished with easy ‘chairs, sofas, a piano, and everything to make the room look comfortable. There was a second-best room, where the board was not quite so high. This was kept by a man who had been six years in the Castle at the time of my appointment. The first day after each Court-day the members of these rooms proceeded to elect a committee and officers to conduct the affairs of the room for another month. The officers were Chairman, Vice-chairman, Constable, Postman, and Cock-catcher. They had a code of rules printed and hung in the rooms, with a scale of fines for various offences.

These officers held mock ‘courts’, where Isaac Smith frequently witnessed great ability and good humoured banter.

When a debtor was sent in by a hostile creditor, this court would try his case if he chose, and advise him whether it would be wiser to face the judge or compound with his creditor…A tradesman – a great swell- had been arrested in Liverpool under an absconding warrant…On arriving at the Castle he wanted to telegraph to his relatives and ask them to pay his debt; but his new friends in the Quaker’s Rooms advised him to keep cool, and to have his case tried by them. He ultimately assented, and they advise him to adopt the following plan, which he carried out with complete success: – He wrote to his detaining creditor a very respectful letter, expressing regret at his inability to pay him in full, and as it would take all he possessed to see him through the Insolvent Debtors’ Court, he thought it only fair (as he was his only creditor) to offer him the money instead of paying it away in law costs. He made an offer of 1/6d in the £, which he said was the best he could do. Then he wrote a pathetic letter to his wife, telling her how he had got into trouble, that he had written to his detaining creditor offering all he had, which would only realise 1/6d in the £ ‘that he thought his creditor was a humane, good sort of man and would accept it; and telling her that in the event of his doing so she must sell the watch which her father gave her, also her jewellery and surplus clothing, and when he got out of prison he would try to make up for all, even “if he worked his fingers to the bone.” He then purposely make the mistake of putting his wife’s letter into the envelope addressed to his creditor, and the creditor’s letter into the envelope addressed to his wife, and posted them. When the creditor opened the letter which began “My darling wife”, he was somewhat puzzled, but soon saw that a mistake had been made. In due time his wife sent the letter she had received on to the creditor, who would naturally say, “Now I have by accident seen the real state of things; I may as well get what bit I can;” so he wrote accepting the offer of 1/6d in the £ and sent the debtor his discharge. On leaving the Castle the discharged debtor gave £5 to his friends, with which to make merry over his success.

Some of the debtors had serious drink problems, and would suffer what we now call withdrawal symptoms when deprived of all but their daily ration of ale. Isaac Smith describes a couple of extreme cases, one ending with the prisoner’s removal to the lunatic asylum, and another which involved the man with ‘d.t.s’ attacking others in his room, and which needed a ‘desperate struggle’ on Isaac’s part to ‘overpower’ him.

Though bottled ale might be purchased by the debtors to a limited extent, spirits were strictly forbidden; and tobacco, which at one time was allowed, became during the whole of my time, and for some time previous, contraband also. But many cute attempts were made to smuggle it is, some of which would occasionally succeed, but they were more frequently detected.

Cases were cited of ingenious smuggling efforts on the part of prisoners’ families; for example,

On one occasion a very handsome overcoat was piped all around with twist.

Other efforts involved ’doctored’ pies, boxes with false bottoms, and a deceptive 1 lb tin of mustard powder!

Isaac Smith tells us that changes followed the new Bankruptcy Act at the end of 1861 when the old Insolvent Debtors Act was replaced. But it was not until the new Act was amended in 1853, to make insolvency no longer an offence carrying a prison sentence that major changes occurred:

At six o’clock on the morning of New Year’s Day, 1869, the doors were thrown open, and all prisoners shown the way out.

Did this mean that the Castle contained no debtors from that date? Not at all, for many were ‘inside’ for related offences, particularly contempt of court.

County Court debtors were sent for a stated period, varying from seven to forty days, and in some instances were committed again and again for the same debt. A man from Bolton (if I remember correctly) was sent several times for forty days each time for one debt, which was originally only 1/5d. We had two debtors in for contempt of the Court of Chancery eight or nine years; we had one in (a solicitor) about six years, who spent more money I should think every three months than would have paid the whole of his debts. The new Bankruptcy Act, however, turned him out, and, I fear, broke his heart.

The departure of most of the debtors made room for the more usual type of criminals.

Published in Mourholme Magazines Issue 12 Autumn 1986