Editing Newgate Prison

{{Short description|Former prison in London}}
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{{Use British English|date=May 2018}}
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{{Infobox prison
| name                = Newgate Prison
| image               = Newgate West View of Newgate by George Shepherd 1784-1862 edited.jpg
| image_size          = 300px
| alt                 = Engraving of large dark stone-block building, with horse-drawn carriages in the street in front
| caption             = Newgate Prison, ''c''. 1810
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| status              = Closed
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| opened              = {{Start date and age|1188}}
| closed              = {{End date and age|1902}}
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'''Newgate Prison''' was a [[prison]] at the corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey, just inside the [[City of London]], England, originally at the site of [[Newgate]], a gate in the [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] [[London Wall]]. Built in the 12th century and demolished in 1904, the prison was extended and rebuilt many times, and remained in use for over 700 years, from 1188 to 1902.

In the late 18th century, executions by hanging were moved here from the [[Tyburn]] gallows.  These took place on the public street in front of the prison, drawing crowds until 1868, when they were moved into the prison.

For much of its history, a succession of criminal courtrooms were attached to the prison, commonly referred to as the "Old Bailey".  The present [[Old Bailey]] (officially, Central Criminal Court) now occupies much of the site of the prison.

==History==
[[File:Old Newgate.jpg|thumb|[[Newgate]], the old city gate and prison]]
In the 12th century, [[Henry II of England|Henry II]] instituted legal reforms that gave the Crown more control over the administration of justice. As part of his [[Assize of Clarendon]] of 1166, he required the construction of prisons, where the accused would stay while royal judges debated their innocence or guilt and subsequent punishment. In 1188, Newgate was the first institution established to meet that purpose.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Newgate: London's Prototype of Hell|last=Halliday|first=Stephen|publisher=The History Press|year=2007|isbn=978-0-7509-3896-9}}</ref>  Also around this time, the [[Sheriffs of London]] were given jurisdiction in [[Middlesex]], as well as in the [[City of London]].<ref name=vch_middlesex>{{cite book |author= Victoria County History |title= A history of the County of Middlesex |volume= 2 |pages= 15–60. Paragraph 12 |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22153 |access-date= 2 April 2012|author-link= Victoria County History }}</ref>

A few decades later in 1236, in an effort to significantly enlarge the prison, the king converted one of the Newgate turrets, which still functioned as a main gate into the city, into an extension of the prison. The addition included new dungeons and adjacent buildings, which would remain unaltered for roughly two centuries.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|title=Newgate Prison in the Middle Ages|last=Bassett|first=Margery|date=1943|journal=Medieval Academy of America|volume=18|issue=2|pages=233–246|doi=10.2307/2850646|jstor=2850646|s2cid=162217628}}</ref>

By the 15th century, however, Newgate was in need of repair. Following pressure from reformers who learned that the women's quarters were too small and did not contain their own latrines – obliging women to walk through the men's quarters to reach one – officials added a separate tower and chamber for female prisoners in 1406.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |title=London in the Later Middle Ages: Government and People, 1200–1500 |last=Barron |first=Caroline |author-link=Caroline Barron |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0199284412 |location=Oxford |pages=164–166 }}</ref> Some Londoners bequeathed their estates to repair the prison. The building was collapsing and decaying, and many prisoners were dying from the close quarters, overcrowding, rampant disease, and bad sanitary conditions. Indeed, one year, 22 prisoners died from "[[typhus|gaol fever]]". The situation in Newgate was so dire that in 1419, city officials temporarily shut down the prison.<ref name=":1" />

The [[executor]]s of the will of [[Lord Mayor of the City of London|Lord Mayor]] [[Richard Whittington|Dick Whittington]] were granted a licence to renovate the prison in 1422.  The gate and gaol were pulled down and rebuilt. There was a new central hall for meals, a new chapel, and the creation of additional chambers and basement cells with no light or ventilation.<ref name=":1" /> There were three main wards: the Master's side for those could afford to pay for their own food and accommodations, the Common side for those who were too poor, and a Press Yard for special prisoners.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=London: The Biography|last=Ackroyd|first=Peter|publisher=Nan A. Talese|year=2000|isbn=978-0385497718|location=New York}}</ref> The king often used Newgate as a holding place for heretics, traitors, and rebellious subjects brought to London for trial.<ref name=":1" /> The prison housed both male and female felons and debtors. Prisoners were separated into wards by sex.  By the mid-15th century, Newgate could accommodate roughly 300 prisoners. Though the prisoners lived in separate quarters, they mixed freely with each other and visitors to the prison.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Background – Prisons and Lockups – London Lives |url=http://www.londonlives.org/static/Prisons.jsp |website=www.londonlives.org |access-date=2015-12-11|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151225005644/http://www.londonlives.org/static/Prisons.jsp|archive-date=2015-12-25}}</ref>

The prison was destroyed in the [[Great Fire of London]] in 1666, and was rebuilt in 1672 by Sir [[Christopher Wren]].<ref name=Timbs>{{cite book|first=John|last=Timbs |author-link=John Timbs|title=Curiosities of London: Exhibiting the Most Rare and Remarkable Objects of Interest in the Metropolis|url=https://archive.org/stream/curiositiesoflon00timbrich#page/697/mode/1up |year=1855|publisher=D. Bogue|page=697}}</ref> In 1752, a [[windmill]] was built on top of the prison by [[Stephen Hales]] in an effort to provide ventilation.<ref name=Buckland>{{cite web |url=https://mailchi.mp/millsarchive.org/the-newgate-prison-windmill |title=The Newgate Prison Windmill |first=Stephen |last=Buckland |publisher=[[The Mills Archive]] |access-date=14 November 2022 }}</ref>

[[File:Newgate Prison Publ 1800.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|right|Elevation and plan of Newgate Prison published in 1800]]
In 1769, construction was begun by the King's Master Mason, [[John Deval]],<ref>Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851 by Rupert Gunnisp.129</ref> to enlarge the prison and add a new 'Old Bailey' sessions house.  Parliament granted £50,000 (~£9.3 million in 2020 terms) towards the cost, and the City of London provided land measuring {{convert|1600|ft|-2}} by {{convert|50|ft}}. The work followed the designs of [[George Dance the Younger]]. The new prison was constructed to an ''[[architecture terrible]]'' design intended to discourage law-breaking. The building was laid out around a central courtyard, and was divided into two sections: a "Common" area for poor prisoners and a "State area" for those able to afford more comfortable accommodation.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://thomaslayton.org.uk/2012/10/15/design-for-prison/|title=Design for Newgate prison|publisher=The Layton Collection|access-date=10 October 2022}}</ref>

Construction of the second Newgate Prison was almost finished when it was stormed by a mob during the [[Gordon riots]] in June 1780. The building was gutted by fire, and the walls were badly damaged; the cost of repairs was estimated at £30,000 (~£5.6 million in 2020 terms). Dance's new prison was finally completed in 1782.<ref name=ill>{{cite book |last1=Britton |first1=John |last2=Pugin |first2=A. |title=Illustrations of the Public Buildings of London: With Historical and Descriptive Accounts of each Edifice |volume= 2|year=1828 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vpw5AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA102 |location=London |pages=102 ''et seq.''}}</ref>

During the early 19th century, the prison attracted the attention of the social reformer [[Elizabeth Fry]]. She was particularly concerned at the conditions in which female prisoners (and their children) were held. After she presented evidence to the [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]] improvements were made.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.quakersintheworld.org/quakers-in-action/13/Elizabeth-Fry |title=Elizabeth Fry|publisher=Quakers in the World|access-date=10 October 2022}}</ref>

The prison closed in 1902, and was demolished in 1903.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BRK1APtXtA4C&pg=PA218|title=A Pictorial and Descriptive Guide to London and Its Environs With Two Large Section Plans of Central London|year=1919|publisher=Ward, Lock and Company |page=218}}</ref>

== Prison life ==
[[File:Newgate-prison-exercise-yard.jpg|thumb|upright=1.02|Newgate exercise yard, 1872, by [[Gustave Doré]]]]
All manner of criminals stayed at Newgate. Some committed acts of petty crime and theft, breaking and entering homes or committing highway robberies, while others performed serious crimes such as rapes and murders.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Browse - Central Criminal Court|url = http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?path=sessionsPapers%252F16740429.xml|website = www.oldbaileyonline.org|access-date = 2015-12-11|url-status = dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151222151403/http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?path=sessionsPapers%2F16740429.xml|archive-date = 22 December 2015}}</ref> The number of prisoners in Newgate for specific types of crime often grew and fell, reflecting public anxieties of the time. For example, towards the tail end of [[Edward I of England|Edward I]]'s reign, there was a rise in street robberies. As such, the punishment for drawing out a dagger was 15 days in Newgate; injuring someone meant 40 days in the prison.<ref name=":0" />

Upon their arrival in Newgate, prisoners were chained and led to the appropriate dungeon for their crime. Those who had been sentenced to death stayed in a cellar beneath the keeper's house, essentially an open sewer lined with chains and shackles to encourage submission. Otherwise, common debtors were sent to the "stone hall" whereas common felons were taken to the "stone hold". The dungeons were dirty and unlit, so depraved that physicians would not enter.<ref name=":3" />

The conditions did not improve with time. Prisoners who could afford to purchase alcohol from the prisoner-run drinking cellar by the main entrance to Newgate remained perpetually drunk.<ref name=":3" /> There were lice everywhere, and jailers left the prisoners chained to the wall to languish and starve. From 1315 to 1316, 62 deaths in Newgate were under investigation by the coroner, and prisoners were always desperate to leave the prison.<ref name=":3" />

The cruel treatment from guards did nothing to help the unfortunate prisoners. According to medieval statute, the prison was to be managed by two annually elected [[sheriff]]s, who in turn would sublet the administration of the prison to private "gaolers", or "keepers", for a price.  These keepers in turn were permitted to exact payment directly from the inmates, making the position one of the most profitable in London. Inevitably, often the system offered incentives for the keepers to exhibit cruelty to the prisoners, charging them for everything from entering the gaol to having their chains both put on and taken off. They often began inflicting punishment on prisoners before their sentences even began. Guards, whose incomes partially depended on extorting their wards, charged the prisoners for food, bedding, and to be released from their shackles. To earn additional money, guards blackmailed and tortured prisoners.<ref name=":0" /> Among the most notorious Keepers in the Middle Ages were the 14th-century gaolers Edmund Lorimer, who was infamous for charging inmates four times the legal limit for the removal of irons, and Hugh De Croydon, who was eventually convicted of blackmailing prisoners in his care.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2850646|title=Newgate Prison in the Middle Ages|first=Margery|last= Bassett|journal=Speculum |publisher=The University of Chicago Press|date=1 April 1943|pages=233–246|volume=18|issue=2 |doi=10.2307/2850646 |jstor=2850646 |s2cid=162217628 |access-date=10 October 2022|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

Indeed, the list of things that prison guards were not allowed to do serve as a better indication of the conditions in Newgate than the list of things that they were allowed to do. Gaolers were not allowed to take alms intended for prisoners. They could not monopolize the sale of food, charge excessive fees for beds, or demand fees for bringing prisoners to the [[Old Bailey]]. In 1393, new regulation was added to prevent gaolers from charging for lamps or beds.<ref name=":2" />

[[File:Newgate Prison chapel.jpg|thumb|left|Newgate prison chapel]]
Not a half century later, in 1431, city administrators met to discuss other potential areas of reform. Proposed regulations included separating freemen and freewomen into the north and south chambers, respectively, and keeping the rest of the prisoners in underground holding cells. Good prisoners who had not been accused of serious crimes would be allowed to use the chapel and recreation rooms at no additional fees. Meanwhile, debtors whose burden did not meet a minimum threshold would not be required to wear shackles. Prison officials were barred from selling food, charcoal, and candles. The prison was supposed to have yearly inspections, but whether they actually occurred is unknown. Other reforms attempted to reduce the waiting time between jail deliveries to the [[Old Bailey]], with the aim of reducing suffering, but these efforts had little effect.<ref name=":1" />

Over the centuries, Newgate was used for a number of purposes including imprisoning people awaiting execution, although it was not always secure: [[burglar]] [[Jack Sheppard]] twice escaped from the prison before he went to the [[gallows]] at Tyburn in 1724. Prison [[chaplain]] [[Paul Lorrain]] achieved some fame in the early 18th century for his sometimes dubious publication of ''[[Ordinary of Newgate's Account|Confessions]]'' of the condemned.<ref>Tim Wales, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/14492 'Lorrain, Paul (d. 1719), Church of England clergyman and criminal biographer'], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, June 2008</ref>

==Executions==
[[File:Hangin outside Newgate Prison.jpg|thumb|right|Execution by hanging, outside Newgate, early 1800s]]
In 1783, the site of London's gallows was moved from Tyburn to Newgate.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Smith |first=Oliver |date=2018-01-25 |title='Strike, man, strike!' – On the trail of London's most notorious public execution sites |language=en-GB |work=The Telegraph |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/united-kingdom/england/london/articles/Londons-most-notorious-execution-sites/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/united-kingdom/england/london/articles/Londons-most-notorious-execution-sites/ |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |access-date=2020-10-26 |issn=0307-1235}}{{cbignore}}</ref>  Public executions outside the prison – by this time, London's main prison – continued to draw large crowds.  It was also possible to visit the prison by obtaining a permit from the [[Lord Mayor of the City of London]] or a [[sheriff]].  The condemned were kept in narrow, sombre cells separated from [[Newgate|Newgate Street]] by a thick wall and received only a dim light from the inner courtyard.  The gallows were constructed outside a door in Newgate Street for public viewing. Dense crowds of thousands of spectators could pack the streets to see these events, and in 1807 [[1807 Newgate disaster|dozens died]] at a public execution when part of the crowd of 40,000 spectators collapsed into a [[crowd crush]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=5fALAAAAYAAJ&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA34|title=The Follies and Fashions of Our Grandfathers (1807)|last=Tuer|first=Andrew|date=1887|page=34-36|publisher=Field & Tuer |access-date=25 May 2019}}</ref> In November 1835 [[James Pratt and John Smith]] were the last two men to be executed for [[sodomy]].<ref>{{cite book |title=A Gay History of Britain: Love and Sex Between Men Since the Middle Ages |publisher=[[Greenwood World Publishing]] |last=Cook |first=Matt |editor-last=Mills |editor-first=Robert |editor-last2=Trumback |editor-first2=Randolph |editor-last3=Cocks |editor-first3=Harry |year=2007 |isbn=978-1846450020 |page=109 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1GuGAAAAIAAJ}}</ref> 

[[Michael Barrett (Fenian)|Michael Barrett]] was the last man to be hanged in public outside Newgate Prison (and the last person to be publicly executed in Great Britain) on 26&nbsp;May 1868.<ref>A Dictionary of Irish History, D.J. Hickey & J.E. Doherty, Gill and Macmillan, Dublin, 1980. p 26. {{ISBN|0-7171-1567-4}}</ref> From 1868, public executions were discontinued and executions were carried out on gallows inside Newgate, initially using the same mobile gallows in the Chapel Yard, but later in a shed built near the same spot. Dead Man's Walk was a long stone-flagged passageway, partly open to the sky and roofed with iron mesh (thus also known as Birdcage Walk).<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22819964|title=The secret world of the Old Bailey|date=9 June 2013|newspaper=BBC|access-date=10 October 2022}}</ref> The bodies of the executed criminals were then buried beneath its flagstones.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nh-KDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT49|title=Capital Punishment: London's Places of Execution|first= Robert|last= Bard|year=2016|publisher=Amberley Publishing|isbn=978-1445667379}}</ref> Until the 20th century, future British executioners were trained at Newgate. One of the last was [[John Ellis (executioner)|John Ellis]], who began training in 1901.<ref>[https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1924-03-29/ed-1/seq-23/ Britain's Official Hangman Quits After 23 Years Without Excuses], in ''[[the Washington Star|the Evening Star]]'' (via ''[[Chronicling America]]''); published March 29, 1924</ref> In total – publicly or otherwise – 1,169 people were executed at the prison.<ref>{{cite book|title=History of Criminal Justice|date=2011-07-22|publisher=Elsevier|isbn=9781437734911|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qhPdaCJWQikC&pg=PA152|author=Mark Jones, Peter Johnstone|access-date=2014-05-11}}</ref> [[Death mask]]s of several of them were transferred to the [[Crime Museum|Black Museum]] at New Scotland Yard on the prison's closure.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/discover/death-masks-crime-museum|title=Death masks of the Crime Museum|first=Jackie|last=Keily|date=9 March 2016|access-date=22 May 2023|work=Museum of London}}</ref>

==Notable prisoners==
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Other famous prisoners at Newgate include:
* [[Thomas Bambridge]], warden of [[Fleet Prison]] in the 1720s – imprisoned for [[extortion]] and [[murder]]<ref>{{cite ODNB|id=1255|first=A. A.|last=Hanham|title=Bambridge, Thomas}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://lccn.loc.gov/2012647274 |title=Bambridge on trial for murder by a committee of the House of Commons / engraved by T. Cook from an original painting by Wm. Hogarth in the possession of Mr. Ray |work=Library of Congress |access-date=4 February 2019}}</ref>
* [[George Barrington]], pickpocket – held at least twice in Newgate between 1783 and 1790, before [[Penal transportation|transportation]] to Australia<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.londonlives.org/static/BarringtonGeorge1755-1804.jsp |title=George Barrington 1755–1804 |first1=Deirdre |last1=Palk |first2=Tim |last2=Hitchcock |first3=Sharon |last3=Howard |first4=Robert |last4=Shoemaker |work=London Lives, 1690–1800 – Crime, Poverty and Social Policy in the Metropolis |publisher=London Lives |access-date=4 February 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite Australian Dictionary of Biography |id2=barrington-george-1746 |title=George Barrington (1755–1804) |volume=1 |year=1966 |editor-first=Douglas |editor-last=Pike |access-date=4 February 2019}}</ref>
* [[John Bellingham]], assassin of the Prime Minister [[Spencer Perceval]] 1812 – hanged in 1812<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/building/palace/estatehistory/from-the-parliamentary-collections/spencer-perceval/portrait-of-john-bellingham/|title=The assassin: John Bellingham|publisher=UK Parliament|access-date=10 October 2022}}</ref>
* [[John Bernardi]], soldier and Jacobite conspirator – imprisoned without trial in Newgate for forty years<ref>{{cite DNB|wstitle=Bernardi, John|volume=04}}</ref>
* [[Robert Blackbourn]], Jacobite conspirator – imprisoned without trial in Newgate for fifty years<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Taaffe |first=Thomas |title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Robert Blackburne |chapter=Robert Blackburne |encyclopedia=The Catholic Encyclopedia |volume=2 |location=New York |publisher=Robert Appleton Company |date=1907 |chapter-url= http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02590b.htm |access-date=12 September 2016}}</ref>
* [[John Bradford]], religious reformer – burned at the stake at Newgate in 1555<ref>Rounding, Virginia. [http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/967077639 The Burning Time: Henry VIII, Bloody Mary, and the Protestant Martyrs of London]. 2017. Page 287.</ref>
* [[Giacomo Casanova]], Venetian libertine – imprisoned for alleged [[bigamy]]<ref name=hc>{{cite web|url=https://historycollection.com/18-inhumane-and-notorious-prisons-in-history/3/|title=18 Inhumane and Notorious Prisons in History|first=Larry|last=Holzwarth|date=16 April 2019|access-date=10 October 2022}}</ref>
* [[Gold dust robbery|Ellis Casper]], who helped to perpetrate the [[Gold dust robbery|1839 Gold Dust Robbery]] – held in Newgate before being transported to [[Van Diemen's Land]] in 1841<ref>Griffiths, A. (1884). The chronicles of Newgate. London: Chapman and Hall, pp. 473–474.</ref>
* [[Elizabeth Cellier]], also known as the "Popish Midwife", [[midwife]] – incarcerated in 1679–1680 during a high treason trial for the alleged "Meal-Tub Plot"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265444812|title=Neither Single nor Alone: Elizabeth Cellier, Catholic Community, and Transformations of Catholic Women's Piety|date=1 March 2012|publisher=Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature| access-date=10 October 2022}}</ref>
* [[William Chaloner]], currency counterfeiter and con artist – imprisoned multiple times at Newgate between 1696 and his hanging 1699 for [[high treason]]<ref>{{cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/66841|title=Oxford DNB article: Chaloner, William (subscription needed)|last1=Hopkins|first1=Paul|last2=Handley|first2=Stuart|year=2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/66841 |access-date=10 October 2022}}</ref>
* [[Marcy Clay]], thief and [[Highwayman|highwayrobber]] who dressed as a man, died by suicide before she could be hanged in April 1665<ref name=":02">{{Cite ODNB |title=Clay, Marcy [alias Jenny Fox] (d. 1665), highwaywoman and thief |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-73926 |access-date=2022-04-24 | year=2004 |language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/73926| isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 }}</ref>
* [[William Cobbett]], Parliamentary reformer and agrarian – imprisoned 1810–1812 for treasonous [[libel]]<ref>{{cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/5734|title=Oxford DNB article: Cobbett, William (subscription needed)|last=Dyke|first=Ian|year=2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/5735 |access-date=10 October 2022}}</ref>
* [[Thomas Neill Cream]], doctor and blackmailer – tried, convicted, and hanged in 1892 for poisoning several of his patients as the "Lambeth Poisoner"<ref>{{cite book|title=A history of capital punishment: with special reference to capital punishment in Great Britain |first=John |last=Laurence |publisher=S. Low, Marston & Co. |year=1932 |page=125 }}</ref>
* [[Hannah Dagoe]], Irish basket-woman who stabbed a man while a prisoner at Newgate<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?div=OA17630504|title=Ordinary's Account|date=4 May 1763|publisher=Proceedings of the Old Bailey|access-date=6 December 2023}}</ref>
* [[Daniel Defoe]], author of ''[[Robinson Crusoe]]'' and ''[[Moll Flanders]]'' (whose protagonist is born and imprisoned in Newgate Prison)<ref>{{Citation|last=König|first=Eva|title=Moll Flanders and Fluid Identity|date=2014|url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137382023_3|work=The Orphan in Eighteenth-Century Fiction: The Vicissitudes of the Eighteenth-Century Subject|pages=25–38|place=London|publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan UK]]|language=en|doi=10.1057/9781137382023_3|isbn=978-1-137-38202-3|access-date=2021-10-31|url-access=subscription}}</ref> – held at Newgate in 1703 for seditious libel<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Backscheider|first=Paula R.|date=May 1988|title=No Defense: Defoe in 1703|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/pmla/article/abs/no-defense-defoe-in-1703/1E5F62F79F6120B24C8FD0D17AEBB065|journal=[[Publications of the Modern Language Association]]|language=en|publisher=[[Modern Language Association]]|volume=103|issue=3|pages=274–284|doi=10.2307/462376|jstor=462376 |s2cid=163284949 |issn=0030-8129|via=[[Cambridge University Press]]|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
* [[Claude Duval|Claude Du Vall]], highwayman – held in Newgate from December 1669 until his execution in January 1670<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sloughhistoryonline.org.uk/ixbin/hixclient.exe?a=query&p=slough&f=generic_theme.htm&_IXFIRST_=1&_IXMAXHITS_=1&%3Dtheme_record_id=sl-sl-claudeduval&s=7OcACVUq6Jz|title=Transport in Slough: Claude Duval - Gentleman Highwayman|publisher=Slough History Online| access-date=10 October 2022}}</ref>
* [[Amelia Dyer]] (1837–1896), known as the "Reading baby farmer" – serial killer, hanged 10 June 1896<ref>{{cite book |last=Rose |first=Lionel |year=1986 |title=Massacre of the Innocents: Infanticide in Britain, 1800–1939 |publisher=Routledge |page=161}}</ref>
* [[Daniel Isaac Eaton|Daniel Eaton]], author and activist – imprisoned in 1812–1813 for atheism and blasphemous libel; the subject of the defence offered by [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]] in his essay, ''[[A Letter to Lord Ellenborough]]''<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/newgate-in-revolution-an-anthology-of-radical-prison-literature-in-the-age-of-revolution/ch9-daniel-isaac-eaton-london-1813|title=Chapter 9. Daniel Isaac Eaton, Extortions and Abuses of Newgate; Exhibited in a Memorial and Explanation, Presented to the Lord Mayor |location=London|year=1813}}</ref>
* [[John Frith (martyr)|John Frith]], Protestant priest and martyr – held at Newgate in 1533 before burning at the stake<ref>{{cite web|url=https://librarysearch.williams.edu/primo-explore/fulldisplay?vid=01WIL_SPECIAL&docid=01WIL_ALMA21114308560002786&lang=en_US&context=L |title=A boke made by John Frith, prisoner in the Tower of London : answeringe vnto M Mores lettur, which he wrote agenst the first litle treatyse that John[n] Frith made concerninge the sacramente of the Body and Bloude of Christ : vnto which boke are added in the ende the articles of his examinacion before the bishoppes of London, Winchestur and Lincolne, in Paules Church at London, for which John Frith was condempned a[n]d after bure[n]t in Smith felde with out Newgate, the fourth daye of Juli, anno 1533}}</ref>
* [[Mary Frith]], alias "Moll Cutpurse", pickpocket and fence in the 1600s – in Newgate multiple times for multiple offenses<ref>{{cite book |title=The Newgate Calendar, Part II (1742 to 1799) |chapter=MARY FRITH OTHERWISE MOLL CUTPURSE, A famous Master-Thief and an Ugly, who dressed like a Man, and died in 1663|url=https://www.exclassics.com/newgate/ngintro.htm |chapter-url=https://www.exclassics.com/newgate/ng25.htm |access-date=2 February 2019}}</ref>
* [[Lord George Gordon]], UK politician after whom the [[Gordon Riots]] are named – died of [[typhoid]] in 1793 in Newgate<ref>{{cite ODNB|url=http://oxforddnb.com/view/article/11040|title=Oxford DNB article: Gordon, Lord George (subscription needed)|last=Haydon|first=Colin|year=2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/11040 |access-date=3 June 2011}}</ref>
* [[Jack Hall (thief)|Jack Hall]] – a petty thief executed 1707 remembered only on account of his Gallows Confessional becoming a memorable folk song made popular with the adaptation [[Sam Hall (song)|Sam Hall]] by English comic minstrel, [[W. G. Ross]].<ref>{{cite web |author=Lesley Nelson-Burns |url=http://www.contemplator.com/england/jackhall.html |title=Jack Hall|access-date=6 March 2011}}</ref>
* [[Ben Jonson]], playwright and poet – imprisoned for killing fellow actor [[Gabriel Spenser]] in a 1598 [[duel]]; freed by pleading [[benefit of clergy]]<ref>{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle=Jonson, Ben |volume=15 |pages=502–507 |first=Adolphus William |last=Ward}}</ref>
* [[Jørgen Jørgensen]] (1780–1841) – a Danish adventurer, who was on board one of the ships that established the first settlement in [[Tasmania]] in 1801; governor of [[Iceland]] for two months in 1809; a British spy – held in Newgate for theft before [[Convicts in Australia|transport to Tasmania]] in 1825<ref>{{cite book|title=The Religion of Christ is the Religion of Nature. Written in the Condemned Cells of Newgate. |first=Jorgen |last=Jorgenson|location= London |year=1827}}</ref>
* [[William Kidd]], known as "Captain Kidd", pirate and [[privateer]] – hanged at [[Execution Dock]], [[Wapping]] in 1701<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.historytoday.com/archive/months-past/execution-captain-kidd|title=Execution of Captain Kidd|first=Richard|last=Cavendish|publisher=History Today|volume=51|date=1 May 2001}}</ref>
* [[John Law (economist)|John Law]], economist – sentenced to death at Newgate for murder by duel in 1694<ref name="Letters to John Law">{{cite book |author=Adams, Gavin John|title=Letters to John Law|year=2012|publisher= Newton Page |isbn=978-1-934619-08-7 |pages=xiv, xxi, liii}}</ref>
* [[Thomas Kingsmill (Hawkhurst Gang)|Thomas Kingsmill]] (c1715–1749), leader of the notorious [[Hawkhurst Gang]] of [[Smuggling|smugglers]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.britishexecutions.co.uk/execution-content.php?key=2063&termRef=Thomas%20Kingsmill|title=British Executions - Thomas Kingsmill - 1749|website=British Executions}}</ref>
* [[Thomas Lloyd (stenographer)|Thomas Lloyd]], stenographer of the U.S. Congress – convicted of seditious libel while imprisoned for debt, and transferred to Newgate Prison for a three-year prison term (1794–1796)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://blog.library.villanova.edu/2011/04/11/a-view-from-behind-bars-the-diary-of-thomas-lloyd-revolutionary-and-father-of-american-shorthand-from-newgate-prison-1794-1796/ |title=A View from Behind Bars: The Diary of Thomas Lloyd, Revolutionary and Father of American Shorthand, from Newgate Prison 1794–1796 |first=Michael |last=Foight |date=11 April 2011 |work=Falvey Memorial Library Blog |publisher=Villanova University |access-date=2 February 2019}}</ref>
* [[James MacLaine]], known as the "Gentleman Highwayman" – held at Newgate during his 1750 trial for robbery<ref>{{cite web|url=https://stairnaheireann.net/2018/10/03/otd-in-1750-death-of-highwayman-captain-james-maclaine/|title=Death of a highwayman: Captain James Maclaine|date=3 October 2018 |publisher= Stair na hÉireann |access-date=10 October 2022}}</ref>
* [[Thomas Malory|Sir Thomas Malory]] – highwayman, probable author of ''[[Le Morte d'Arthur]]'' – at Newgate 1468–1470 after conviction for conspiracy to overthrow the [[Edward IV of England|king]]<ref>{{cite journal|first=Anne F.|last= Sutton|title=Malory in Newgate: A New Document|journal= The Library|volume= 1|date=1 September 2000|issue= 3|pages=243–262 |doi= 10.1093/library/1.3.243|url=https://doi.org/10.1093/library/1.3.243|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
* [[Catherine Murphy (counterfeiter)|Catherine Murphy]], counterfeiter – the last woman to be officially [[Death by burning|executed by burning]] in Great Britain, in 1789<ref>{{cite news |title=News |newspaper=[[The Times]] |date=19 March 1789 |page=3|issue=1324}}</ref>
* [[Titus Oates]], anti-Catholic conspirator – imprisoned at Newgate (1687–1689) for perjury during the [[Popish Plot]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/dli.bengal.10689.20548/page/n547/mode/2up?q=newgate|title= Corbett's Complete Collection of State Trials|volume=10 |page=1079|publisher=T. C. Hansard|year=1811}}</ref>
* [[William Penn]], religious scholar, and later the [[Quaker]] who founded the colony of [[Pennsylvania]] – held in Newgate during his 1670 trial for preaching before a gathering in the street<ref name=hc/>
* [[Miles Prance]], silversmith, alleged witness to the murder of [[Edmund Berry Godfrey]] – imprisoned during 1679 trial in the [[Popish Plot]]<ref>Kenyon, J.P. ''The Popish Plot'' Phoenix Press Reissue 2000, p. 150</ref>
* [[Cephas Quested]], smuggler and leader of [[The Aldington Gang]].  Arrested during the Battle of Brookland 11 February 1821 and hung on 4 July 1821<ref>Anne Roper. ''The Church of Saint Augustine, Brookland''. 25th edition, 1979. Page 28–29.</ref>
* [[John Rogers (Bible editor and martyr)|John Rogers]], Bible translator and religious reformer – at Newgate after conviction of heresy in 1554, and burnt at the stake in 1555<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9RkFAAAAQAAJ&q=John+Rogers+burned+at+the+stake++Noailles&pg=PA691 |chapter=John Rogers, the Proto-Martyr |first=The Rev. Canon |last=Ryle |title=Evening Hours: A Church of England Magazine, Volume II—1872 |year=1872 |editor-first=Rev. E. H. |editor-last=Bickersteth |location=London |publisher=William Hunt and Company |pages =690–691 |access-date=2 February 2019}}</ref>
* [[Jack Sheppard]], thief and jailbreaker – in the early 1700s, escaped from Newgate several times during imprisonment for theft<ref>Defoe, Daniel. [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14065 ''The History of the Remarkable Life of John Sheppard'']. London: 1724. Retrieved 5 February 2007.</ref>
* [[Ikey Solomon]], successful and infamous fence of the late 18th and early 19th centuries – lodged at Newgate during 1827 trial for theft and receiving<ref>{{Cite Australian Dictionary of Biography |id2=solomon-isaac-ikey-2678 |first=R. C. |last=Sharman |title=Isaac (Ikey) Solomon (1787–1850) |volume=2 |year=1967}}</ref>
* [[Robert Southwell (priest)|Robert Southwell]], [[Jesuit]] priest and poet – held at Newgate for treason before being [[hanged, drawn and quartered]] at Tyburn in 1595<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20518390|title=The Venerable Robert Southwell Poet and Martyr (1560-1595). III|first=J. |last=Hurley|journal=The Irish Monthly|volume= 56|date=1 September 1928|issue=663 |pages=472–479|jstor=20518390 }}</ref>
* [[Owen Suffolk]], [[Confidence trick|con-man]] and later Australian [[bushranger]] – served time for [[forgery]] in 1846 before transport<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=klIFAQAAIAAJ|title=Representing Convicts: New Perspectives on Convict Forced Labour Migration|publisher=Leicester University Press|year=1997|page=45|first1=Ian |last1=Duffield|first2=James|last2= Bradley|isbn=978-0718500757}}</ref>
* [[Jane Voss]] (alias Jane Roberts), highwaywoman and thief – executed in 1684<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.executedtoday.com/2012/12/19/1684-jane-voss-narrow-escapee/|title=1684: Jane Voss, narrow escapee|publisher=Executed Today|access-date=10 October 2022}}</ref>
* [[Mary Wade]], [[Begging|beggar]] – sentenced to death at Newgate for theft but then [[Penal transportation|transported]], becoming the youngest female convict transported to Australia<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.executedtoday.com/2014/03/16/1789-not-mary-wade-reprieved-at-age-11/ |title=1789: Not Mary Wade, 11-year-old thief |publisher=Executed Today|access-date=10 October 2022}}</ref>
* [[Edward Gibbon Wakefield]], British politician, the driving force behind much of the early colonization of South Australia, and later New Zealand – served three years in Newgate for 1826 [[Shrigley abduction|abduction]]<ref name="DNZB Wakefield">{{DNZB|last=Fairburn|first=Miles|id=1w4|title=Wakefield, Edward Gibbon|access-date=12 December 2014}}</ref>
* [[Joseph Wall (colonial administrator)|Joseph Wall]], colonial administrator – hanged 1802 for having a British soldier flogged to death<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/wall-joseph-a8854|title=Wall, Joseph|publisher=Dictionary of Irish Biography|access-date=10 October 2022}}</ref>
* [[John Walter (publisher)|John Walter Sr.]], publisher, founder of ''[[The Times]]'' – imprisoned for a year (1789–1790) for [[libel]] on the [[Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany|Duke of York]]<ref>{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Walter, John|author=Hugh Chisholm|author-link=Hugh Chisholm|volume=28}}</ref>
* [[Oscar Wilde]], briefly held at Newgate in 1895 before transfer to Pentonville.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://forhistiur.net/2006-10-housden/ |first=Martyn |last=Housden|title=Oscar Wilde's imprisonment and an early idea of "Banal Evil" or Two "wasps" in the system. How Reverend W.D. Morrison and Oscar Wilde challenged penal policy in late Victorian England|journal=Forum Historiae Iuris |page=31|publisher=Legal History Forum|date=25 October 2006}}</ref>
* [[Catherine Wilson]], nurse and suspected serial killer – last woman hanged publicly in London, at Newgate in 1862<ref>{{cite book|last1=Beadle|first1=Jeremy|last2=Harrison|first2=Ian|title=Firsts, Lasts & Onlys Crime|year=2008|publisher=Anova Books|isbn=978-1-905798-04-9|page=71 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://real-crime.co.uk/Murder1/DOCWFEM.HTML |url-status=dead |title=Murder Cases – Female W – Wilson, Catherine |work=Real Crime |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050211214951/http://real-crime.co.uk/Murder1/DOCWFEM.HTML |archive-date=11 February 2005}}</ref>

==Legacy==
The Central Criminal Court – known as the [[Old Bailey]] after the street on which it stands – now stands upon the Newgate Prison site.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.e-architect.co.uk/london/old-bailey|title=Old Bailey|date=22 June 2007|publisher=E-Architect|access-date=18 October 2020}}</ref>

The original iron gate leading to the gallows was used for decades in an alleyway in [[Buffalo, New York]]. It is currently housed in that city at [[Canisius University]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.canisius.edu/canisius-history-1966-1990 |access-date=22 September 2021 |title=1966-1990: Protest, Promise and Progress | website=Canisius}}</ref>

The original door from a prison cell used to house [[St. Oliver Plunkett]] in 1681 is on display at [[St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church, Drogheda|St Peter's Church]] in [[Drogheda]], Ireland (which also displays his head).<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.indcatholicnews.com/news/40980|title=Ireland: Red Wednesday Reflection by Archbishop Eamon Martin|newspaper=Independent Catholic News|date=25 November 2020|access-date=10 October 2022}}</ref>

The phrase "[as] black as Newgate's knocker" is a [[Cockney]] reference to the door knocker on the front of the prison.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.peterberthoud.co.uk/2012/09/as-black-as-newgates-knocker/|title=As Black as Newgate's Knocker|website=www.peterberthoud.co.uk|access-date=3 May 2018|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151130181156/http://www.peterberthoud.co.uk/2012/09/as-black-as-newgates-knocker/|archive-date=30 November 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Phrases-and-Sayings/Question354811.html|title=As black as newgates knocker in The AnswerBank: Phrases & Sayings|website=www.theanswerbank.co.uk|access-date=3 May 2018|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180503154729/https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Phrases-and-Sayings/Question354811.html|archive-date=3 May 2018}}</ref>

===In literature===
A record of executions conducted at the prison, together with commentary, was published as ''[[The Newgate Calendar]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/21cc/crime/media1/calendar1/facts1/facts.html |title=Facts about the Newgate Calendar |website=The British Library |access-date=26 March 2017}}</ref>

The prison appears in a number of works by [[Charles Dickens]]. Novels include ''[[Little Dorrit]]'', ''[[Oliver Twist]]'', ''[[A Tale of Two Cities]]'', ''[[Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty]]'' and ''[[Great Expectations]]''. Newgate prison was also the subject of an entire essay in his work ''[[Sketches by Boz]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/a-visit-to-newgate-from-charles-dickenss-sketches-by-boz|title='A Visit to Newgate', from Charles Dickens's Sketches by Boz|publisher=British Library|access-date=10 October 2022}}</ref>

===In song===
The Australian "Convict's Rum Song" mentions Newgate with a line reading: ''[I'd] ... even dance the Newgate Hornpipe If ye'll only gimme Rum!''.<ref name="Hughes">{{cite book |last1=Hughes |first1=Robert |title=The Fatal Shore |date=2010 |publisher=Penguin |location=London |isbn=9781407054070 |page=292}}</ref> The 'Newgate Hornpipe' refers to execution by hanging.<ref>''A Dictionary of Slang and Colloquial English'' by John Stephen Farmer (G. Routledge & Sons, Limited, 1921), page 305.</ref><ref name="Holgate">{{cite news |last1=Holgate |first1=Andrew |title=The Gaol: The Story of Newgate, London's Most Notorious Prison by Kelly Grovier |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/the-gaol-the-story-of-newgate-londons-most-notorious-prison-by-kelly-grovier-ftkbshqcs09 |access-date=23 November 2022 |work=Times |date=13 July 2008}}</ref>

==Gallery==
{{Gallery
|width=200|align=left
|File:Newgate Prison door (c.1780), Museum of London.JPG|A door from the prison c. 1780, now in the collection of the [[Museum of London]]
|File:Newgate West View of Newgate by George Shepherd 1784-1862 edited.jpg|The second Newgate Prison: ''A West View of Newgate'' (c. 1810) by [[George Shepherd (artist)|George Shepherd]]
|File:Newgate - cell and galleries.jpg|A cell and the galleries at Newgate in 1896
|File:NewgateExecutionBell.jpg|Newgate Execution bell, now in the church of [[St Sepulchre-without-Newgate]]
}}
{{clear}}

==References==
'''Notes'''
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* Babington, Anthony. "Newgate in the Eighteenth Century" '' History Today'' (Sept 1971), Vol. 21 Issue 9, pp 650–657 online.
* {{citation |last=Halliday |first=Stephen |title=Newgate: London's Prototype of Hell |year=2007 |publisher=The History Press |isbn=978-0-7509-3896-9}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Newgate Prison}}
* [https://www.prisonhistory.org/prison/newgate-prison/ Prison History Database: Newgate Prison]
* [http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=772 Newgate prison]
* [http://digital.library.villanova.edu/Catholica%20Collection/American%20Catholic%20Historical%20Society/Historic%20Papers/Lloyd%20Family/Papers/Papers-00047.xml The Diary of Thomas Lloyd kept in Newgate Prison, 1794–1796]

{{Prisons in London}}
{{Authority control}}

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[[Category:Newgate Prison| ]]
[[Category:1188 establishments in England]]
[[Category:1903 disestablishments in England]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures completed in 1188]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures demolished in 1777]]
[[Category:Defunct prisons in London]]
[[Category:Former buildings and structures in the City of London]]
[[Category:Demolished buildings and structures in London]]
[[Category:Debtors' prisons]]
[[Category:Demolished prisons]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures demolished in 1903]]
[[Category:Windmills in London]]
[[Category:Henry II of England]]