Poultry Compter

Poultry Compter

The Poultry Compter (also sometimes known as Poultry Counter) was a small compter or prison run by a Sheriff in the City of London from medieval times until 1815. It took its name from its location on a section of Cheapside known as 'Poultry' due to the produce that was originally sold in streetmarkets along that part of the thoroughfare.

History

The compter was used to house prisoners such as vagrants, debtors and religious dissenters, and criminals convicted of misdemeanours, including homosexuality, prostitution and drunkenness.

On 1 August 1772, for instance, "The Craftsman" reported that: "a well dressed man was detected, near Lombard-street, in an unnatural crime, and immediately committed to the Poultry Compter." [ [http://www.infopt.demon.co.uk/1772news.htm Homosexuality in 18th century Britain: Newspaper reports] ]

The prison became notorious for its bad conditions. A contemporary account describes the prison in the late 18th century::"the mixture of scents that arose from mundungus, tobacco, foul feet, dirty shirts, stinking breaths, and uncleanly carcases, poisoned our nostrils far worse than a Southwark ditch, a tanner's yard, or a tallow-chandler's melting-room. The ill-looking vermin, with long, rusty beards, swaddled up in rags, and their heads—some covered with thrum-caps, and others thrust into the tops of old stockings. Some quitted their play they were before engaged in, and came hovering round us, like so many cannibals, with such devouring countenances, as if a man had been but a morsel with 'em, all crying out, 'Garnish, garnish,' as a rabble in an insurrection crying, 'Liberty, liberty!' We were forced to submit to the doctrine of nonresistance, and comply with their demands, which extended to the sum of two shillings each."

Certainly, the state of the prison was giving considerable cause for concern and in 1804, an official report said the prison was::"in such a state of decay, as to become inadequate to the safe custody of the debtors and prisoners therein confined, and extremely dangerous, as well to the lives of the said debtors and prisoners as to other persons resorting thereto." [ [http://www.lawcom.gov.uk/docs/gaols.pdf Law Commission paper: STATUTE LAW REVISION: Gaols: Repeal Proposals, April 2006] ] This report was contained in a preamble to the London Debtors' Prisons Act 1804 enabling the City's authorities to move inmates to another City prison (Giltspur Street Compter), although this purpose was not achieved until 1815, following the passage of the Debtors Prison for London and Middlesex Act 1815. The building was eventually demolished in 1817.

The Compter and the fight against slavery

The Poultry Compter was connected with early struggles against the slave-trade; several slaves released by Granville Sharp were confined in the Compter. For example, in 1765, Sharp helped a mis-treated and abandoned slave, John Strong, recover from serious injuries and found him employment with an apothecary. Strong's owner sought the help of John Ross, keeper of the Poultry Compter, and William Miller, an officer under the Lord Mayor of London, to kidnap him, and Strong was then imprisoned in the Compter and subsequently sold for £30. Sharp appealed to the Lord Mayor, Sir Robert Kite and Strong was released on the grounds that no warrant had been issued for his arrest and confinement. [ [http://www.history.ac.uk/gh/strong.htm Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section: Strong, Somerset and Sharp – liberating black slaves in England] ]

Notable inmates

* Samuel Boyse (1708 - 1749; a poet and acquaintance of Dr Samuel Johnson)
* Martyr Rev. John Bradford [ [http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/martyrs/fox116.htm FOX'S BOOK OF MARTYRS, CHAPTER XVI, Persecutions in England During the Reign of Queen Mary] ] [ [http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/m.sion/bradford_life.html Life of Master John Bradford] ]
* William Carter ("ca." 1548-1584; a Roman Catholic English printer and martyr)
* Thomas Dekker (1570-1632; dramatist and rival to Ben Jonson, imprisoned for debt in 1599)
* John Gerard, S.J. (1564-1637; an English Jesuit priest)
* Highwayman Captain James Hind [ [http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/lpop/etext/newgate/hind.htm Complete Newgate Chronicles, Vol.1] ]
* Welsh martyr John Penry (executed 25 May 1593) [ [http://members.aol.com/marlovian/inquest/penry.htm Dead Sailor or Imprisoned Writer?] ] ]
* Martyr Dr Rowland Taylor
* Sabbatarian John Traske

References

* [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=45054 "The Poultry", Old and New London: Volume 1 (1878), pp. 416-24] accessed: 09 January 2007.


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