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Author Archives: John
The Women of Southwark Mint
For my second post on women in the Mint, I turn from fiction to data. The final clause of the Act against Southwark Mint offered an amnesty to those Minters, discharging debts below £50, albeit at the cost of “assigning … Continue reading
Moll Flanders in the Mint
For International Women’s Day, and for Women’s History Month, the first of two posts about women in the Southwark Mint. Published in 1721, a few years before the dissolution of the Mint, Moll Flanders gives a rare view of that … Continue reading
The Minters petition Parliament
So far, most of the texts I have found concerning the debtor sanctuaries of London have been written by their opponents: laws and indictments, and also the last dying words transmitted via the Ordinary of Newgate. There has also been … Continue reading
The 1697 ‘Escape of Debtors’ act
I have previously – and only briefly – discussed the 1697 act against the sanctuaries, looking at those places named in it, and their geographical distribution. Below, I present the full text of the statute. The abolition of ‘pretended privileged … Continue reading
Posted in alsatia
Tagged Baldwin's Gardens, c17, clink, fleet, Fuller's Rents, gender, King's Bench, law, mint, Mitre Court, montague close, ram alley, salisbury court, Savoy, whitefriars
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Sanctuary outside England: Iran
Although the focus of the project is upon London from around 1660 to 1725, sanctuaries existed in various forms beyond this city and outside that period. Indeed, how and why sanctuaries disappeared from much of England but persisted in the … Continue reading
Two Rescues
If there is a particular practice that epitomises the sanctuaries, it is the rescue. This was the forcible release of a prisoner from the custody of an authority, be it the law, the military or bailiffs. Whilst it was common … Continue reading
The Black Act
Following on from my previous post, I present the text of the infamous ‘Black Act’ of 1723. This draconian statute was ostensibly in response to the ‘emergency’ created by organized poaching in Windsor and Hampshire. It created a host of … Continue reading
The Ordinary of Newgate’s account of Charles Towers
I’ve previously published one version of the story of Charles Towers; here is a contemporary telling from the Ordinary of Newgate’s Account. It’s not the complete document; I’ve removed the parts not relating to Towers, meaning those to the William … Continue reading
The Law enters Southwark Mint
We now present another classic piece of ‘Newgate Literature’, featuring adultery, fraud, debt, perjury, sanctuary, murder, court room shenanigans, and an execution to round everything off. But for my purposes the central interest is in the description of law enforcement … Continue reading
Thomas Baston’s “Little Republick”
Little is known of Thomas Baston, a printmaker specializing in naval scenes. It appears he was born in the early 1670s, fought the French at sea and perhaps the Irish on land, lived and worked in London, had prints commissioned … Continue reading