A chronology of the major events in the history of imprisonment for debt in England. Compilation in progress.
1649
September 4: ‘An Act for discharging Poor Prisoners unable to satisfie their Creditors‘ passed by the Commonwealth Parliament. First ever relief act for imprisoned debtors.
1676
First use of the term ‘Alsatia’ in relation to the area around Whitefriars, by Henry Care in ‘The Character of an Honest Lawyer.’
May 17: Henry Care reports the ‘Amazon Guards’ of the Mint vanquishing a party of bailliffs, attempting to make arrests in the sanctuary.
1691
Publication of Moses Pitt’s ‘The Cry of the Oppressed’, a collection of testimonies from incarcerated debtors on the privations and tortures they suffer in prison.
The Riot of the Alsatians against The Templars, on the occasion of the Temple authorities blocking up a gate between the Temple and Whitefriars.
1693
Execution of Frances Winter for his part in the riot against the Templars.
1697
The Act against Pretended Privileged Places abolishes Alsatia and the other sanctuaries in London.
1705
Parliamentary hearings into Southwark Mint, which has revived after the suppression of 1697.
1710
Publication of A True Description of the Mint.
1712
Parliament passes the first relief act requiring that the debtors’ names and abodes are published in the London Gazette, 10 Anne, c.20/c.29.
1713
Publication of Memoirs of the Mint and the Queen’s Bench.
1720
Chief Justice Prat expands the Rules of the King’s Bench Prison to encompass St. George’s Fields.
1722
The Act Against Southwark Mint dissolves the sanctuary, and offers terms for the inhabitants. Nearly six thousand people register for relief.
1724
November: Both an act relieving insolvent debtors and the Act suppressing Wapping Mint become law.
December: Wapping Mint is suppressed by the local authorities, supported by soldiers from the Tower of London garrison.
1725
June: The Act against Wapping Mint comes into force, definitively suppressing that sanctuary, and rendering it impossible to claim any such rights within the London Bills of Mortality.
1742
An Act for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors is passed.
1747
An Act for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors is passed.
1759
A major reform, the Lord’s Act, 32 George 2, c.28, alleviates the conditions of imprisoned debtors.
1760
An Act for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors is passed.
1761
The previous years relief act is adjusted, owing to a loophole that thousands of debtors took advantage of.
1772
The Society for the Discharge and Relief of Persons Imprisoned for Small Debts – also known as the Thatched House or the Craven Street Society – is founded in London.
1777
First publication of John Howard’s “The State of the Prisons in England and Wales.”
1780
The Gordon Riots result in the majority of London’s prisons being opened, many totally destroyed, with thousands of debtors thereby released.
1790
The Rules of the King’s Bench Prison, the area outside the walls in which prisoners could get permission to reside, redefined.
1792
April: Publication of the Report from the Committee Appointed to Enquire Into the Practice and Effects of Imprisonment for Debt.
1793
Renewal of The Lords’ Act of 1758.
1794
The first relief act since the Gordon Riots is passed: 34 George 3, c.69: An act for the discharge of certain insolvent debtors.
1795
The Rules of the King’s Bench prison redefined once again.
1812
An act to allow Parochial Relief to Prisoners confined under Mesne Process for Debt in such Gaols as are not County Gaols becomes law on the 29th July 1812.
1831
The Merthyr Uprising, considered the first proletarian insurrection in Britain, is sparked by the seizure of property for unpaid debts. The local debtors courts are ransacked.
1869
The abolition of imprisonment for civil debt in England and Wales by the act of Parliament 32 & 33 Victoria c.62.