This history of Bedford Prison is told through the story of the family of gaolers who ran it for many years and the contributions of five men closely associated with the prison.

To the account of John Bunyan's trial and imprisonment is added a chapter on others in the prison at the same time.

After John Howard discovered the appalling conditions in which prisoners were kept, his investigation into prison conditions went far beyond the county and led to his book 'The State of the Prisons' and his advocacy of penal reform. The meeting between John Howard and Jeremy Bentham is recounted in the latter's words. After the former's death, Samuel Whitbread II carried forward plans to build a new prison in Bedford. The Rev. Philip Hunt was rector of St Peter's Bedford and deeply involved in local affairs, including the prison and the house of correction. Lord John Russell, son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, was a politician and Home Secretary 1835-1839, during which period the national system of prison inspectors was set up.

The connections of family, friendship, religion and political alliance amongst these five men is drawn out.

There is also much about the prison itself, the buildings and their rebuilding; and the inmates, their lives and punishments including transportation. This is not merely an institutional history but much more a history of the people, outside and inside, who affected or were affected by the prison.