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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009
In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries there was a recognizable, if indefinite, distinction between the king's prisons and the prisons of his subjects. It is only with the king's prisons that this paper is concerned. Nor with all of these; for those royal prisons (mostly castles) which temporarily harboured state prisoners and prisoners of war it almost wholly ignores. The theme, in short, is common gaols for common suspects.
page 1 note 1 ‘Lebalcheus’ (Domesday Book, Additamenta (Rec. Com.), i. 532). Cf. Kitchin, G. W., Winchester (1890), p. 75Google Scholar.
page 1 note 2 Pipe Roll 1158 (Pipe Roll Soc.), p. 172.
page 1 note 3 Engl. Hist. Rev., lix. 5.
page 1 note 4 Pipe R. 1159, p. 38. The text runs: ‘Et pro justicia facienda de latronibus 28s. 4d. Et in operacione gaiole ad custod' latronum 14s. 6d.’ There is perhaps an implication here that there had not previously been any proper place in which to hold the thieves.
page 2 note 1 Pipe R. 1163, pp. 29, 33.
page 2 note 2 Pipe R. 1166, passim. The counties were Beds, Bucks, Cambs, Devon, Essex, Hants, Herts, Hunts, Kent, Leics, Norfolk, Northants, Oxon, Suffolk, Warwick, Wilts, Yorks.
page 2 note 3 Ibid., p. 17.
page 2 note 4 Ibid., p. 72.
page 2 note 5 Ibid., p. 105. The phrase used is ‘in operat' gaiolar' Wint'’.
page 2 note 6 Lines, Notts, Somerset.
page 2 note 7 Pipe R. 1183, pp. 134, 137.
page 2 note 8 Ibid., p. 148.
page 2 note 9 Pipe R. 1184, p. 99.
page 2 note 10 Pipe R. 1185, p. 200.
page 2 note 11 Ibid., p. 144.
page 2 note 12 Ibid., p. 164.
page 2 note 13 Cumberland, Lancs, Salop, Surrey, Sussex.
page 3 note 1 E.g. Rolls of Justices in Eyre in Lines and Worcs 1218–21 (Selden Soc.), p. 535.
page 3 note 2 Pat. Rolls 1225–32, p. 218.
page 3 note 3 It is doubtless accidental that earlier references have not been traced.
page 3 note 4 Rot. Litt. Claus., i. 410b.
page 3 note 5 Ibid., p. 432b.
page 3 note 6 Ibid., p. 410b.
page 3 note 7 Cal. Liberate Rolls 1226–40, p. 122.
page 3 note 8 Ibid., p. 161.
page 3 note 9 V.C.H. Leics, ii. 91.
page 4 note 1 A prisona regis, or a gaol similarly styled, is mentioned at Bristol in 1230 (Close R. 1227–31, p. 389), at Hastings in 1235–6, 1237 and 1240 (Close R. 1234–7, p. 453; 1237–42, pp. 14, 229) and at Bury St. Edmunds in 1232 (Close R. 1231–4, p. 99). The gaol at Dunstable is mentioned in 1227 (Bucks Eyre Roll 1227 (Bucks Rec. Soc.), p. 49).
page 4 note 2 Pipe R. 1166, p. 36. A knight captured at Mirabeau was in prison at Tickhill in 1204 (Rot. Litt. Clans., i. 39b).
page 4 note 3 Rolls of Justices in Eyre for Yorks 1218–19 (Selden Soc.), p. 283.
page 4 note 4 Close R. 1234–7, p. 502.
page 4 note 5 Pipe R. 1188, p. 6.
page 4 note 6 Close R. 1234–7, p. 15.
page 5 note 1 Close R. 1237–42, p. 69.
page 5 note 2 In 1246 a man who had committed a trespass against the king in his park of Windsor was imprisoned there (Close R. 1242–7, p. 417). The gaol was delivered by the king's justices in 1230 and 1240. On the second occasion it apparently contained prisoners taken in Berkshire and in the honour of Wallingford as well as those from the abbot's liberty (Pat. Rolls. 1225–32, p. 365; Cal. Pat. R. 1232–47, p. 262).
page 5 note 3 H., W.StHope, John, Windsor Castle, i, 18Google Scholar, quoting Pipe Roll of 1185. There are earlier references to prisoners in the castle.
page 5 note 4 Close R. 1237–42, p. 28; Cal. Liberate R. 1226–40, p. 451.
page 5 note 5 Close R. 1259–61, p. 125.
page 5 note 6 Cal. Charter R. 1257–1300, p. 203.
page 5 note 7 Cal. Liberate R. 1245–51, p. 235.
page 5 note 8 Rolls of the King's Court (Pipe R. Soc.), p. 88.
page 5 note 9 Rot. Litt. Claus., i. 395, 450a and b, 472b; Cal. Liberate R. 1240–5, p. 107.
page 6 note 1 Pipe R. 1166, p. 111.
page 6 note 2 Close R. 1234–7, p. 460.
page 6 note 3 Close R. 1253–4, p. 98.
page 6 note 4 Close R. 1259–61, p. 70.
page 6 note 5 Pipe R. 1165–6, p. 123.
page 6 note 6 Pipe R. 1178, p. 52. The text reads ‘Hereford’.
page 6 note 7 Pipe R. 1195, p. 217.
page 6 note 8 Pipe R. 1205, p. 184.
page 6 note 9 Rot. Litt. Claus, i. 542b.
page 6 note 10 Pat. R. 1225–32, p. 37.
page 7 note 1 In 1234 the constable of Colchester was ordered to receive the prisoners whom the sheriff of Essex would bring to him and keep them in the castle prison (Close R. 1231–4, p. 499). In 1236 he was ordered to receive those prisoners whom Richard de Montfichet had taken in the King's forest, as Richard had no prison of his own (Close R. 1234–7, p. 295).
page 7 note 2 In 1234 a man who had stolen a pig in Havering park was in prison at Hertford (Close R. 1231–4, p. 408). In 1236 the sheriff of Essex was ordered to bail five persons kept in Hertford prison (Close R. 1234–7, p. 259).
page 7 note 3 Close R. 1256–9, p. 387.
page 7 note 4 Cal. Pat. R., 1272–81, pp. 127, 141.
page 7 note 5 Rot. Litt. Clous., ii. 21; Close R. 1227–31, p. 369.
page 7 note 6 Pipe R. 1166, p. 67; 1192, p. 245.
page 7 note 7 Pipe R. 1186, p. 126.
page 7 note 8 Pipe R. 1200, p. 176.
page 7 note 9 Warwick gaol was repaired four times between 1201 and 1214 (Pipe R. 1201, p. 232; 1210, p. 89; 1211, p. 188; Rotuli de Finibus, p. 548). Kenilworth gaol was in use in 1220 and in or shortly before 1221 (Rot. Litt. Claus., i. 420b; Rolls of Justices in Eyre for Glos, Warwicks and Staffs (Selden Soc.), p. 350).
page 7 note 10 Pat. R. 1216–25, p. 229.
page 7 note 11 Close R. 1227–31, p. 239; Pat. R. 1225–32, pp. 366, 445, 512.
page 8 note 1 Old timber from Warwick gaol was given to St. John's Hospital, Banbury, in 1229 (Close R. 1227–31, p. 184).
page 8 note 2 Close R. 1234–7, p. 108.
page 8 note 3 Close R. 2231–4, p. 215.
page 8 note 4 Pipe R. 1211, p. 197.
page 8 note 5 Cal. Charter R. 1226–57, p. 135. Cf. Close R. 1231–4, p. 514, and 1234–7, p. 98. Thanks are due to Mr. R. A. McKinley for assistance at this point.
page 8 note 6 V.C.H. Leics, ii. 91.
page 8 note 7 Close R. 1234–7, p. 104.
page 8 note 8 Pipe R. 1185, p. 164.
page 8 note 9 Pipe R. 1199, p. 163.
page 8 note 10 Rot. Litt. Claus., i. 447b.
page 8 note 11 Cal. Pat. R. 1232–47, p. 124.
page 8 note 12 Pipe R. 1207, p. 5. In the same year another gaol was mended at the expense of Staffs (ibid., p. 7). As further evidence that the two counties were treated as one for this purpose it may be noted that in 1210–12 Newcastle gaol was repaired out of the issues of Salop (Collections for a History of Staffs (Will. Salt Soc.), ii. 157), and that in 1237 a Staffs prisoner seems to have been kept at Bridgnorth (Close R. 1237–42, p. 18).
page 9 note 1 The Peak gaol is not heard of after 1202 (Pipe R. 1202, p. 187). The gaols at Chesterfield and Derby are each mentioned once (Pipe R. 1196, pp. 15–16; Pat. R. 1225–32, p. 160).
page 9 note 2 Dorset men were imprisoned at Ilchester in 1239 (Close R. 1237–42, p. 162) and at Corfe in 1241 (ibid., p. 382).
page 9 note 3 There are no references to Cornish gaols after 1196 when Launceston last occurs (Pipe R. 1196, p. 139). Though Devon and Cornwall were never linked, it is possible that by a working agreement between the two sheriffs Cornishmen were imprisoned at Exeter.
page 9 note 4 The author is indebted to DrBrown, R. A. for allowing him to use his Oxford D.Phil, thesis entitled ‘The Place of English Castles in the Administrative and Military Organization of the Kingdom, 1154–1216 …’ (1953)Google Scholar. A copy is now deposited in the Bodleian Library.
page 9 note 5 Pipe R. 1194, p. 120.
page 9 note 6 Pipe R. 1198, p. 225.
page 9 note 7 Pipe R. 1185, p. 144.
page 9 note 8 Pipe R. 1187, p. 154.
page 9 note 9 Pipe R. 1185, p. 106.
page 9 note 10 Pipe R. 1166, p. 11.
page 9 note 11 Pipe R. 1168, p. 61.
page 9 note 12 ‘Roll of the Justices in Eyre at Bedford, 1227’, ed. Fowler, G. H., in Beds Hist. Rec. Soc., iii. 136Google Scholar; Pipe R. 1211, p. 69.
page 10 note 1 In the Pipe Roll of 1201 there sand side by side separate allowances to the sheriff for works upon the gaol of Nottingham and upon a gaol in Nottingham Castle (Pipe R. 1201, p. 89). A correction in the Liberate Roll of 1251 implies that there was still a gaol outside Nottingham Castle (Cal. Liberate R. 1245–51, p. 384).
page 10 note 2 In 1220 justices were appointed ad deliberand' gaolas nostras Hereford' (Rot. Litt. Claus., i. 437, checked with the MS.).
page 10 note 3 In 1241 the gaol in the castle is contrasted with forinseca gaiola (Close R. 1237–42, p. 273).
page 10 note 4 Close R. 1227–31, p. 31.
page 11 note 1 Cal. Charter R. 1257–1300, p. 473. Inspeximus, dated 1298, of a charter of 1256.
page 11 note 2 A gaol was mended out of the borough farm (Pipe R. 1185, p. 25).
page 11 note 3 Curia Regis Rolls, i. 224; Rot. de Fin., p. 115; Pipe R. 1201, p. 272.
page 11 note 4 Cooper, C. H., Annals of Cambridge, i. 39Google Scholar.
page 11 note 5 Close R. 1237–41, p. 61.
page 11 note 6 Close R. 1227–31, p. 567.
page 11 note 7 Curia Regis R., ix. 309.
page 11 note 8 The bailiffs of Bristol were to cause prisoners in Bristol gaol to come before a justice of gaol delivery (Close R. 1227–31, p. 389).
page 11 note 9 A writ about ‘gaiolam regis Oxonie’ is addressed to the mayor and bailiffs (Close R. 1227–31, p. 469).
page 11 note 10 Close R. 1237–42, p. 69.
page 11 note 11 P.R.O. Justices Itinerant, Assize Rolls, etc. (Just. Itin. 1)/996 m. 25d.
page 11 note 12 Pipe R. 1155–8. (Rec. Com.), p. 4.
page 11 note 13 Pipe R. 1197, p. 167. See Bassett, Margery, ‘The Fleet Prison in the Middle Ages’, Toronto Law Journal, v (1943–1944), 383–402Google Scholar.
page 11 note 14 Pipe R. 1190, p. 156.
page 11 note 15 Pipe R. 1173, p. 91; 1185, p. 44; 1186, p. 198.