Record revealed
The Geneva Convention, 1949
This document sets out the laws its signatory nations agreed to follow around the treatment of prisoners of war, those in medical need, and civilians.
Department
Records of the King's Bench, Fleet, and Marshalsea prisons
Catalogue reference: PRIS
What's it about?
PRIS
Records of debtors' prisons from the seventeeth to nineteenth centuries, relating both to individual prisoners and prison administration. They comprise those of the: Fleet Prison Marshalsea Prison King's Bench Prison and its successor, the Queen's Prison
Full description and record details
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Reference (The unique identifier to the record described, used to order and refer to it)
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PRIS
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Title (The name of the record)
- Records of the King's Bench, Fleet, and Marshalsea prisons
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Date (When the record was created)
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1628-1862
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Description (What the record is about)
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Records of debtors' prisons from the seventeeth to nineteenth centuries, relating both to individual prisoners and prison administration. They comprise those of the:
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Related material (A cross-reference to other related records)
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See also Prison Commission and Home Office Prison: PCOM
See also records of the Bankruptcy Courts in: B
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Held by (Who holds the record)
- The National Archives, Kew
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Legal status (A note as to whether the record being described is a Public Record or not)
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Public Record(s)
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Language (The language of the record)
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English
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Creator(s) (The creator of the record)
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- Fleet Prison, 1300-1842
- Kings Bench Prison, 1400-1842
- Marshalsea Prison, 1600-1842
- Queens Prison, 1842-1862
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Physical description (The amount and form of the record)
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11 series
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Access conditions (Information on conditions that restrict or affect access to the record)
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Subject to 30 year closure unless otherwise stated
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Immediate source of acquisition (When and where the record was acquired from)
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in 1862 Queens Prison
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Subjects (Categories and themes found in our collection (our subject list is under development, and some records may have no subjects or fewer than expected))
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- Topics
- Prisons
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Custodial history (Describes where and how the record has been held from creation to transfer to The National Archives)
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The records of the King's Bench, Fleet, and Marshalsea prisons were transferred to the Marshal of the Queen's Prison under section three of the Queen's Prison Act 1842.
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Administrative / biographical background (Historical or biographical information about the creator of the record and the context of its creation)
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Until imprisonment for debt was abolished under the Debtors Act 1869, private persons who owed money to creditors with no means of repaying debts could be sent to gaol until the debt was paid off. Those living in debtors' prisons with their dependents could earn a living in the immediate area (or 'liberty') free from the threat of re-arrest or further harassment from their creditors. However, the general conditions in such prisons were so poor, and the likelihood of repayment often so little, that reforms of the law on bankruptcy and a restructuring of the London debtors' prisons in 1842, led eventually to their closure, ending a situation long considered to be a national scandal by contemporaries.
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Record URL
- https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C234/
Catalogue hierarchy
Over 27 million records
This record is held at The National Archives, Kew
You are currently looking at the department: PRIS
Records of the King's Bench, Fleet, and Marshalsea prisons
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