Excerpt from Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals, Vol. 2 of 2: As Illustrated by the Records of the Quarter Sessions of the County of Derby, From Queen Elizabeth to Queen Victoria

This gaol was from the very first a gross discredit to. The shire, and was notorious, even in those evil days for prisoners, above all others for its foulness and consequent frequent visitations of plague and gaol fever. It would almost seem as if the county authorities deemed it most economical to confine their prisoners in a place where fatal fevers were Onearly a certainty; for it was built in the Corn Market, over the then open brook, which was at that period merely the town sewer. Hutton, the historian of Derby, writing of his recollections of the old gaol, which had been before then materially improved, says Our ancestors erected the chief jail in a river, exposed to damp and filth, as if they meant to drown the culprit before they hanged him. A worse situation could not have been chosen: it extended across the Corn Market, one of the principal streets, as if to hide the brook, or bind the flood. The wretched inhabitant was Open to the public, and they to him. A vile arch admitted the horse passenger, and a viler the foot; inconvenient to both, hurtful to the stranger, dangerous to the inmate; a reflection upon the place, without one benefit as a counterbalance.

The condition of this prison and its terrible visitations of sickness have been incidentally portrayed in that part of the fourth section of this work which deals with the condition of the Recusants under Elizabeth. In the year 1610, the sudden rising of the brook in the night time drowned three of the prisoners ere they could be rescued.
An undated petition, but certainly of the Commonwealth period.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.