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debtors, who were free of the city, and
was afterwards greatly enlarged by Sir
Stephen Forster. This gentleman had
been a poor prisoner, and was begging at
the gate, when a rich widow going by,
asked him what sum would procure his
discharge? To which he replied, Twenty
pounds. This sum, which at that time
was a very considerable one, she gene-
rously disbursed; and taking him into her
service, he, by his indefatigable applica-
tion to business, and his obliging beha-
viour, gained the affections of his mistress,
and married her; after which he had
such extraordinary success in trade, that
he became Lord Mayor of London, and
was honoured with Knighthood. Sir Ste-
phen, in the midst of his great prosperity,
thought of the place of his confinement,
and having acquainted his Lady with a
design he had formed of enlarging the
prison, she also resolved to contribute to
its execution. They caused several of
their houses near the gate to be pulled
down, and in their stead erected a strong,
square stone building, containing the fol-
lowing rooms, viz. the porch, the paper-
house, the watch-hall, the upper and
lower lumberies, the cellar, the long ward,
and the chapel, in which last there is the
following inscription:
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| | " This |
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| L U D | 193 |
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" This chapel was erected and ordain-
" ed for the divine worship and service of
" God, by the Right Honourable Sir
" Stephen Forster, Knight, some time
" Lord Mayor of this honourable city,
" and by Dame Agnes his wife, for the
" use and godly exercise of the prisoners
" in this prison of Ludgate, anno 1454."
These worthy founders not only settled
a salary for a Chaplain of this prison,
which our author supposes is in the hands
of the Lord Mayor and Court of Alder-
men, or some others by their appoint-
ment; but ordered that all the rooms in
these additional buildings should be for
ever free to all unfortunate citizens, and
that they, on providing their own bedding,
should pay nothing at their discharge for
lodging or chamber rent: but the ava-
ricious keepers have long ago broke thro'
this appointment, and contrary to the ex-
press orders of the donors, take rent for the
rooms he built for the sole use of the
poor.
As the domestic government of this
prison is very singular and remarkable, we
shall give a compendious account of it,
from a work published some time ago, by
one who had been long a prisoner there.
For the government of the prison, and
the punishment of crimes and misde-
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| VOL. IV. | O | meanors |
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