A History of the Fleet Prison, London the Anatomy of the Fleet

by Roger Lee Brown

The Fleet Prison is noteworthy for being one of the oldest of the English prisons, and one mentioned frequently in literature. This work explores the actual workings of the privately-owned debtors' prison, examining its earliest history from medieval times; the celebrated inquiry into the administration of the prison during the 1610s; the misuse of authority by the wardens in the 1680s onward; the infamous Parliamentary inquiry in 1729, based on the parliamentary reports, trial papers, etc,; to the closing by parliamentary legislation in 1842.