Located within the East Riding Guildhall, Beverley House of Correction operated for the majority of the early modern period from 1611-1809[1]. The prison had a total of 14 cells and typically housed only a handful of inmates at any given time, with the majority being sent to the larger Easter Riding Prison[2]. The House of Correction had a variety of uses including corporal punishments, employment for the “workshy” and, of course, housing criminals typically for short periods of imprisonment[3].
In 1502, the guildhall was located in a “great messuage” (a large dwelling house with outbuildings and land assigned to its use) in Beverley’s Register Square, formerly known as Cross Garths[4]. It was in 1611 when a section of the building was leased to the East Riding justices as a house of correction, hence why the Beverley House of Correction also acquired the alias of the Guildhall Gaol[5]. In 1703, another part of the Guildhall was leased as a sessions house, where criminals were tried on a quarterly basis, four times a year[6]. Later that decade, in 1710, a workhouse was also constructed in the yard for the use of out of work and impoverished citizens of Beverley[7]. As a result, the Beverley House of Correction has been accredited as being both “a punitive and reformative institution”[8].
A notable name who was incarcerated in Beverley’s House of Correction was Dick Turpin, an infamous highwayman operating in 18th century East Yorkshire[9]. Under the alias of John Palmer, Turpin committed several horse thefts, an act which became a capital offence in 1545. He was committed to Beverley House of Correction on the 2nd October 1738 after shooting another man’s game cock in the street and threatening also to shoot the owner himself. He was later transferred to York Castle on the 16th October after his case was deemed to be too severe to remain in Beverley. He was then executed for his crimes the following year.
Taken from ‘The Life and Adventures of T. K.’, by Tom King, 1851
Before committing his crimes in the North, Turpin was a member of the so-called “Essex Gang”, so called because of where they originally operated out of, and were a group of criminals known to invade farmhouses and terrorize female occupants into giving up their valuable possessions. Narrowly escaping capture, Turpin then began working with “Captain Tom King”, a notorious Georgian highway man, until King, himself, was shot in action forcing Turpin north to his own capture[10]. Turpin acquired his fame posthumously, was it not for Harrison Ainsworth’s 1834 novel Roockwood, Turpin would likely have been forgotten; even those who mourned him at his execution were paid ten shillings by Turpin himself to attend[11].
[1] A P Baggs, L M Brown, G C Forster, I Hall, R E Herrox, G H R Kent and D Neave, ‘Public Institutions’ in A History of the County of York East Riding: Volume 6, The Brooguh and Liberties of Beverley, ed. K J Allison (London, 1989), pp. 190-195. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/yorks/east/vol6/pp190-195 [accessed on 29th August 2020]
[2] ‘Criminals, Courts and Correction: A history of crime and punishment in Beverley’, East Riding Museums
[3] G. C. F. Forster, The East Riding Justices of the Peace in the Seventeenth Century, East Yorkshire Local History Society, 1973
[4] A P Baggs, L M Brown, G C Forster, I Hall, R E Herrox, G H R Kent and D Neave, ‘Public Institutions’ in A History of the County of York East Riding: Volume 6, The Brooguh and Liberties of Beverley, ed. K J Allison (London, 1989), pp. 190-195. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/yorks/east/vol6/pp190-195 [accessed on 29th August 2020] (messuage meaning ‘a dwelling house with outbuildings and land assigned to its use’)
[5] ‘Criminals, Courts and Correction: A history of crime and punishment in Beverley’, East Riding Museums
[6] A P Baggs, L M Brown, G C Forster, I Hall, R E Herrox, G H R Kent and D Neave, ‘Public Institutions’ in A History of the County of York East Riding: Volume 6, The Brooguh and Liberties of Beverley, ed. K J Allison (London, 1989), pp. 190-195. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/yorks/east/vol6/pp190-195 [accessed on 29th August 2020]
[7] A P Baggs, L M Brown, G C Forster, I Hall, R E Herrox, G H R Kent and D Neave, ‘Public Institutions’ in A History of the County of York East Riding: Volume 6, The Brooguh and Liberties of Beverley, ed. K J Allison (London, 1989), pp. 190-195. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/yorks/east/vol6/pp190-195 [accessed on 29th August 2020]
[8] G. C. F. Forster, The East Riding Justices of the Peace in the Seventeenth Century, East Yorkshire Local History Society, 1973
[9] ‘Criminals, Courts and Correction: A history of crime and punishment in Beverley’, East Riding Museums
[10] Stand and Deliver: Highwaymen & Highway Robbery ‘Dick Turpin – The Spurious Highwayman’, [online], available at stand-and-deliver,org,uk/highwaymen/dick-turpin.html, [accessed on 7th September 2020]
[11] The History Press, The Myth of Highwayman Dick Turpin Outlives the Facts, [online] available at https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/the-myth-of-highwayman-dick-turpin-outlives-the-facts/ [accessed on 7th September 2020]
Written by Danielle Yates