The White Lion was originally an Inn before 1535, offering hospitality to travelers. It became a common gaol in 1540 and acquired a new name, The Sheriff’s Prison, although it would commonly come to be referred to as The Gaol at the White Lyon by contemporaries[1]. Located in the Southwark district in what was considered Surrey at the time, the gaol was in use until 1666.
Background and history of the prison
The gaol, at this time, was run as a profit-making establishment by the various Keepers and not owned by the county; although the keeper was given an allowance of around £50 by the state[2]. The numbers of prisoners increased dramatically during the reign of Elizabeth 1st, due to individuals refusing to embrace the new Church of England and attend protestant services, but also because of a recession and lack of work across the country[3]. Elizabethans experienced ‘the bloody code’, laws which made death a sentence for many crimes, meaning that many were held for long periods here but only to await trail and not as a sentence in its own right.
The prison was described by a contemporary historian John Stow:
“Then is the white Lion, a Gaole so called, for that the same was a common hosterie for the receit of trauellers by that signe: This house was first vsed as a Gaole within these fortie yeares last, since the which time the prisoners were once remoued thence to an house in Newtowne, where they remayned for a short time and were returned backe againe to the foresaid White Lion, there to remayne as in the appointed Gaole for the countie of Surrey [4].”
Conditions, even by contemporary standards, were considered atrocious at the White Lion, the section of the building set aside for prisoners was small and, like the Marshalsea, there were ongoing issues with feeding and caring for the incarcerated. An attempt to rebuild the prison was attempted in 1654. After an Act of parliament three years earlier[5], the land was acquired for £600, the money given for this purchase was double that, but instead of rebuilding, the land was parcelled out to various residents. The opportunity to create a new prison with better accommodation for inmates was lost.
In 1661 it was clear from a commissioned report that a better facility was required. The current set up of one large and small room, a kitchen and small yard to be used by both men and women was insufficient, with the rest of the ground and buildings leased out privately by the Keeper.
At that time there were numerous complaints made against the keeper for failing to carry out repairs or feeding the prisoners properly. There was also at least one plot hatched on the site, with one inmate testifying that during his 7 months interment at The White Lion, a large group of armed Anabaptists met frequently to plan mischief against the crown[6].
It was not until 1666 that prisoners were moved to nearby Marshalsea, because the Lion had become “ruinous”[7]. In the interim, despite recognition that a new gaol was urgently required, several years passed before funding was made available to the treasury for construction to begin on a new House of Correction and county gaol.
It would be February 1724 before both buildings were finished.
Famous Inmates
The inmates held at The White Lion varied, from thieves, murderers, quakers, and even a suspect in the Great Fire conspiracies.
Elizabeth James
Elizabeth James was convicted in June 1613 of the murder of her housemaid Elizabeth Wellome. It was written in later sensationalist material[8] , that she had callously dismembered the girl and buried pieces of her in the garden. This was an utter falsehood, as it came out in her trial that she had pushed the girl down the stairs.
Elizabeth was found guilty, but claimed to be pregnant to gain a stay of execution; this is known as pleading the belly. Her execution was delayed but when she was examined by a group of matrons, she was found to have been lying about this. From here Elizabeth all but disappears from the historical record, leaving a trace that she was held at The White Lion, but it is not known if she died there during her sentence or was eventually released.
Sarah Lambert
Sarah was not a murderess, nor was she a violent criminal, she was a thief. During the 1620s she stole 18 shillings from a chest belonging to Elizabeth Archand, and was originally sentenced to death by hanging. This was the agreed punishment for theft of that type, but King Charles took a personal interest and allowed for her to be reprieved. She was held at the White Lion until she could pay her way out, something very unlikely as she had no income whilst imprisoned.
In 1629 a petition was presented to the king, asking that she released and pardoned otherwise she would “likely miserably perish” without his intervention.
She was released, eventually[9].
Conclusion
After the prisoners were transferred in 1666, the prison continued to operate as an inn for nearly 60 years[10], until the area was finally rebuilt into a new county gaol in the 1720s. This prison was known as The New Gaol and it only lasted fifty years, before a larger prison was built at Horsemonger Lane to take over from all of the smaller prisons[11].
[1] Archaeologydataservice.ac.uk. n.d. Archaeology Data Service. [online] Available at: <https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archsearch/record?titleId=1082890> [Accessed 28 April 2021].
[2] ibid
[3] Encyclopedia.com. n.d. Crime and Punishment in Elizabethan England | Encyclopedia.com. [online] Available at: <https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/crime-and-punishment-elizabethan-england> [Accessed 28 April 2021].
[4] Stow, J., 1908. A Survey Of London – Reprinted from the text of 1603. [online] British-history.ac.uk. Available at: <https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/survey-of-london-stow/1603/pp52-69> [Accessed 28 April 2021].
[5] 1855. Surrey archaeological collections. London: Published for the Surrey Archaeological Society by Lovell Reeve & Co., p.203
[6] 1855. Surrey archaeological collections. London: Published for the Surrey Archaeological Society by Lovell Reeve & Co., p.202.
[7]‘Southwark Prisons’, in Survey of London: Volume 25, St George’s Fields (The Parishes of St. George the Martyr Southwark and St. Mary Newington), ed. Ida Darlington (London, 1955), pp. 9-21. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol25/pp9-21 [accessed 28 April 2021].
[8] Young, C., 2020. The Cruel Murder of a Young Maiden – Egham Museum. [online] Egham Museum. Available at: <https://eghammuseum.org/the-cruel-murder-of-a-young-maiden/> [Accessed 28 April 2021].
[9] 1855. Surrey archaeological collections. London: Published for the Surrey Archaeological Society by Lovell Reeve & Co., p.197.
[10] Ibid.
[11] past tense. 2017. Today in London’s penal history: breakout attempt at New Gaol, Southwark, 1775.. [online] Available at: <https://pasttenseblog.wordpress.com/2017/03/14/today-in-londons-penal-history-breakout-attempt-at-new-gaol-southwark-1775/> [Accessed 28 April 2021].