QGR3/4

General Annual Report of the Justices of the Peace to the General Quarter Sessions, including the reports of the Keeper of the Gaol & House of Correction; the Surgeon of the prisons and the Chaplain of the prisons. Includes the following:

18 Oct 1842

From: 1841 To: 1842

The Surgeon reported at Epiphany Sessions that Typhus fever was prevailing in the Gaol.One person who was removed from the Gaol in a very weak state contrary to the remonstrances of the surgeon and died a few days after he got home. The Turnkey (who is a very effective officer) with his wife and daughter had the fever. In the House of Correction one case (that of an old man named Brown) a representation was made to the Secretary of State and he was released from prison. The other case a prisoner named Dawson had recovered and was at work again. At the Easter Sessions the Surgeon reported one prisoner with typhus and chronic disease of the liver. He was discharged from prison on remission of sentence and when removed appeared to be somewhat better though not in a fiot state to leave the prison but he wished to go home to his wife and family. He died a few days after he left the Gaol. [Joseph] Holloman was attacked with fever on 10th March, he was removed to the Infirmary directly and became gradually worse, on some days there appeared to be a remission of some of the worse symptoms followed by relapses. That he was then in an unfit state to be removed although the term of his imprisonment was expired. George Elkerton had symptoms of fever and was immediately removed to the Infirmary, the fever soon assumed an alarming character. He had congestion of the brain and chest and lingered on until the 10th March when he died of exhaustion. In the House of Correction the alteration of the diet had been followed by manifest improvement in the appearance of all the prisoners and consequently considerable diminution in illness. At Midsummer Sessions the Surgeon reported that a family of gypsies had been committed as vagrants and were disposed to be troublesome at first in feigning illness and expecting indulgence incompatible with the discipline of the prison but on being remonstrated with they behaved tolerably well. The Chaplain reported at Epiphany Sessions that in the Gaol it had hitherto been his practice to set those who could read to teach those that could not. That this important arrangement he regretted greatly to find must be discontinued as one of the new Regulations expressly forbids it. At Midsummer Quarter Sessions the Visiting Justices stated that the want of suitable accommodation in order to enforce the discipline and classification of prisoners had been more apparent than usual owing to the increase if Prisoners and the extra number of females committed in as much as it had been totally impossible to carry out the provisions of teh Acts of Parliamant with respect to prison discipline. The number of prisoners congregated in the Day Rooms day after day in an utter state of idleness and inactivity appeared to be one main cause of the illness that had prevailed in the Gaol. The difference in the appearance of the Prisoners in the Gaol and House of Correction bore ample testimony of the fact that in the House of Correction the number of Commitments from the last Session was 7, number of summary commitments was 62. 31 were under the Vagrant Act.

item

Brown,
Dawson, Thomas,
Holloman, Joseph,
Elkerton, George

BEDFORD, Bedford Prison, County Gaol, House of Correction, magistrate, justices of the peace, chaplain, surgeons, imprisonment, crime, punishment, health, illness, disease, typhus, turnkey, scurvy, literacy, EDUCATION