Wiltshire Quarter Sessions. 



79 



Michaelmas, 44th Elizabeth : — 



" Yt is ordered .... by the right honourable S r JohnPopham Knight* 

 lord Cheife Justice of England, and of Her ma ties most honourable privie counseile, 

 and other the Justices of the Peace, .... that all and eve'y suche pson 



. . . . as shall hereafter at the Gene r al Sessions, .... be convicted 

 as incorrigible rogues, and there adjudged to be imploied for service in Her 

 Ma ties gallies shall have alowed unto them .... a yerely pension of three 

 pounds, half -yerely to be paid out of the stock of money collected and levied 

 . . . . for reliefe of the prisoners in the K. Benche and Marshalsey, by the 

 treasurers of the saide collecon, .... during solonge time and in such 

 manner as the said Justices shall appoint and set downe." 



XI. — Gaols and Houses of Correction. — Constables. 



It is a relief to know that the punishments adjudged to vagrants, 

 occasionally stopped short of the branding* iron, the galleys, and the 

 halter; and that for these extreme remedies imprisonment was a 

 recognized alternative. Any sessional orders concerning the prisons 

 of Wiltshire in the sixteenth century possess such obvious interest 

 that their transcription in extenso may be pardoned. 



The gaol at Fisherton 1 Anger is frequently mentioned, and was no 

 doubt the common gaol for the county, to which (without any speci- 

 fication of locality) reference is often made. 



The following extracts relate to the prisoners rather than to the 

 prison. 



Easter, 19th Elizabeth : — 



" It is agreed yt the Justices in ev r y division shall appoint the Churchwardens 

 in eny greate p r ishe to gather ij d by the weeke. And in eny meaner p r ishe i d by 

 the weeke for the Relief of the prison r s in the coen [common] Gayle. This 

 money to be taken out of the Church box or collection for the poor and to be 

 dehVed to the constables of ev r y Hundred, and by the constables, to be brought 

 to the next Quarter Sessions and there to be deliv r ed to the Justices of Peace and 

 by them to be appointed to such persons nere the Gaile as they shall think good 

 — This order to take his beginning from our Lady's day last, and so to continue. 

 And those collections to be brought from time to time to every Quarter Sessions 

 in form aforesaid, untill order be taken by the Justices to the contrary." 



1 The gaol of the City of New Sarum is also mentioned, for as an excuse'for 

 his non-appearance at the county quarter sessions Walter Cotes, of Barford St. 

 Martin, pleaded that he was languishing in the city gaol. 



