Absence of religious and moral instruction in Newgate a hundred years ago--Chaplains not always zealous--Unprofessional amateur enthusiasts minister to the prisoners--Christian Knowledge Society--Silas Told, his life and work--Wesley leads him to prison visitation--Goes to Newgate regularly--Chaplain opposes his visits--Attends the condemned to the gallows--Attends Mary Edmondson--The gentlemen Highwaymen--Mrs. Brownrigg--Alexander Cruden of the 'Concordance' also visits Newgate--More precise account of a neglectful Chaplain--Dr. Forde--His hatred of amateur preachers--In his element in the chair of a 'free-and-easy'--Private philanthropy active--Various societies formed--Prison schools--The female side the most disgraceful part of the prison--Mrs. Fry's first visit--Her second visit--Awful description of interior of gaol--Ill-treatment of female prisoners--Their irons--Where Mrs. Fry commenced--The School--The Matron--Work obtained--Rules framed--Rapid improvement of Newgate--Female prison reformed--Publicity follows--Newgate becomes a show.
Among the many drawbacks from which the inmates of Newgate suffered through the eighteenth and the early part of the nineteenth century, was the absence of proper religious and moral instruction. The value of the ministrations of the ordinary, who was the official ghostly adviser, entirely depended upon his personal qualities. Now and again he was an earnest and devoted man, to whom the prisoners might fully open their hearts. More often he was careless and indifferent, satisfied to earn his salary by the slightest and most perfunctory discharge of his sacred duties. There were ordinaries whose fame rested rather upon their powers of digestion than in polemics or pulpit oratory. The Newgate chaplain had to say grace at city banquets, and was sometimes called upon to eat three consecutive dinners without rising from the table. One in particular was noted for his skill in compounding a salad, another for his jovial companionship. But the ordinary took life easy, and beyond conducting the services, did little work. Only when executions were imminent was he especially busy. It behoved then to collect matter for his account of the previous life and the misdeeds of the condemned, with their demeanour at Tyburn, and this, according to contemporary records, led him to get all the information he could from the malefactors who passed through his hands. In the history of the press yard there is an account of the proceedings of the chaplain, Mr. Smith, which may be somewhat over-coloured, but which has the appearance of truth. It was the ordinary's custom to give interviews in his private closet to those condemned to death, and cross-examine them closely. One day a young fellow was brought before him, to whom he said at once, "Well, boy, now is the time to unbosom thyself to me. Thou hast been a great sabbath-breaker in thy time I warrant thee? The neglect of going to church regularly has brought thee under these unhappy circumstances." "Not I, good sir," was the reply; "I never neglected going to some church, if I was in health, morning and evening every Lord's day." The lad told truth, for his business took him to such places of resort for the better carrying on his trade, which was that of a pickpocket. Mr. Smith was not to be done out of his confession. "No sabbath-breaker? then thou hast been an abominable drunkard?" This the criminal denied, declaring that he had always had a mortal aversion to strong drinks. The chaplain continued to press the criminal, but could find that he had been guilty of nothing more than thieving, and as this was a topic he could not enlarge upon in his pamphlet, he dismissed the lad, to be entered in his account as an obstinate, case-hardened rogue.