It was also used as a house of detention, for we find Oct. 17, 1541, that Cowley the Master of the Rolls in Ireland, was examined, but because the time was too short to do it thoroughly, the Lord Chancellor sent him to the Fleet "untill syche tyme as the King sholde co[=m] to London." It seems to have been a refuge for misdemeanants, for April 3, 1542, John Bulmer Esquire, for his wilful disobeying of an order taken between him and his wife by the Council, was committed to the Fleet. And does not Shakespeare make Sir John Falstaff a denizen of this prison? (Second Part _King Henry the Fourth_, last scene).
"_Chief Justice._ Go, carry Sir _Iohn Falstaffe_ to the Fleete Take all his Company along with him.
_Chief Justice._ I cannot now speake, I will heare you soone: Take them away."
Sir Rd. Empson, so well known in Henry the Seventh's time, was indicted for sending, without process, persons accused of murder, and other crimes, "to the late King's Prisons, to wit the Fleet, the Compter, and the Tower of London." And, from the Articles of Impeachment against Cardinal Wolsey, it would seem that he was in the habit of committing to the Fleet, those who thwarted him in his demands. One case (Article 38) is: "Also that the said Lord Cardinal did call before him Sir John Stanley K^{ nt} which had taken a Farm by C[=o]vent Seal of the Abbot and C[=o]vent of Chester, and afterw^{ ds} by his Power and Might, contrary to Right, committed the said Sir John Stanley to the Prison of the Fleet by the space of a Year, unto such time as he compelled the said Sir John to release his C[=o]vent Seal to one Leghe of Adlington, which married one Lark's daughter, which woman the said Lord Cardinal kept, and had with her two Children; whereupon the said Sir John made himself Monk in Westminster, and there died."
Here is another example of the Cardinal's highhanded method of dealing with those who did not exactly bend to his will, in Article 41 of his Impeachment: "Also where one Sir Edward Jones, Clerk, parson of Orewly in the County of Bucks, in the 18th year of your most noble reign, let his s^d parsonage with all tithes and other profits of the same to one William Johnson, for certain years; within which years, the Dean of the s^{ 'd} Cardinal's College in[103] Oxenford pretended title to a certain portion of Tithes within the s^d parsonage, supposing the s^d portion to belong to the parsonage of Chichley, which was appointed to the Priory of Tykeford, lately suppressed, where (of truth) the Parsons of Orewly have been peaceably possessed of the s^{ 'd} portion _out of the time of mind_: Where upon a Subpoena was directed to the said Johnson to appear before the Lord Cardinal at Hampton Court, out of any term, with an injunction to suffer the said Dean to occupy the said portion. Whereupon the said Johnson appeared before the said Lord Cardinal at Hampton Court, where without _any_ Bill the said Lord Cardinal committed him to the Fleet, where he remained by the space of twelve weeks, because he would not depart with the said Portion: and at last, upon a Recognizance made, that he should appear before the said Lord Cardinal, whensoever he was commanded, he was delivered out of the Fleet. Howbeit, as yet, the said Portion is so kept from him that he dare not deal with it."