‘Rid my prison! rid my prison! I am too much pestered by these heretics.” Alexander’s reception of an old friend of his, Master Philpot, committed to Newgate,[41] is graphically told by the old chronicler. “‘Ah, thou hast well done to bring thyself hither,’ he says to Philpot. ‘I must be content,’ replied Philpot, ‘for it is God’s appointment, and I shall desire you to let me have some gentle favour, for you and I have been of old acquaintance.’ ‘Well,’ said Alexander, ‘I will show you great gentleness and favour, so thou wilt be ruled by me.’ Then said Master Philpot, ‘I pray you show me what you would have me to do.’ He said, ‘If you will recant I will show you any pleasure I can.’ ‘Nay,’ said Master Philpot, ‘I will never recant whilst I have my life, for it is most certain truth, and in witness thereof I will seal it with my blood.’ Then Alexander said, ‘This is the saying of the whole pack of you heretics.’ Whereupon he commanded him to be set upon the block, and as many irons upon his legs as he could bear, for that he would not follow his wicked mind.... ‘But, good Master Alexander, be so much my friend that these irons may be taken off.’ ‘Well,’ said Alexander, ‘give me my fees, and I will take them off; if not, thou shalt wear them still.’ Then Master Philpot said, ‘Sir, what is your fee?’ He said four pounds was his fee. ‘Ah,’ said Master Philpot, ‘I have not so much; I am but a poor man, and I have been long in prison.’ ‘What wilt thou give me, then?’ said Alexander. ‘Sir,’ said he, ‘I will give you twenty shillings, and that I will send my man for, or else I will lay my gown to gage. For the time is not long, I am sure, that I shall be with you, for the bishop said I should be soon despatched.’ Then said Alexander unto him, ‘What is that to me?’ and with that he departed for a time, and commanded him to be had into limbo. And so his commandment was fulfilled; but before he could be taken from the block the clerk would have a groat. Then one Willerence, steward of the house, took him on his back and carried him down his man knew not whither. Wherefore Master Philpot said to his man, ‘Go to Master Sheriff, and show him how I am used, and desire Master Sheriff to be good unto me;’ and so his servant went straightway, and took an honest man with him.
“And when they came to Master Sheriff, which was Master Ascham, and showed him how Master Philpot was handled in Newgate, the sheriff, hearing this, took his ring off his finger and delivered it unto that honest man that came with Master Philpot’s man, and bade him go unto Alexander the keeper and command him to take off his irons and handle him more gently, and give his man again that which he had taken from him. And when they came to the said Alexander and told their message from the sheriff, Alexander took the ring, and said, ‘Ah, I perceive that Master Sheriff is a bearer with him and all such heretics as he is, therefore to-morrow I will show it to his betters;’ yet at ten by the clock he went to Master Philpot where he lay and took off his irons, and gave him such things as he had taken before from his servant.”
Alexander’s zeal must have been very active. In 1558 it is recorded that twenty-two men and women were committed to Newgate for praying together in the fields about Islington. They were two and twenty weeks in the prison before they were examined, during which Alexander sent them word that if they would hear a mass they should be delivered. According to Foxe a terrible vengeance overtook this hard-hearted man. He died very miserably, being so swollen that he was more like a monster than a man. The same authority relates that other persecutors came to a bad end.
Bishop Hooper soon followed Rogers to the stake. The same Monday night, Feb. 4, 1555, the keeper of Newgate gave him an inkling that he should be sent to Gloucester to suffer death, “and the next day following, about four o’clock in the morning before day, the keeper with others came to him and searched him and the bed wherein he lay, to see if he had written anything, and then he was led to the sheriffs of London and other their officers forth of Newgate, to a place appointed not far from Dunstan’s Church, Fleet Street, where six of the Queen’s Guards were appointed to receive him and to carry him to Gloucester, ...” where execution was to be done.
We obtain a curious insight into the gaol at Newgate during Mary’s reign from the narrative of the ‘Hot Gospeller.’ Edward Underhill, a yeoman of the Guard, was arrested in 1553 for “putting out” a ballad which attacked the Queen’s title. Underhill was carried before the Council, and there got into dispute with Bourne, a fanatic priest whom he called a papist. “Sir John Mason asked what he meant by that, and he replied, ‘If you look among the priests of Paul’s you will find some mumpsimusses there. This caused much heat, and he was committed to Newgate.” At the door of the prison he wrote to his wife, asking her to send his night-gown, Bible, and lute, and then he goes on to describe Newgate as follows:[42]—
“In the centre of Newgate was a great open hall; as soon as it was supper-time the board was covered in the same hall. The keeper, whose name was Alexander, with his wife came and sat down, and half a dozen prisoners that were there for felony. Underhill being the first that for religion was sent into that prison. One of the felons had served with him in France. After supper this good fellow, whose name was Bristow, procured one to have a bed in his (Underhill’s) chamber who could play well upon a rebeck. He was a tall fellow, and after one of Queen Mary’s guard, yet a Protestant, which he kept secret, or else he should not have found such favour as he did at the keeper’s hands and his wife’s, for to such as loved the gospel they were very cruel. ‘Well,’ said Underhill, ‘I have sent for my Bible, and, by God’s grace, therein shall be my daily exercise; I will not hide it from them.’ ‘Sir,’ said he, ‘I am poor; but they will bear with you, for they see your estate is to pay well; and I will show you the nature and manner of them, for I have been here a good while. They both do love music very well; wherefore, you with your lute, and I to play with you on my rebeck, will please them greatly. He loveth to be merry and to drink wine, and she also. If you will bestow upon them, every dinner and supper, a quart of wine and some music, you shall be their white son, and have all the favour they can show you.’
“The honour of being ‘white son’ to the governor and governess of Newgate was worth aspiring after. Underhill duly provided the desired entertainment. The governor gave him the best room in the prison, with all other admissible indulgences.
“At last, however, the evil savours, great unquietness, with over many draughts of air, threw the poor gentleman into a burning ague. He shifted his lodgings, but to no purpose; the evil savours followed him. The keeper offered him his own parlour, where he escaped from the noise of the prison; but it was near the kitchen, and the smell of the meat was disagreeable. Finally the wife put him away in her store closet, amidst her best plate, crockery, and clothes, and there he continued to survive till the middle of September, when he was released on bail through the interference of the Earl of Bedford.”