Dame Agnes survived her husband, but was ultimately buried by his side in the Church of St. Botolph, Billingsgate.
For a Prison, Ludgate compared more than favourably with every other in London. As we have seen, the prisoners were select; they were helped, in the matter of food, by the king of the City, the Lord Mayor: their fees were infinitesimal as compared with other debtors' prisons. Strype (ed. 1720, book ii. p. 179) says:—
"Formerly Debtors that were not able to satisfy their Debts, put themselves into this Prison of Ludgate, for shelter from their Creditors. And these were Merchants and Tradesmen that had been driven to want by Losses at Sea. When King Philip in the Month of August 1554 came first through London, these prisoners were Thirty in number; and owed £10,000, but compounded for £2,000. Who presented a well penned Latin Speech to that Prince, to redress their Miseries, and, by his Royal Generosity, to free them. 'And the rather, for that that Place was not Sceleratorum Carcer, sed miserorum Custodia; i.e., a Gaol for Villains, but a Place of Restraint for poor unfortunate Men. And that they were put in there, not by others, but themselves fled thither; and that not out of fear of Punishment, but in hope of better Fortune.' The whole Letter was drawn by the curious Pen of Roger Ascham, and is extant among his Epistles, Lib. iii.
"If a Freeman or Freewoman of London be committed to Ludgate, they are to be excused from the ignominy of Irons, if they can find Sureties to be true Prisoners, and if the Sum be not above £100. There is another Custom of the liberal and mild Imprisonment of the Citizens in Ludgate, whereby they have Indulgence and Favour to go abroad into any place by Baston, as we term it, under the guard and superintendency of their Keeper, with whom they must return again to the Prison at Night."
Footnotes
[74] "Garnish" was the footing that every prisoner paid on his entrance, and woe become him if it were not forthcoming; he was simply stripped of his clothes.
[75] Strype's "Stow's Survey," ed. 1720, vol. ii. p. 26 appendix.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE Course of the Fleet is nearly run, but, before closing this account of the river, we should not forget the residence of the mighty King-maker, the Earl of Warwick, whose pleasant gardens ran down to the Fleet; and there, in Warwick Lane, after the great Fire, was built the College of Physicians, described thus by Dr. Garth, in his "Dispensary":—
"Not far from that most celebrated Place,