Robert de Leveland, the son of the foregoing Nathaniel, was bitten by the then fashionable craze for Crusading, for he is found, in 1201, petitioning King John for leave to delegate the care of the King's Houses at Westminster, and the Fleet Prison, to Simon FitzRobert, Archdeacon of Wells, for the space of three years, during which time he should be in the Holy Land. His prayer seems to have been granted; but he evidently drew a little money before he went away, for, in the Chancery Rolls of the same year, he was paid £15 10s. by the City of London, on account of the King's Prison of Flete, and he also received other sums of £10 12s. 10d. for the Custody of the King's Houses at Westminster, and £7 12s. 1d. for the Custody of the Gaol of London.[87] By which, and also by the foregoing notice of Osbert de Longchamps, it is evident that, at that time, the Fleet prison was the principal, if not the only, prison in London.
Robert de Leveland re-entered upon his duties after his three years' leave, and a document is extant[88] in which he is excused payment of £10 he had borrowed; but (possibly in lieu) he was bound to serve beyond the seas—i.e., in foreign parts—with horses and arms. When he died is not known, but his widow evidently succeeded him as custodian, for in December, 1217, [89] his wife Margaret has the same allowance given her in regard of the King's Houses at Westminster "as the said Robert had been accustomed to during his life." Thus she was the first female Warden of the Fleet; there were others, as we shall see by and by.
It is a moot question, and I put it forward with all reserve, as to whether there was not even an earlier mention of the Fleet before the very authentic case of Nathaniel de Leveland; but as it is open to objection that there were more Fleets than one, I only give the cases, and make no comment. [90] 1189: "William de Flete gave a Mark to have his plea in the King's Court touching a hyde of land, versus Randolph de Broy." And again,[91] in 1193: "Richard de Flet fined in one hundred Marks, that his daughter might be delivered from Ralf de Candos, who said he had espoused her."
In the Rolls are many cases which mention the Fleet, but, although it was a House of Detention, for debtors, especially to the King, and persons committing minor crimes, it never seems to have been degraded into what we should now term "a Gaol." No felons seem to have been incarcerated there, and there is no mention of gyves or chains, but they were used in after years.
It would seem that another "lady" Warden of the Fleet existed in Edward II.'s time, for, in 1316, "Johanne, late Wife of John Schench deceased, who held of the King in chief the Serjeanties of the Custody of the King's Palace of Westminster, and of his Prison of Flete, married Edmund de Cheney, without licence obtained from the King, in that behalf. Whereupon the said serjeanties were taken into the King's hands, and straitway the Treasurer and the Barons committed the Custody of the Palace of Richard Abbot, who was sworn de fideliter, &c., and the Custody of the Flete Prison to John Dymmok, Usher of the Exchequer, who was sworn in the like manner. Afterwards the said Edmund made Fine for the said Trespass, and the said serjeanties were restored." By which we see that thus early "women's rights" were fully recognized, and "employment for females" in occupations hitherto enjoyed exclusively by men, seems to have been in force.
Although not in Chronological Order, I may as well add another, and the only other mention that has come under my notice of a female Warden (1677): [92] "A Woman Guardian of the Fleet, marries her Prisoner in Execution; he is immediately out of Execution; for the Husband cannot be Prisoner to his Wife, it being repugnant that she, as jaylor, should have custody of him, and he, as husband, the custody of her."
Without some effective supervision, as is the case with our Prison Commissioners, abuses were bound to creep in, and the Governor or Warden of any Prison, (who doubtless had paid heavily for the appointment) had to recoup himself by squeezing the unfortunate prisoners, and we shall find several examples of this in the Fleet. The earliest seems to have been in the second year of Henry IV. (1400) when a petition was presented to Parliament [93] which prays, in its quaint Norman French that "les fees de Gardien de Flete sorént mys en certain" that the fees might be settled.
It is possible that extra fees were taken for a certain amount of liberty allowed to the prisoners by the Warden, who would allow him to go out of gaol on certain conditions, and we may be certain, for a consideration also. The Warden was answerable for his Prisoner, and if he escaped, he had to pay the debt, so that we may be certain that his ephemeral liberty was highly purchased. That this was the case we find in 7 and 8 Hen. IV. (1406)[94] "que si ascun Gaoler lesseroit tiel Prisoner aler a large par mainprise [95] ou en baile, que adonques le persone envers qi le dit Prisoner estoit condempne aureoit sa action et recoverir envers le dit Gaoler." Or in English, "That if any Gaoler allowed such Prisoner to go at large, either by mainprize or bail, that, then, the Person to whom the Prisoner was indebted might have his action, and recover against the said Gaoler." Yet, notwithstanding this, there were many actions brought against the Wardens for allowing their prisoners to escape. A relic of this power of the Wardens to accord a certain amount of liberty to their prisoners, obtained till the last hours of the Fleet. There was, in the Rules, a defined district surrounding the Prison, in which prisoners, on providing approved sureties for the amount of their debt, and paying some fee, might reside, on condition that they did not overstep the boundaries. That this custom of granting temporary exeats was very ancient, is indisputable, for, in the 1 Richard II. (1377) a complaint was made that the Warden of the Fleet "sometimes by mainprize, or by bail, and sometimes without any mainprize, with a Baston of the Fleet," i.e., accompanied by a prison official, would allow his charges to go abroad, "even into the country."
It is impossible to give a list of all the prisoners of note who were committed to the Fleet, and they must only be glanced at, but with the accession of Mary, some illustrious and historical names appear. First, and foremost, and almost immediately after her accession to the throne, we read, thanks to the preservation and collation, of State Papers,[96] that on the 29th of July, 1553, a letter from the Privy Council was sent to the "Wardene of the Flete, for the apprehensyone and commyttyng of the Lord Russell, Anthonye Browne of Essex, and John Lucas." All these prisoners seem to have been treated with great leniency, for there is a letter (July 31) to the Warden of the Fleet bidding him to give Mr. Lucas and Mr. Cooke the libertye of his Garden, so that there must have been a garden then attached to the Fleet prison—and a postscript orders that "he shall delyuer Mr. Anthonye Browne, and suffer hym to goo to his awne Howse."