"Chief Justice. Go, carry Sir Iohn Falstaffe to the Fleete
Take all his Company along with him.
Falstaffe. My Lord, my Lord.
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 Knt which had taken a Farm by Cōvent Seal of the Abbot and Cōvent of Chester, and afterwds 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 Cōvent 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 sd 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 sd parsonage, supposing the sd 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 Subpœna 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."

Footnotes

[84] Mag. Rot. 9 Ric. I. Rot. 2a, Lond. & Midd.

[85] Mag. Rot. 9 Ric. I. Rot. 14b, Kent.

[86] Liberate Rolls, p. 25. Rot. Lit. Pat. Hardy, p. 4.

[87] Rot. Cancell. 3 John, f. 100.

[88] Close Rolls, 6 John, f. 33.

[89] Close Rolls, 2 Hen. III., f. 346.

[90] Mag. Rot. 1 Ric. I. Rot. 2b, Bedef. Til de Oblatis Curiæ.

[91] Mag. Rot. 5 Ric. I. Rot. 2a, Nordfolch and Sudfolch.

[92] See Platt's Case cited Vaughan's Reports 1677, p. 243.

[93] Rolls of Parl. vol. iii. p. 469.

[94] Ibid. vol iii. p. 593a.

[95] Allowing a prisoner to go at liberty on finding sureties.

[96] Hayne's State Papers, vol. i.

[97] The moat or ditch fed by the Fleet, which washed the walls of the prison.

[98] See "Memorials of London and London Life in the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Centuries," by H. T. Riley, 1847, pp. 279, 280.

[99] "Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council of England," edited by Sir H. Nicholas, 1834, vol. ii. p. 303.

[100] Ibid. vol. iii. p. 93.

[101] Beneficed Clergy were given the title of Dominus or Sir—as Sir Hugh Evans, in the Merry Wives of Windsor.

[102] A vexatious and litigious person—one who stirs up strife.

[103] Christ Church, Oxford.

CHAPTER XX.

THE Fleet was, evidently, a handy prison, elastic enough to suit all cases, for on Aug. 19, 1553, at the Star Chamber, "Roger Erthe, alias Kinge, servaunt to Therle of Pembroke, and William Ferror, servaunt to the Lord Sturton, were, for making of a Fraye, committed to the Charge of Warden of the Fleete."