An account of the rise, progress, and present state, of the Society for the Discharge and Relief of Persons Imprisoned for Small Debts throughout England and Wales / By James Neild.

  • Neild, James, 1744-1814.
Date:
1802
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An account of the rise, progress, and present state, of the Society for the Discharge and Relief of Persons Imprisoned for Small Debts throughout England and Wales / By James Neild. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    337/384 (page 321)
    ( ) THE cause of the foregoing Examination and Re- port originated from the following letter; which, being laid before the Right Honourable Lord Pel- ham, his Lordship was pleased to send orders to Portsmouth and Langston Harbours, to furnish Sir Henry St. John Mildmay, Baronet (who volunteered, his services), and myself, with every information we should require. “ S 1 Portsea, Feb. 24, 1802. (C i esterday I brought from Bodmin and £f Launceston gaols eleven male convicts, and put “ them on board the La Fortunee Hulk, in Lan^- i( ston Harbour. ** I inquired after ten others, which I put there the 14th of September, i8co. Six of them are “ dead, and the other four look very poorly. Up- i( wards of one hundred and twenty died in 1801 ; “ and forty since this year began. I inquired of “ several of the convicts as to the treatment they <c received : they say they have chiefly died for “ want of provision; they have not sufficient food to “ live on ; indeed, they now say these that are here are half-starved. It appears to me, that want of iood is the chief cause of so many deaths; for, (i were they carried off by any putrid or infectious “ distemper, would it not affect the officers on board ? These appear in perfect health, while the convict “ looks pale and half-starved. “ I have