NEW chairman of Thorverton History Society, Richard Pocock, introduced speaker Dr Tawny Paul to members at the February meeting when she gave a talk on “Debtors Prisons of 18th Century Britain”,

Originally from America, Tawny now works at Exeter University and lives in the village.

During the 18th century most of the middle classes living in Britain were in debt and many thousands were sent to prison because they couldn’t pay off their debts.

Today many people are in debt with loans for cars, mortgages and education but this can be a tool for upward mobility. In the period we are looking at people were in debt for day-to-day living costs.

Employment was sporadic and seasonal. There was a lack of coinage and no paper money so much was bought on credit and borrowings from traders or neighbours.

Shopkeepers would record debt for basics like bread and milk but then they had no money to pay their suppliers so they went into debt to pay them.

Taverns would often keep a board of shame with debtors names recorded. However, at some point these debts have to be paid rather than just passing them up the line and this could be when problems started.

Pressure starts to be applied and Court action could be taken and the guilty party sent to a debtors prison. This process could be expensive so special courts were set up for debt collection and if the debt couldn’t be paid then it was off to prison.

London had the greatest number of prisons but most towns and every city had a debtors prison.

So who was likely to be sent to prison? 6.1 per cent were the gentry, 14.2 per cent worked in agriculture, nine per cent were Innkeepers and 34 per cent were craftspeople or manufacturers. Most were men as the debts of married women belonged to the husband.

Sentences varied from days to years and the average was nine months. Ten per cent of those sent to prison died there. Because prisons were so overcrowded the government had periodic amnesties and inmates were released early.

Under the Amnesty Act you could be released if you joined the navy or got someone else to join. Rooms in the prison could be rented by the wealthy but many were in communal rooms “they ought not to be indulged – and by squalor may be brought to pay their debts”.

The problem is that being in prison means they have no income, food had to be purchased so debts simply became greater.

Who were the creditors? They were those who were also likely to be the debtors like craftsmen, manufacturers, retailers, innkeepers and professional people. Although there could be success stories from the time there were also many failures caused by misfortune or mismanagement.

An example was Archibald Howe who inherited a shop next to the prison in Edinburgh. In 1750 he fell into a debt of £2. He was sent to prison but his wife secured his release after three days.

Once he was released others pursued him for other debts and he ended up in prison twice more and for longer periods.

Thomas Parsons was a stone carver from Bath. In 1769 his diary shows a “great want for money” and “he is sometimes tempted to seek a wife with money”.

Debt could be inherited from your father and debt could damage trust in communities along with reputations. There are no debtors prisons nowadays but there is an ongoing squeeze and a growing risk of poverty.

Credit card debt can be caused by many things. Debtors prisons were abolished in 1859 although some continued up to 1905.

Robert Turner