The history and antiquities of Boston, and the villages of Skirbeck, Fishtoft, Freiston, Butterwick, Benington, Leverton, Leake, and Wrangle; comprising the hundred of Skirbeck, in the county of Lincoln. Including also a history of the East, West, and Wildmore fens, and copious notices of the Holland or Haut-Huntre fen ... sketches of the geology, natural history, botany, and agriculture of the district; a very extensive collection of archaisms and provincial words, local dialect, phrases, proverbs, omens, superstitions, etc. By Pishey Thompson. Illustrated with one hundred engravings.

230 OLD HOUSE OF CORRECTION.
have been part of the Dominican Friary, but which, we think, was an ancient
warehouse, was fitted up in 1595, at the expense of the Corporation, as a
Jersey School for "twenty poor boys and twenty poor maidens to be taught
spinning of Jersey work, the said poor people to be kept by the Corporation."
This Jersey School is mentioned again in 1618. In 1619, the following entry
occurs in the Records: " The Jersey School and House of Correction, said to
be much neglected by the default of the principal man employed there; by
which means the poor, who are fit to be employed, wander abroad, and idle
and unruly people do grow more insolent and dissolute. It is, therefore,
thought fit and agreed upon, that the same should be forthwith set on foot
again." It was then determined that the House of Correction should be supported at the charge of the wapentakes of Skirbeck and Kirton and the Corporation of Boston. In the same year, " the Jersey man" (master of the Jersey
School) "to deliver unto the overseers of the towns that will resort to him, wool
and yarn to set the poor at work, and to give them such wages as he doth to
the poor of Boston. The said overseers securing the Jersey man of the wool
and yarn delivered to them from time to time." In 1620, a master was provided to instruct the poor children in knitting and spinning. Thomas Gaynor
is mentioned as keeper of the Jersey School in 1620, and John Brown in 1654.
In this year a considerable expense was incurred in the purchase of additional
wool-wheels, &c. This institution appears to have been at first designed to
teach children to spin "jersey or worsted," and soon afterwards to have been
a place of confinement, where petty offenders were kept to hard labour.
In 1668, in an enumeration of the articles belonging to the " House of Cor-~
rection," are mentioned 4"four hemping-wheels, two long blocks (to beat hemp
upon), a pair of stocks, a whipping-post, a clog and two locks." The'" Gaol was
removed to the House of Correction in 1776;" but this building was soon
afterwards regarded as inadequate to discharge both functions; since, in February 1779, the Mayor reported that the Gaol was not sufficient for the safety
of the prisoners, and " Mr Preston was requested to state what he would take
for his estate in Meeting-House (Spain) Lane." This estate consisted of a portion of the old warehouses, and " a yard adjoining the Guild Hall, between fifty
and sixty feet square." The building had been used as a meeting-house for the
Baptists; it is said, " and the walls of the old Meeting-house were between two
and three feet thick, and sound." The Mayor recommended the purchase, but
the Hall thought the price asked (15001.) too much. The surveyor, however,
reported a plan for converting the property into a gaol, and the expenses which
would attend the alteration, but nothing further was done. In 1784, 21. 6s. 5d.
was paid to Mr. Matthew Ives for femble for the use of the Jersey School.1
The building in Sibsey Lane continued to be occupied as a gaol until 1818,
when the gaol in St. John's Row (taken down in 1853) was erected.
The old prison in Sibsey Lane received very considerable repairs in 1712,
at which time it is very probable that the northern wall was built; the
interior, at least the ground-floor, appeared to remain in nearly its original
state.
On returning into South Street, we pass the ancient house represented
in the next page. We have not even any tradition respecting the former occupants or proprietors of this very ancient building; and, turning down Shocd Friars'
Lane, arrive at the
1 Femble is female, or seed bearing hemp (hemp, Cannabis satira, being a dioecious plant), having a
stronger fibre than the Calrl, or male hemp. Fimnrel (GERMAN), female hemp.