Prison

Until the day he died Will never forgot a dreadful experience which happened not long after the birth of his third child. Mr. Lanyard had sent him across the town to Deritend, with an important letter. Will was pleased as he was out in the fresh air and he went via the markets. As he got down to the Bull Ring he heard cries of "Stop, thief!" and a man dashed past him, knocking him to one side.

Before Will knew what was happening a parish constable had grabbed him by the collar and told him that he was being arrested for trying to steal from one of the nearby stalls. Will kicked and shouted, yelling that it was all a mistake, but the fuss he made only meant that another constable arrived to help drag him to the prison, which stood on the corner of Pinfold Street and Peck Lane.

Prison, Peck Lane

Yelling and struggling, Will was thrown into one of the two cells down some steps inside the prison. He was chained to the wall until he quietened down. As Will looked around the cell he became desperate, wondering how he could prove that he was not a thief.

His only proof, the letter, was no longer in his pocket. It must have dropped out while he had struggled with the constables. The cell had no windows, and the only light that ever entered it was when the jailer opened the door to push him in a bowl of watery soup and some bread. The cell had some bedsteads in it, but Will soon realised that the straw mattresses were teeming with lice.

Many hours later Will was let out of his cell into the courtyard of the prison, where most of the prisoners were. Although there were well over a hundred prisoners in the goal, the courtyard was only twenty-five feet (8m) square and it smelt even worse than the cell had done. The jailer's ducks were wandering around in the stinking, stagnant puddles on the floor.

Will noticed with a wry grin, that some past wit in the prison had chalked the words "Universal Academy" over a door. Most of the prisoners were younger than Will. One said that he had first been thrown into prison at the age of ten and that he had learned how to break into houses from some of the older criminals in there with him.

Will was not surprised when the boy told him that he was in prison this time for housebreaking. Three other young boys who Will talked to were runaway apprentices who were waiting to be taken to the "hulks" or prison ships on the coast.

Most of the prisoners spent the time rather the worse for drink. This was because the jailer was not paid a wage for doing his job, but he had a licence to sell beer. The more beer he could sell to them, then the better off he was.

Three days later Will was set free and thrown out onto the streets. The jailer admitted that it had all been a mistake, for another man captured by the constables that day had admitted to stealing food from the Bull Ring a few days before. Also, Anne had heard of Will's arrest and had gone to Mr. Lanyard who had guessed what had happened and had been to explain this to the constables.

Although Will was now free and apologies had been made he detested the constables and the law for the rest of his life. He had always prided himself on being a law-abiding citizen, but had been arrested when he was innocent. It did not really change his views when he realised what part of the trouble was. This bad mistake had been made because there were too few constables for the large town of Birmingham, and so they had arrested Will without really bothering to check what other people near Will had seen happening.

The parish constables were appointed by the County Court at Warwick and had been able to keep the town reasonably law-abiding when it had been quite small, but now it was almost an impossible task for them. To try to solve the problem the town's commissioners had appointed six policemen or night watchmen in 1783. Their job was to patrol the main streets of Birmingham during the night, but these six "Charlies" were not really enough.

Charley on Patrol

Some of them were old men who could get no other sort of work because of poor health and so for this very reason they were most unsuitable for such a job. Others were quite ready to accept bribes from criminals to 'look the other way' or 'turn a blind eye' to what was going on down the street.

Charley taking a bribe

The 'yobbos' of that time were not very different from those of today. They played tricks on the poor Charlies, knocking over their sentry boxes while they were inside, asleep.

'Yobbo' taunting (teasing) a Charley

A few years after Will's arrest, in the year 1789, some of the town's leading citizens held a meeting at The Hotel on New Street. They included Matthew Boulton, the town's leading industrialist and his partner James Watt. This group of men was concerned about the disorder on the streets, the number of crimes committed and the growing numbers of shady ale houses and gin-shops.

Just before Christmas of that year they agreed to split up the town into seventeen different districts, and to have constables in each. However, the money to provide all this was from subscriptions, and although these night patrols took place through the dark winter of 1789-90, the money soon dried up and the whole scheme collapsed.