Wood Street Counter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Wood Street Counter (or Compter) was a small prison in the City of London, England, destroyed in 1666. It primarily served as a debtors prison, as well as holding those for misdemeanors such as public drunkness (although some wealthier prisoners were able to obtain alcohol through bribery).
Among the prisoners housed there were Captain George Orrell, Catholic martyr George Napper, the Sabbatarian dissenter John Traske, poet Edmund Gayton, a young Jonathan Wild, and highwayman James Hind. The prison was built in 1555 and many prisoners from the nearby Bread Street Compter were transferred there.
There were originally two prisons, one on Great Wood Street and the other on the Poultry, the Poultry Compter, but both were destroyed during the Great Fire of London in 1666, although the Poultry Compter was rebuilt, and another compter, Giltspur Street Compter was constructed in 1791.
During the closure of the compters, debtors were held in prisons in Southwark, including the Marshalsea and King's Bench Prisons, Borough Compter and Horsemonger Lane Gaol.
[edit] Further reading
- Harben, Henry Andrade. A Dictionary of London: Being Notes Topographical and Historical Relating to the Streets and Principle Buildings in the City of London. London: H. Jenkins, 1918.
