Letters Patent under Our Great Seal of England
bearing date the 7. day of June in the seventh
Year of Our Reign of England Etc. give and
grant unto Sir Thomas Lake< no role > the Custos Rotulorum
of the said County of Middlesex Sir William

Wade< no role > Knight then Lieutenant of Our Tower
of London Sir Lewis Lewkenar< no role > Knight Sir
Thomas Fowler< no role > Knight Sir George Toppyn< no role >
Knights Clerk of Our Crown and Henry Spiller< no role >
Esquire now Knight and to divers others then
Justices of peace in and for the said County and to
their Heirs forever a certain piece of ground lying
and being in the High Street of Saint John's in the
said County of Middlesex commonly called Saint
in St. John's Street containing in lenght two and thirty
feet of Assize and in breadth One hundred and twenty
feet of assize for Erection and Building thereupon
as well of a Session House for publiqueHouseuse of
Administring Justice in the said County as
of

"of a Prison House or Gaol for imprisonment restraining
"from Liberty sundrie kinds of Male factors in Cases of
"Trespasses breach of the peace and other behaviours the
"number whereof did so increase as the Our Common
"Gaol of Newgate was not large enough or sufficient to
"receive and datayne them with convenience"

Mr Ford being further Examined said That he
consider'd Newgate in some respects as a Common Goal
for the whole Kingdom-That Prisoners are frequently
brought to Newgate to be tried in Middlesex pursuance
to several Acts of Parliament for Offences committed
in other Counties-That the Secretaries of State, both
Houses of Parliament The Commissioners of the Navy
and Excise commit persons there and Smugglers
Rebels and Offenders upon the High Seas are committed
thither and Tried before the Kings Commissioners
specially appointed by His Majesty by Virtue of a
Statute of King Henry the 8th. and there are Orders