Octr. 18th .

1764.

Newgate and anod. petition of the Lord Mayer Alderman and Commons of the City of
London in common Counl. Assembled have been lately presented to this Honorable House
severally setting forth that Newgate is the Common Gaol forth City of London and County
of Middx that the Prisoners committed thereto have been Communities Ann is near one
thousand Persons two thirds of whom have been Middx Prisoners That the said
Gaol is ill constructed close and Incommodious and unfit for the reception of Prisoners
That a great number of Prisoners have been usually crowded into the said Gaol
at the opening of the Sessions of Oyer and Terminer and Gaol delivery. That the,
Prisoners in the said Gaol have frequently been visited with a Malignant disease,
called the Gaol distemper whereby the Health of all Persons resorting to the Sessions
House must be endangered That the said Gaol is become a most dangerous nusance.
That the same cannot be rendered healthy and commodious without being rebuilt
on a more extended plan. That the said Gaol ought to be rebuilt at the Expence of the
City of London and County of Middlesex and that the City are ready and willing with
the Aid and Authority of Parliament to do every thing towards the Promoting that
work that on their Part can be equitably expected or required

Your Petitioners on their part humbly beg leave to represent to this Honorable
House. That the said Gaol is supposed to have been originally built in the Reign of
King Henry the first or of King Stephen that is to say Between the Years 1500 and
1154 and that the same hath been under the sole Government of and from time to
time Rebuilt repaired altered and enlarged by the City of London

That supposing the number of Prisoners yearly committed to the said Gaol
to be as great as is alledged (which your Petitioners do by no means admit) and that
two thirds of them are Middx prisoners your Petitioners say that the Number is
not greater now than it hath been for a long series of years past. That the County of
Middx have two Prisons wherein thro. the Providence of God and the great care that
hath been constantly taken to keep the same clean and to prevent the Accumulation
of fifth no Malignant disease hath ever yet appeared To which Prisons persons
for the less atrocious Offences are committed and the sole reason why any Middx
Prisoners are in Newgate is that the City of London do by their Several Charters
among divers other valuable priviledges and Immunities hold the Shrievalty
of Middx together with that of London in Farm and that as they unite,
those two Several Offices and the Jurisdictions attend out thereon in the
Same.