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1864 Prison Dietaries
Q/AG/27
Unlike the Oxford Martyrs Archbishops Cranmer, Latimer and Ridley, who when imprisoned by the Crown in 1554 received food to the value of £3 per week, most early prisoners fared far less well. In the debtor’s prison, prisoners depended on their families for food or, paying the gaolers to provide it (who would obviously charge). Wealthy prisoners fared much better and could expect decent food as well as visits from lawyers, priests, physicians, families, friends, charitable officials, business partners and even prostitutes. In the county gaol, many prisoners were fed by charity with bequests from wills or similar providing doles of bread. However, by the late 1700s prison reforms had resulted in prisoners being regularly fed and prison diets had been introduced. This dietary from 1864 for ‘Prisoners in the prisons of the County of Gloucester’ shows their food – which was fairly plentiful if largely monotonous.
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