debtors' prisons

The Oxford Companion to Irish History | 2007 | 700+ words | Copyright

debtors' prisons. County prisons housed many small debtors, but in Dublin in the early 18th century there were two prisons specifically for debtors, one on Merchant's Quay, operated by the Four Courts marshal, and one off Wood Quay, operated by the city marshal. In 1775 a new debtors' prison, the Four Courts marshalsea, was built off Thomas Street, while a new city marshalsea was built beside Newgate prison in Green Street in 1797. Until they could satisfy their creditors, debtors and their families from all over the country were imprisoned in the Four Courts marshalsea, with the rich hiring comfortable chambers, while the poor were crowded into squalid halls. When imprisonment for debt was abolished in 1872, the Four Courts marshalsea was converted into a military barracks.

Elizabeth Malcolm

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