Discuss Bridewells, what lead to their creation, and why they prospered.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Poor began to congregate in towns and cities in the Middle Ages. Feudalism, and the order it imposed, was disintegrating; wars (particularly the Crusades prosecuted by the Catholic Church) and intermittent plagues did claim thousands of lives, but populations were stabilizing and increasing and there were not enough jobs, housing, or food for the poor. As the cities became more urbanized and as more and more poor people congregated in them, governmental entities responded in an increasingly severe fashion to the poor’s demands for resources (Irwin, 1985). These responses were manifested in the harsh repression of dissent, increased use of death sentences and other punishments as deterrence and spectacle, the increased use of jailing to guarantee the appearance of the accused at trial, the development of poorhouses or bridewells and debtors’ prisons, and the use of “transportation,” (Foucault, 1979; Irwin, 1985). Bridewells, or buildings constructed to hold and whip “beggars, prostitutes, and nightwalkers” (Orland, 1975, p. 16) and later as places of detention, filled this need; their use began in London in 1553 (Kerle, 2003; Orland, 1975) The name came from the first such institution, which was developed at Bishop Ridley’s place at St. Bridget’s Well; all subsequent similar facilities were known as bridewells. Bridewells were also workhouses, used as leverage to extract fines or repayment of debt or the labor to replace them. Such facilities did not separate people by gender or age or criminal and noncriminal status, nor were their inmates fed and clothed properly, and sanitary conditions were not maintained. As a consequence of these circumstances, bridewells were dangerous and diseased places where if one could not pay a “fee” for food, clothing, or release, the inmate, and possibly his or her family, might be doomed (Orland, 1975; Pugh, 1968). The use of bridewells spread through—out Europe and the British colonies, as it provided a means of removing the poor and displaced from the streets while also making a profit (Kerle, 2003). Such a profit was made by the wardens, keepers, and gaolers, the administrators of bridewells, houses of correction (each county in England was authorized to build one in 1609), and gaols, who, though unpaid, lobbied for the job as it was so lucrative. They made money by extracting it from their inmates. If an inmate could not pay, he or she might be left to starve in filth or be tortured or murdered by the keeper for nonpayment (Orland, 1975, p. 17).