Description:Fleet Prison in London was a notorious debtors prison which housed hundred of debtors and their families during the early seventeenth century. Sir Walter Leveson died in this prison in 1602.
Prisoners were required to pay for their maintenance in prison, and many documents in Sir Walter Leveson’s papers refer to him loaning money for this purpose.
Amongst Sir Walter’s personal papers is a letter written by him ‘from the flette’ in March 1602 asking for a loan of money from ‘his verie good frend Mr Sallaway’. The letter is signed ‘your lovinge landlord Walter Leveson’, indicating that Sir Walter was forced to borrow money from his tenants to fund his incarceration in Fleet Prison. Sir Walter writes ‘the tyme hath byne when yow have bine beholdinge unto me, And nowe make me soe muche beholdinge unto yow’.
Sir Walter ensures Sallaway that he will repay his loan of £5 ‘att my sonnes returne’, indicating again his reliance upon his son Sir Richard Leveson (c.1570-1605) to pay his debts.
Sir Walter concludes his letter stating ‘I will nott onlie, dulie, if god give mee lyfe repaye it you agayen, Butt will bee redie to doe yow any kyndnes I maye’. Sir Walter emphasises his good relationship with Sallaway, referring to him as ‘my good ould Neighboure’, and calling himself Sallaway’s ‘bedfellow’. Perhaps these references to their longstanding friendship are an attempt by Sir Walter to encourage Sallaway to loan him the money requested?
To learn more about Sir Walter in Fleet Prison, click on the image on the left.