These accounted for nearly half of all prisons in Britain.
Its hardly surprising then that approximately 10,000 people found themselves imprisoned each year for debt.
In those days bankruptcy could be filed only by traders and merchants.
So it was often the poor working class that ended up going to prison.
Marshalsea prison in the 18th century.
Being imprisoned, however, was not a punishment in itself.
Prisons functioned effectively as lodging houses run for profit by greedy and often sadistic individuals.
Living conditions were appalling and brutal treatment was common.
Prisons were perfect extortion rackets.
Everyone else were crammed into tiny rooms.
The poorest who couldnt pay for food faced starvation, unless someone donated.
But donations were often siphoned off by the jailers.
According to a 1729 parliamentary committee report, three hundred inmates starved to death within a three-month period.
The sick ward in Marshalsea prison.
The issue of debt and social injustice is a recurrent theme in his work.
Once imprisoned, it was very difficult for a debtor to get out as unpaid prison fees accumulated.
When the Fleet Prison closed in 1842, two debtors were found to have been there for 30 years.
Entire communities sprang up inside debtors' jails.
People got married in clandestine marriages, gave birth to kids and raised families.
Eventually, the term Fleet marriage came to refer to any clandestine marriage that took place outside the church.
Prisoners were usually allowed to go out to find employment to cover the cost of their imprisonment.
There was also a tailor and a barber shop.
Some of the rooms served as whorehouses.
The horrible institution was finally closed by an Act of Parliament in 1842.
A local library now stands on the site.
All that is left of the Marshalsea is a long brick wall that marked its southern boundary.
Part of the external wall of the Marshalsea prison.
Photo credit:Philip Talmage/Flickr
Part of the external wall of the Marshalsea prison.
