Page:Old and New London, vol. 2.djvu/438

 OLD AND NEW LONDON.

[The Fleet Prison

tempt, in 1743, wrote a pamphlet to defend his figure, and handsome though significantly rubicui conduct. The following extract gives some curious face. Nothing ever put the doctor out of humo examples of the sort of reckless and shameless ! or countenance. He was on several occasions marriages that were contracted : I quired to bring one of his marriage registers to t

"As I have married many thousands, and, con- 1 Old Bailey, and give evidence in a trial for bigam sequently. have on those occasions seen the but no gentleman of the long robe ever disturb*

humour of the lower class of people, I have often asked the married pair how long they have been acquainted. They would reply, some more, some less, but the generality did not exceed the acquaint- ance of a week, some only of a day half a day. . . . . Another inconveniency which will arise from this Act will be, that the expense of being married will be so great, that few of the lower class of people can afford it ; for I have often heard a Fleet parson say that many have come to be married when they have had but half-a-crown in their pockets, and sixpence to buy a pot of beer, and for which they have pawned some of their clothes. I remember, once upon a time, I

the equanimity of the shameless ecclesiastic, wh smiling and bowing courteously to his question* answered, ' Video meliora, deteriora sequor,' vh( an advocate asked him, 'Are you not asham* to come and own a clandestine marriage in the face of a court of justice ?' Even when Walter Chandler beat him with a stick, the doctor took his caning with well-bred composure. The popular nickname of the doctor declared him the bishop of an extremely hot diocese, but his manner and language were never deficient in coolness.

" Mr. John Mottram, who bore for his arms a chevron argent, charged with three roses between

at a public-house at Radcliff, which was then full of | three crosslets or, used to marry couples within

sailors and their girls. There was fiddling, piping, jigging, and eating. At length one of the tars starts

up and says, ' me, Jack, I'll be married

just now ; I will have my partner !' The joke took, and in less than two hours ten couple set out for the Fleet. I stayed their return. They re- turned in coaches, five women in each coach ; the tars, some running before, others riding on the coach-box, and others behind. The cavalcade being over, the couples went up into an upper room, where they concluded the evening with great jollity. The next time I went that way, I called on my landlord and asked him concerning this

the walls of the Fleet, not in the chapel of the prison, but ' in a room of the Fleet they called the Lord Mayor's Chapel, which was furnished with chairs, cushions, and proper conveniences.' It is recorded in the Weekly Journal, respecting this establishment for weddings, ' that a coalheaver was generally set to ply at the door, to recommend all couples that had a mind to be marry'd, to the prisoner, who would do it cheaper than anybody.-' Mr. Mottram could afford to be moderate in his charges, for he transacted an enormous amount oi business. From one of its registers, it appears that he married more than 2,200 couples in a

marriage adventure. He at first stared at me, but, j single year. He was a very obliging gentleman, recollecting, he said those things were so frequent, j and never declined to put on a certificate of mar- that he hardly took any notice of them. ' For,' j riage the date that was most agreeable to the added he, 'it is a common thing, when a fleet ! feelings of the bride. On the occasion of his tria^ comes in, to have two or three hundred marriages, at the Guildhall, in 1717, before Lord Chief Justice in a week's time among the sailors.' ..... Parker, it appeared that this accommodating spirit If the present Act, in the form it now stands, 1 had caused him to enrich certificates of his owr should (which I am sure is impossible) be of any penmanship with dates pripr to the day of his own service to my country, I shall then have the satis- ordination. Convicted of solemnising marriage; faction of having been the occasion of it, because unlawfully, Mr. Mottram was fined ^200 ; but thif: the compilers thereof have done it with a pure misadventure did not deter him frofn persevering design of suppressing my chapel, which makes me in his practices."

the most celebrated man in this kingdom, though Landowas another of these rascals. "Whoever not the greatest." (See Keith's " Observations on thinks meanly," says the author of " Brides anc the Act for Preventing Clandestine Marriages/') Bridals," " of the Reverend John Lando, whilom " One of these comparatively fortunate offenders Chaplain to His Majesty's ship The Falkland against the canons," says Mr. Jeaffreson, whom we holds an opinion at variance with that gentleman'; have before quoted, "was the stately Dr. Gaynam, estimate of himself; for Mr. Lando used to inform who lived for many years in Bride Lane, and never the readers of newspaper advertisements that h< walked down Fleet Street in his silk gown and | was a ' gentleman,' who had ' gloriously distin bands without drawing attention to his commanding 1 guished himself in the defence of his king anc!