The Compters at Poultry and Wood Street in Early Modern London

Abstract

This article examines the London compters in the early modern period. It reconstructs the layout, personnel and conditions of these prisons, as well as analysing the various reasons why people were imprisoned therein. It argues that the introduction of ‘Compter Ordinances’ in 1547 and the foundation of a new compter in Wood St. in 1555 were part of a raft of measures introduced by the city elites to tighten their control over municipal institutions in the mid-Tudor period.