The Gaols Committee of the House of Commons
Artist: William Hogarth (English, 1697-1764)
Date: ca. 1729
Medium: Oil on canvas
Collection: National Portrait Gallery, London, United Kingdom
Description
In the early eighteenth century, Britain's prisons were notorious for their brutality and unsanitary conditions. In 1729, after news of the corruption and abuses at London's Fleet Prison, the House of Commons established a Committee 'to enquire into the state of Gaols in this Kingdom'.
In this painting, William Hogarth imagines members of the Committee meeting in a dungeon-like space at the Fleet Prison to be presented with a prisoner. The kneeling prisoner is meant to be Jacob Mendes da Sola, a Portuguese Jew, whose testimony recorded that he had been kept manacled and shackled for two months in the 'strong room' at the Fleet.
Members of the Committee who hear his plight include the humanitarian MP, James Ogelthorpe confronting the Warden of the Fleet, Thomas Bambridge who was noted for his cruelty. Other members of the Committee including Lord Onslow, Lord Egmont and Sir Archibald Grant are commemorated in Hogarth's composition.
Sitters:
Henry Howard, 4th Earl of Carlisle (1684-1758)
Jacob Mendes da Sola (Mendez Solas) (
John Perceval, 1st Earl of Egmont (1683-1748)
Sir Andrew Fountaine (1676-1753)
Sir Archibald Grant, 2nd Bt (1696-1778)
William Hucks (before 1678-1740)
James Edward Oglethorpe (1696-1785)
Arthur Onslow (1691-1768)
Edward Stables, Clerk of the House of Commons.
Sir James Thornhill (1675 or 1676-1734)
