A sponging-house (more formally: a lock-up house) was a place of temporary confinement for

debtors A debtor or debitor is a legal entity (legal person) that owes a debt to another entity. The entity may be an individual, a firm, a government, a company or other legal person. The counterparty is called a creditor. When the counterpart of this ...

in the United Kingdom. If a borrower defaulted on repaying a debt, a

creditor A creditor or lender is a party (e.g., person, organization, company, or government) that has a claim on the services of a second party. It is a person or institution to whom money is owed. The first party, in general, has provided some property ...

could lay a complaint with the sheriff. The sheriff sent his

bailiffs A bailiff (from Middle English baillif, Old French ''baillis'', ''bail'' "custody") is a manager, overseer or custodian – a legal officer to whom some degree of authority or jurisdiction is given. Bailiffs are of various kinds and their offi ...

tipstaff The Tipstaff is an officer of a court or, in some countries, a law clerk to a judge. The duties of the position vary from country to country. It is also the name of a symbolic rod, which represents the authority of the tipstaff or other officials ...

s to arrest the debtor and to take him to the local sponging-house. This was not a

debtors' prison A debtors' prison is a prison for people who are unable to pay debt. Until the mid-19th century, debtors' prisons (usually similar in form to locked workhouses) were a common way to deal with unpaid debt in Western Europe Western Europe is ...

as such, but a private house, often the bailiff's own home. Debtors would be held there temporarily in the hope that they could make some arrangement with creditors.

Anthony Trollope Anthony Trollope (; 24 April 1815 – 6 December 1882) was an English novelist and civil servant of the Victorian era. Among his best-known works is a series of novels collectively known as the '' Chronicles of Barsetshire'', which revolves ...

set out the system in his 1857 novel ''

The Three Clerks ''The Three Clerks'' (1857) is a novel by Anthony Trollope, set in the lower reaches of the Civil Service. It draws on Trollope's own experiences as a junior clerk in the General Post Office, and has been called the most autobiographical of Troll ...

'': If debtors could not sort matters out quickly, they were then taken before a court and transferred to a

debtor's prison A debtors' prison is a prison for people who are unable to pay debt. Until the mid-19th century, debtors' prisons (usually similar in form to locked workhouses) were a common way to deal with unpaid debt in Western Europe.Cory, Lucinda"A Histori ...

. Sponging-houses had a terrible reputation. They could be much feared, and were not always appreciated by their clients, as was made clear in a description of Abraham Sloman's establishment in Cursitor Street,

Chancery Lane Chancery Lane is a one-way street situated in the ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London. It has formed the western boundary of the City since 1994, having previously been divided between the City of Westminster and the London Borou ...

, which was provided by one of the characters featuring in the 1892 book ''Round London: Down East and Up West'', which was written by

Montagu Williams Montagu Stephen Williams Q.C. (30 September 1835 – 23 December 1892) was an English teacher, British Army officer, actor, playwright, barrister and magistrate. Williams was educated at Eton College and started his career as a schoolmaster a ...

(1835-1892), a London lawyer, to whom sponging-houses were well-known: The idea of the sponging-house was based on that of the sponge that gave it its name, which readily gives up its contents on being squeezed. In the sponging-house, debtors had any available cash squeezed out of them, partly to the creditor's benefit, but also to that of the bailiff who ran it. In French, ''éponger une dette'' ("sponge-up a debt") means to repay one's debt. Scottish English has the verb "to spung", meaning to rob. The English-language term "spunging-house" dates from at least 1699.

Notable sponging-house residents

William Paget (actor) William Paget (died 23 March 1752) was an English actor and author in the 18th century who played alongside David Garrick and was a member of John Rich's company, playing in the first season of Theatre Royal, Covent Garden (1732). He was also a ...

Henry Fielding Henry Fielding (22 April 1707 – 8 October 1754) was an English novelist, irony writer, and dramatist known for earthy humour and satire. His comic novel ''Tom Jones'' is still widely appreciated. He and Samuel Richardson are seen as founders ...

– author *

Michael Arne Michael Arne (c. 174014 January 1786) was an English composer, harpsichordist, organist, singer, and actor. He was the son of the composer Thomas Arne and the soprano Cecilia Young, a member of the famous Young family of musicians of the sevent ...

– composer *

Theodore Edward Hook Theodore Edward Hook (22 September 1788 – 24 August 1841) was an English man of letters and composer and briefly a civil servant in Mauritius. He is best known for his practical jokes, particularly the Berners Street hoax in 1809. The wo ...

– author *

George Morland George Morland (26 June 176329 October 1804) was an English painter. His early work was influenced by Francis Wheatley, but after the 1790s he came into his own style. His best compositions focus on rustic scenes: farms and hunting; smugglers a ...

– painter * John Murray – Universalist ministe

* Gilbert Stuart – painter

References

Debtors' prisons Penal system in England {{prison-stub

Notable sponging-house residents

See also

References