Agnes Forster

Lady Agnes Fo (r) ster († 1484 ) was a well-to-do English woman. She became known as the wife of the then Lord Mayor of London Stephen Foster and her services to the improvements of the London prison system, in particular that of the Ludgate prison , which she expanded and expanded.

Life

Agnes Forster came from Kent and was already wealthy when she was in London (on business?). One day she passed the west gate of Ludgate. The gate also served as a guilty prison and inmates there usually had to pay for their own food. To raise the money for it, they begged passers-by through the open window in the gate. In this way Agnes met the fishmonger Stephen Foster, who was imprisoned there and who, in response to her questions, told her about his problems. Agnes paid off his creditors with £ 20 and so he was released and entered their service. His determination and business acumen as a fishmonger soon brought him to the highest offices in London and, in the late 1430s, to the altar with his patroness.

Stephen Foster and his wife sketched an improvement in the living conditions of the prisoners at Ludgate while they were still alive. When he died in 1458 after 20 years of marriage to Agnes, she and her son William carried out the plans. So the tower and some of the houses around it (which were in your possession?) Were demolished and the tower was rebuilt significantly enlarged. The tower contained a porch, an office, a guard room, a long control corridor and a cellar, as well as a chapel . Even before everything was finished in 1463, it also achieved in 1462 one of Stephen's successors in the office of Lord Mayor, Matthew Philip, the abolition of the self-sufficiency obligation of the prisoners. Which of course did not prevent the corrupt guards from demanding money from the inmates.

"This chapel was erected and ordained for the divine worship and service of God, by the Right Honorable Sir Stephen Forster, Knight, some time Lord Mayor of this honorable city, and by Dame Agnes his wife, for the use and godly exercise of the prisoners in this prison of Ludgate, anno 1454. "

- Inscription in the chapel

“Devout souls that pass this way, For Stephen Foster, late mayor, heartily pray; And Agnes, his spouse, to God consecrate, That of pity this house made, for Londoners in Ludgate; So that for lodging and water prisoners here nought pay, As their keepers shall answer at dreadful doomsday! "

- Inscription on a brass plaque in the prison

During the Great Fire of London in 1666, the mostly wooden interior was completely destroyed, as was the outer walls. However, the reconstruction took place quickly.

Agnes remarried and died in 1484. She was buried in St Botolph Billingsgate's cemetery. The cemetery and church were also destroyed by the city fire and not rebuilt.

In the literature

Agnes and Stephen Foster appear as characters in William Rowley's play A New Wonder, a Woman Never Vexed , which is based on the events of their lives.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Caroline M. Barron, 'Forster, Agnes (d. 1484)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; on-line
2. ↑ William Smith: A new history and survey of the cities of London and Westminster, and the borough of Southwark Volume 1, Plummer & Brewis, London 1833, p. 82 online in the Google book search
3. ^ R. Baldwin: The London Magazine, Or, Gentleman's Monthly Intelligencer , Volume 29, London 1760 online in the Google book search
4. ↑ Medieval Londoners: essays to mark the eightieth birthday of Caroline M. Barron; Chapter 11. John Reynewell and St. Botolph Billingsgate by Stephen Freeth and John Schofield at pages 245-274 online
5. ^ William Harvey: London Scenes and London People: Anecdotes, Reminiscences, and Sketches of Places, Personages, Events, Customs, and Curiosities of London City, Past and Present , p. 255 in the Google book search