Letter from a Newgate Prisoner

A letter from Mr. Tooll, a prisoner in Newgate

By Rebecca See

          Me name’s Mr. Tooll, but you can call me Tooley. I’m here cause they say I robbed some men, an killed one of em, too. I’ve been here for months now. I remember my trial was…well, it was a long time ago I think. The warden tells me that my walk is comin soon, probly in February and that after I’m dead they’ll hang me body where they say I killed that man.

          I’m writin this here paper to tell em all wot really happened there. I know it won’t help, but I’ve gotta git it off me chest. I’ll tell ye straight, this is how it happened-I was poor, so poor I had naught to eat at night. Now, I’m not askin ya ta feel sorry for me, jes listen. I heard about these men, they was a gang of highwaymen, who’d let me join if I liked. So I did. It was money to buy food with was all I wanted. We robbed some people, sure, but we never killed  no one until Mr. Leaver. Murder is such a horrible thing to do and I never meant to kill anyone. We’d marked him and was gonna steal his sword…I meant to shoot his horse, I swear, I’d never kill a man in cold blood. I killed a man, O God forgive me, I killed a man. O have mercy on my soul.

          The ward’s a comin now, so I better end it there.

Ansay, Serra. "The Cornhill, Great Expectations, and The Convict System in Nineteenth-Century England." The Cornhill, Great Expectations, and The Convict System in Nineteenth-Century England. The Victorian Web, 1996. Web. 16 Jan. 2013.