Family Lessons 125: Hell's Fleet

At least a couple of my forbears spent time incarcerated in the Fleet Prison, London. My 9x great-grandfather, Henry Townson of Lancaster was committed for failure to pay tithes on account of his Quakerism back in 1678. The other was in 1329, when John del Crosse, my 22nd great-grandfather, failed to attend his trial for misappropriating funds as Bailiff of Wigan. As I walked along London’s Farringdon Street this summer, where the Fleet once stood, I did consider the special relationship it enjoyed with my family, a kind of home away from home.

Someone came to visit me at the chapel one Thursday afternoon and declared that they did not believe in hell. The usual objections were trotted out, such as it being an unfair sentence for good people who simply never got around to seeking forgiveness, the repugnance of its nature, its preposterous size, etcetera. Even some Christians cannot bring themselves to believe in the place, so disagreeable do they consider it. Doubtless, grandfathers Henry and John thought little of the Fleet, yet dared not doubt its reality. I guess the people least inclined to doubt the existence of hell are those who actually dwell there.

Think about it.