THE WILLINGALES OF LOUGHTON. 165
afternoon), assures me that the money for payment of the fines
and costs was available, but that the three defendants, strong
in their sense of the injustice done to them, refused payment,
preferring to go to gaol in default.
They were conveyed to Ilford gaol,7 the three being hand-
cuffed together. Their imprisonment was with hard labour,
which included the. treadmill daily, as well as oakum picking
and the shifting of paving stones. Alfred Willingale still retains
a vivid remembrance, after nearly sixty years, of his experiences
in prison, where he was known as "No. 13."
It is not true that any of the men died as the result of im-
prisonment. One of the three young men caught a chill whilst
in Ilford gaol, and was seriously ill for some months after. As to
which of the three was the victim there is a conflict of authorities.
Old Thomas Willingale, the father, states that it was his son;8
his actual words are : "the poor young man nearly lost his life,
and in consequence was obliged to be a burthen on his club
nearly all the summer !" : on the other hand, the sole survivor
to-day, Alfred Willingale, is positive that it was William Higgins
who suffered thus, and denies that his cousin Samuel caught a
chill. Be this as it may, Samuel lived until 1911, and Higgins
until 1870 : even had the few days in prison had so tragic a sequel,
I cannot see that a prosecutor can justly be held responsible for
the condition of our prisons at that time.9
It will be convenient here to tabulate the various members
of the Willingale family. They are :—
Thomas Willingale, the father, born about 1793, died in or
about 1870.
*Samuel Willingale, eldest son, born 1840, died 1911.
Thomas Willingale, second son, born 1843, died 1925.
William Willingale, fourth son, born 1851, still living.
*Alfred Willingale, cousin to Samuel, born 1843, still living,
*William Higgins, cousin to Samuel, born 1842, died 1870.
The three men who suffered imprisonment in 1866 are marked
with a *
7 "Ilford Gaol" was situated at Little Ilford, on the Romford Road ; it was built in 1831
and remained in use for nearly half a century, being demolished about 1880.
8 In a letter addressed by him to the editor of the Woodford, Buckhurst Hill and Loughton
Advertiser, dated December 10th, 1866.
9 A writer in the Essex Review for July 1905 (E. H. "Monkhams and its Inmates") refers
to the old gaol at Ilford as having "a court so pestilential that it is believed to have shortened
the life of . . , Mr. John Gurney Fry," one of the sitting magistrates.