7. Creditors had several tools at their disposal to threaten debtors with prison
After demanding payment and not receiving it, a creditor petitioned the local magistrate or sheriff to have the debtor detained. The debtor usually first encountered the legal system through incarceration in a “sponging house”. It was called this because they served to squeeze any available money from the debtor. Faced with the specter of debtor’s prison, those in debt often found a source of funds, squeezed out of them like water from a sponge. Conditions in sponging houses varied, though since they existed mainly to intimidate, they were seldom pleasant.
In 1787, Gilbert Stuart, whose famed portrait of George Washington was later rescued by the servants of Dolley Madison, found himself in a sponging house in England. In Stuart’s case, the house partially served its purpose. Through friends, he managed to raise some cash which, along with the promise of more to follow, persuaded his creditor to release him. He then promptly fled the country leaving the creditor and the friends who had helped him unpaid. It was but one of many times in the painter’s life when he relocated abruptly, leaving frustrated creditor’s in his wake. Stuart is one of the more prominent painters to spend his life avoiding creditors while running up considerable debts.