{{Short description|Type of small English prison}} {{dist|Computer}} A '''compter''', sometimes referred to as a '''counter''', was a type of small English prison controlled by a sheriff.<ref>Phillip Shaw (1947). The Position of Thomas Dekker in Jacobean Prison Literature. ''PMLA'' 62 (2): 366–391 {{jstor|459268}}</ref> The inmates were usually civil prisoners, for example dissenters and debtors. Examples of compters include London's Wood Street Compter, Poultry Compter, Giltspur Street Compter and Borough Compter and the lock-up over the Abbey Gateway, next to St Laurence's church, in Reading, Berkshire (this was the Compter Gate and the lock-up was known as the Compter).
''The Compter's Commonwealth'' (1617), by William Fennor, was a work written from the author's experience of imprisonment at London's Wood Street Compter,<ref>[http://www.bartleby.com/214/1623.html The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21). Volume IV. Prose and Poetry: Sir Thomas North to Michael Drayton. XVI. London and the Development of Popular Literature. § 23. Discoverie of the Knights of the Poste.]</ref> and is regarded by many historians as one of the principal primary sources for assessment of English 16th-century prison conditions.{{cn|date=October 2023}}
==References== {{reflist}}
Category:Penal imprisonment Category:Penology Category:Prisons in the United Kingdom Category:Debtors' prisons
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