Boston Gaol (Massachusetts)
Encyclopedia
The Boston Gaol was a jail in the center of Boston
, Massachusetts
, located off Court Street
, in the block bounded by School
, Washington
and Tremont
Streets. It was rebuilt several times on the same site, before finally moving to the West End in 1822. Prisoners included Quakers, "witches," pirates, murderers, rebels, debtors, and newspaper editors.
"The prison and its dungeon were considerably repaired after the great fire of 1711, in that neighborhood, which destroyed the town house
and first church
. The keeper's house was also renovated." "The keys of the building were twelve to eighteen inches long and were expressive of the formidable character of the jail, the walls of which were three feet thick." "There is no reason to suppose that Boston Jail was any worse than most other prisons of that period. But that it was a forbidding place is amply attested by Daniel Fowle
, the Boston printer, in his "Total Eclipse of Liberty:" ... 'If there is any such thing as a hell upon earth, I think this place is the nearest resemblance of any I can conceive of.'" "A new building designed by Governor Bernard replaced [the old] in 1767."
"The Massachusetts Charitable Society, at their quarterly meeting last Monday evening [in December 1797], unanimously voted a blanket for each prisoner now confined in Boston gaol, and as much fuel as will be necessary to keep them comfortable during the inclemency of the season." In 1805 "the sons of misfortune and penury, the debtors, now in Boston gaol, partook of the joys of Independence, on the 4th inst.
The liberality of several gentlemen afforded them a handsome repast; and a number of appropriate toasts were given on the occasion."
By 1807 the "county gaol" appeared as "a plain stone building of considerable strength," located "in the rear of the court-house." "The jail [was] a three story building with corridors on the outside of the upper stories, in which were the prisoners confined for debt." In December 1819, there were "now confined in this gaol, poor debtors and poor criminals, as follows: 95 men, 29 women - total 124. Of whom are destitute of clothing 19 men and 20 women."
Through the years, gaol keepers included Mr. Salter (ca.1662); Richard Brackett (ca.1665); Seth Smith (ca.1711); William Young (ca.1740); Oliver Hartshorn (ca.1796).
The Leverett-street jail
opened in 1822, replacing the old prison off Court Street. "In 1823 the old gaol was taken down, and its materials were partly used in constructing the gun house and ward room on Thacher Street" in the North End.
18th-c.
19th-c.
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, located off Court Street
Court Street (Boston, Massachusetts)
Court Street is located in the Financial District of Boston, Massachusetts. Prior to 1788, it was called Prison Lane and then Queen Street . In the 19th century it extended beyond its current length, to Bowdoin Square. In the 1960s most of Court Street was demolished to make way for the...
, in the block bounded by School
School Street
School Street is a short but significant street in the center of Boston, Massachusetts. It is so named for being the site of the first public school in the United States...
, Washington
Washington Street (Boston)
Washington Street is a street originating in downtown Boston, Massachusetts that extends southwestward to the Massachusetts-Rhode Island state line. The majority of it was built as the Norfolk and Bristol Turnpike in the early nineteenth century...
and Tremont
Tremont Street
Tremont Street is a major thoroughfare in Boston, Massachusetts.-Etymology:The name is a variation of one of the original appellations of the city, "Trimountaine," a reference to a hill that formerly had three peaks. Beacon Hill, with its single peak, is all that remains of the Trimountain...
Streets. It was rebuilt several times on the same site, before finally moving to the West End in 1822. Prisoners included Quakers, "witches," pirates, murderers, rebels, debtors, and newspaper editors.
History
"Opened in 1635, the Boston gaol served as Massachusetts' sole prison for eighteen years. ... As settlers fanned out into the wilderness, organizing new townships as they went, local facilities for incarceration sprang up elsewhere." The Boston jail sat on Prison Lane (1634–1708), which became later known as Queen Street (1708–1788), and then Court Street (from 1788). Around 1689, "the old stone gaol on Prison Lane [had] ... outer walls ... of stone three feet thick, its unglazed windows barred with iron, 'the cells partitioned off with plank, the doors covered with iron spikes, the passage-ways like the dark valley of the shadow of death.'" In 1704, a new building replaced the old on the same site."The prison and its dungeon were considerably repaired after the great fire of 1711, in that neighborhood, which destroyed the town house
First Town-House, Boston
The First Town-House in Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony was located on the site of the Old State House and served as Boston's first purpose-built town hall and colonial government seat....
and first church
First Church in Boston
First Church in Boston is a Unitarian Universalist Church founded in 1630 by John Winthrop's original Puritan settlement in Boston, Massachusetts. The current building is on 66 Marlborough Street in Boston.-History:...
. The keeper's house was also renovated." "The keys of the building were twelve to eighteen inches long and were expressive of the formidable character of the jail, the walls of which were three feet thick." "There is no reason to suppose that Boston Jail was any worse than most other prisons of that period. But that it was a forbidding place is amply attested by Daniel Fowle
Daniel Fowle (printer)
Daniel Fowle was an American printer before and during the American Revolution, and the founder of The New Hampshire Gazette. Fowle, a native of Boston, Massachusetts, was an active printer in the city beginning in 1740...
, the Boston printer, in his "Total Eclipse of Liberty:" ... 'If there is any such thing as a hell upon earth, I think this place is the nearest resemblance of any I can conceive of.'" "A new building designed by Governor Bernard replaced [the old] in 1767."
"The Massachusetts Charitable Society, at their quarterly meeting last Monday evening [in December 1797], unanimously voted a blanket for each prisoner now confined in Boston gaol, and as much fuel as will be necessary to keep them comfortable during the inclemency of the season." In 1805 "the sons of misfortune and penury, the debtors, now in Boston gaol, partook of the joys of Independence, on the 4th inst.
Independence Day (United States)
Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain...
The liberality of several gentlemen afforded them a handsome repast; and a number of appropriate toasts were given on the occasion."
By 1807 the "county gaol" appeared as "a plain stone building of considerable strength," located "in the rear of the court-house." "The jail [was] a three story building with corridors on the outside of the upper stories, in which were the prisoners confined for debt." In December 1819, there were "now confined in this gaol, poor debtors and poor criminals, as follows: 95 men, 29 women - total 124. Of whom are destitute of clothing 19 men and 20 women."
Through the years, gaol keepers included Mr. Salter (ca.1662); Richard Brackett (ca.1665); Seth Smith (ca.1711); William Young (ca.1740); Oliver Hartshorn (ca.1796).
The Leverett-street jail
Leverett Street Jail
The Leverett Street Jail in Boston, Massachusetts served as the city and county prison for some three decades in the mid-19th century. Inmates included John White Webster...
opened in 1822, replacing the old prison off Court Street. "In 1823 the old gaol was taken down, and its materials were partly used in constructing the gun house and ward room on Thacher Street" in the North End.
Inmates
17th-c.- Mary Parsons, 1651; "accused for a witch"
- Mary Fisher and Anne Austin, Quakers, ca.1856
- Mary Clark, Richard Doudney, Quakers, ca.1657
- William Robinson, Marmaduke Stevenson, Quakers, ca.1659
- Goody GloverAnn GloverGoodwife "Goody" Glover was the last person to be hanged in Boston as a witch.-Background:Ann Glover was born in Ireland as a Roman Catholic. Oliver Cromwell sold her into slavery and sent her off to Barbados in the 1650s...
, ca.1688 - "Sarah OsburnSarah OsborneSarah Osborne was one of the first three women to be accused of witchcraft in the Salem witch trials of 1692...
, a victim to the witchcraft delusionSalem witch trialsThe Salem witch trials were a series of hearings before county court trials to prosecute people accused of witchcraft in the counties of Essex, Suffolk, and Middlesex in colonial Massachusetts, between February 1692 and May 1693...
; at first imprisoned in SalemSalem, MassachusettsSalem is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,407 at the 2000 census. It and Lawrence are the county seats of Essex County...
village church, ... afterwards transferred to Boston Jail, where she died," 1692 - Captain John Alden, ca.1695
- Captain William KiddWilliam KiddWilliam "Captain" Kidd was a Scottish sailor remembered for his trial and execution for piracy after returning from a voyage to the Indian Ocean. Some modern historians deem his piratical reputation unjust, as there is evidence that Kidd acted only as a privateer...
18th-c.
- Mary Bressell, ca.1713, "for debt, three quarters of a year's rent of a brick house in Shrimpton's Lane"
- John Up Church, alias Browne, mariner, ca.1713, "for a debt ... to Fortune Ruddock, a licensed retailer. His bill, unpaid, was for meat, drink, washing, and lodging for twelve weeks and four days"
- Richard Fry, ca.1739
- Daniel Fowle (printer)Daniel Fowle (printer)Daniel Fowle was an American printer before and during the American Revolution, and the founder of The New Hampshire Gazette. Fowle, a native of Boston, Massachusetts, was an active printer in the city beginning in 1740...
, 1754 - John Mein (publisher)John Mein (publisher)John Mein was a Boston, Massachusetts, bookseller and publisher in the time before the American Revolution...
- Thomas Preston and others involved in the Boston MassacreBoston MassacreThe Boston Massacre, called the Boston Riot by the British, was an incident on March 5, 1770, in which British Army soldiers killed five civilian men. British troops had been stationed in Boston, capital of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, since 1768 in order to protect and support...
, 1770 - "Lieut. Col. Parker, who was wounded at the battle of Bunker's Hill, and died in Boston gaol," 1794
- "ShattuckJob ShattuckJob Shattuck of Groton, Massachusetts was a Royal soldier in the French and Indian War who served in the 1755 campaign under Monckton in Nova Scotia, a colonial militia and Continental Army officer during the war of the American Revolution and, most famously, one of the key figures in the...
, Smith and Parker, leaders of the Middlesex riotShays' RebellionShays' Rebellion was an armed uprising in central and western Massachusetts from 1786 to 1787. The rebellion is named after Daniel Shays, a veteran of the American Revolutionary War....
," 1786
19th-c.
- Jason FairbanksJason FairbanksJason Fairbanks was an early American murderer. Fairbanks came from a prominent family in Dedham, Massachusetts. He was the son of Ebenezer and Prudence Farrington Fairbanks and lived in the Fairbanks House, today the oldest wood-framed house in the country. He was born with a lame arm...
, ca.1801 - John S. Lillie, editor of the Constitutional TelegrapheConstitutional TelegrapheThe Constitutional Telegraphe was a newspaper produced in Boston, Massachusetts, at the turn of the 19th century. The paper sympathized with the Republican party, and supported Thomas Jefferson. Publishers included Samuel S. Parker, Jonathan S. Copp, John S...
, for libel, 1802 - Thomas O. Selfridge, esq.
- Merrill Butler, 1812, for "abusing the liberty of the press" in The Scourge
- Michael Powars, ca.1820
- Warrington, Rosewain, and Homes, pirates, 1819-1820
- Elijah Bruce, ca.1822, "a victualler in the market: he was committed on a peace warrant issued on the complaint of his wife, and committed suicide by cutting his own throat with a razor."
Further reading
- Daniel Fowle. A total eclipse of liberty: Being a true and faithful account of the arraignment, and examination of Daniel Fowle before the Honourable House of Representatives of the province of the Massachusetts-Bay in New-England, Octob. 24th 1754. barely on suspicion of his being concern'd in printing and publishing a pamphlet, intitled, the Monster of Monsters. Also his imprisonment and sufferings in a stinking stone goal [sic], without the liberty of pen, ink or paper, and not allowed to see his nearest friends, nor to write a line to his wife; with many other incidents and aggravations; which shews it to be monstrous treatment. Boston: D. Fowle, 1755.
- The confession, last words, and dying speech of John Stewart, a native of Ireland. Taken from himself, at his own particular request ... [Signed] John Stewart. Boston jail, April 6, 1797. (Library of Congress, Rare Book and Special Collections Division).
- Suffolk County Gaol. New-England Galaxy & Masonic Magazine; 06-18-1819.
- S. G. Drake. History and Antiquities of Boston. 1856; p. 635.
- Petition of poor prisoners in Boston Jail, 1713. Bulletin of the Public Library of the City of Boston. March 1919. Google books