The Boston Gaol (1635–1822) 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.
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."Adam J. Hirsch. "From Pillory to Penitentiary: The Rise of Criminal Incarceration in Early Massachusetts." Michigan Law Review, Vol. 80, No. 6 (May, 1982) The Boston Gaol 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.'"Foote. Annals of King's Chapel from the Puritan age of New England to the present day, Volume 1. Boston: Little, Brown, 1900; p.86 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 and first church. The keeper's house was also renovated."Bulletin of the Public Library of the City of Boston. March 1919. "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.""These keys are now in the collections of the Bostonian Society, Old State House." cf. Bulletin of the Public Library of the City of Boston. March 1919; p.82 "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."State Gazette of South-Carolina; Date: 12-29-1792 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."Massachusetts. Boston, July 6. National Birth Day. Courier of New Hampshire; Date: 07-17-1805
By 1807 the "county gaol" appeared as "a plain stone building of considerable strength," located "in the rear of the court-house."Boston Directory. 1807 "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."Neh. Freeman. "Boston Gaol," Dec. 11, 1819. Boston Daily Advertiser; Date: 12-18-1819 Through the years, gaol keepers included Mr. Salter (c. 1662); Richard Brackett (c. 1665);Savage. 1884 Seth Smith (c. 1711); William Young (c. 1740); Oliver Hartshorn (c. 1796).Boston Directory. 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.
Inmates 17th-century Mary Parsons, 1651; "accused for a witch" Mary Fisher and Anne Austin, Quakers, c. 1656James K. Wellman. Belief and bloodshed: religion and violence across time and tradition. Rowman & Littlefield, 2007; p.100+ Mary Clark, Richard Doudney, Quakers, c. 1657James Bowden. History of the Society of Friends in America. London: Gilpin, 1850 William Robinson, Marmaduke Stevenson, Quakers, c. 1659 Goody Glover, c. 1688 "Sarah Osburn, a victim to the witchcraft delusion; at first imprisoned in Salem village church, ... afterwards transferred to Boston Jail, where she died," 1692Frank E. Moynahan. Danvers, Massachusetts: a resume of her history and progress, together with a condensed summary of her industrial advantages and development : biographies of prominent Danvers men and a series of comprehensive sketches of her representative manufacturing and commercial enterprises. Published in the interest of the town by the Danvers Mirror, 1899; p.96 Sarah Cloyce - Salem Witch Trials - accused along with her two sisters, but survived. Sarah Wildes, hanged for witchcraft, 1692 Captain John Alden, c. 1695 Captain William Kidd, 169918th-century Mary Bressell, c. 1713, "for debt, three quarters of a year's rent of a brick house in Shrimpton's Lane" John Up Church, alias Browne, mariner, c. 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" James Franklin (printer), 1722 Richard Fry, c. 1739 Daniel Fowle (printer), 1754 John Mein (publisher) Thomas Preston and others involved in the Boston Massacre, 1770 "Lieut. Col. Parker, who was wounded at the battle of Bunker's Hill, and died in Boston gaol," 1794Columbian Gazetteer (NY); Date: 01-16-1794 "Shattuck, Smith and Parker, leaders of the Middlesex riot," 1786Loudon's New-York Packet; Date: 12-22-178619th-century Jason Fairbanks, c. 1801 John S. Lillie, editor of the Constitutional Telegraphe, for libel, 1802 Thomas O. Selfridge, esq.Farmers' Cabinet (New Hampshire); Date: 11-18-1806 Merrill Butler, 1812, for "abusing the liberty of the press" in The ScourgeCommon Gaol, Boston, Jan. 15, 1812. Boston Patriot; Date: 01-25-1812 Michael Powars, c. 1820American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series 1 Warrington, Rosewain, and Homes, pirates, 1819-1820Execution of Pirates. New-England Galaxy & Masonic Magazine; Date: 06-16-1820 Elijah Bruce, c. 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."New-Hampshire Patriot & State Gazette; Date: 07-29-1822
See also Leverett Street Jail (1822–1851)
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Further reading
Suffolk County Gaol. New-England Galaxy & Masonic Magazine; 06-18-1819. p. 635.