HALF=MOON SERIES

EDITED BY
MAUD WILDER GOODWIN
ALICE CARRINQTON ROYCE
RUTH PUTNAM AND
EVA PALMER BROWNELL

Vol. II.. No. 3. March. 1898.

©16 prisons anb
ffmnisbments Eli3abetb Dike Xewis

Copyright, 1898, by
Q. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
New York London
Ube Iftmcfterbocfter iprcss, New Rochelle, N. Y.
Entered at the Post Office, New Rochelle, N. Y., as Second-class Matter

Price Ten Cents

Per Year, One Dollar

9 UL-

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preparatory, academic, and
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No more than eight pupils constitute any class
6 WEST 48th STREET, with; Annex
MRS. LESLIE MORGAN'S
.*. 3BoarMng ano Das Scbool
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r NEW YORK CITY < . « « <
,"' Kindergarten^ Through College Preparatory
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35 WEST 90TH STREET

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PARTMENTS. THOROUGHLY GRADED. ' SEP
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Vbt ftnickerboclicr Vtees, new Boris

OLD PRISONS AND PUNISHMENTS

81

Half Moon Series
Published in the Interest of the New York
City History Club.

Volume II. Number III,

83

OLD PRISONS AND PUNISHMENTS.
By ELIZABETH DIKE LEWIS.
THE Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam,
having founded their colony in a spirit
more commercial than religious, felt earlier
than did their Puritan neighbors, the need of
a place of imprisonment. This does not mean
that the wicked flourished there to an alarm
ing degree. In fact the city was well ad
vanced in years before it felt the presence of
crime, or the want of anything like a penal
system. A means of punishing peccadillos,
of frightening scolds, and of maintaining
military discipline, was all that was at first
necessary. Consequently more than a cen
tury passed before there was a prison build
ing on Manhattan Island, space having been
easily provided for offenders in the town's
official headquarters, wherever such govern
ment as there was, had chanced to house
itself. As is perfectly natural, therefore, the first

*Cbe Buns
geons (n
ffort
Hmstera bam

84

©15 prisons ano punisbments

UnMan
IP tleonera

dungeon was within the ramparts of Fort
Amsterdam. Somewhere in the quadrangle,
along with the Governor's mansion, the mili
tary post, and the little church, was a lock-up,
no doubt of the most primitive order, and
probably of a migratory habit. The earliest
prisoners were the Indians captured in skir
mishes, who were confined in some part of
the barracks of the soldiers who had taken
them. It is not certain that any civil offen
ders were ever imprisoned there, but even
after the building of the Stadt Huys, the cap
tive Indians seem to have been kept in the
Fort dungeons.
In 1644, one Lieutenant Baxter marched to
the "castels" of the Westchester Indians,
destroyed their crops and killed many of
them, and returned to the Fort with several
prisoners.1 At about the same time an ex
pedition to Heemstede, where troubles had
become complicated, resulted in the capture
of two Indians, who were brought to the Fort
and cruelly dealt with. One was dragged
into a circle of soldiers, abused, and cut at
with knives till he whirled in his death-dance,
and finally dropped amid the jeers of his per
secutors. The other was also mutilated, and
the same horrible scene might have been re
peated had not another party of soldiers inter
fered and mercifully beheaded him on a block
behind the barracks.3

©lo prisons ano puntsbments

85

While the colonists were few and mutually
dependent, there was no mention of any pris
oners save those of war. But other than
warlike measures soon became imperatively
necessary to protect the community from its
terrifying foes. A drunken Indian was a
menace to a whole neighborhood, and one
armed with civilized weapons was a trebly
dangerous enemy. It was, therefore, or
dained at various times that he who should
be found selling liquors to Indians should be
"arbitrarily corrected," or imprisoned, or
" condemned " : or if the selling could not be
proved on any one person, then the whole
street in which the drunken Indian had been
found was fined.5 From very early times
death was the penalty for providing Indians
with firearms, or any munitions of war.*
Other offences less serious than these, and
generally of a personal character, were none
the less deemed a menace to the dignity of
the colony, and as early as 1638, a record is
opened of curious sins, and still more droll
punishments. A certain Hendrick Jansen,
convicted of having slandered the Governor,
is compelled to stand at the Fort gates at the
ringing of the bell, and to ask the Governor's
pardon.6 The Reverend E. Bogardus — who had suc
ceeded Dominie Megapolensis as pastor of the
church within the Fort — is "scandalized by a

Earliest punisb= ments

86

©10 prisons ano punisbments

•_bc
ffiogat&us jfamil.

female," who is forthwith summoned to ap
pear, also at the ringing of the bell, and "to
declare before the council that she knew he
was honest and pious, and that she had lied
falsely." The Bogardus family seem to have
been the objects of something like animosity on
the part of their fellow-citizens, for presently
the wife of the reverend gentleman is ac
cused of "having drawn up her petticoat a
little way." Several people were involved in
this case, among whom was Hendrick Jansen,
perhaps the same who had slandered the
Governor, seeking an indirect revenge for his
own public humiliation.
A Solomon-like judgment is that in another
slander case, in which Jan Jansen complains
of a party who has "lied falsely" about him,
and each side is ordered to contribute twenty-
five guilders to the poor box ! Guyshert Van
Regerslard, apparently a sailor on the yacht
" Hope," having drawn his knife upon a fellow,
was sentenced to receive three stripes from
each of the crew, and to throw himself three
times from the sail-yard of the yacht.
The famous wooden horse makes his entry
into the annals of the city in December, 1638,
when two soldiers were condemned to be
stride him for two hours. This punishment
seems to have been brought from Holland,
where it had long been used as a military
discipline. The horse had a razor-like back,

©lo prisons ano punisbments 87
upon which the prisoner was forced to sit, ute
while weights and chains were hung on his *^b°en
feet. sta&t
The only recorded case of any criminal pro- *UBB
ceedings during the days of the Fort is that
of Manuel Gerrit."
More serious attempts at local discipline
began in 1642, when the Stadt Huys was
erected on Dock, now Pearl Street,7 at the head
of Coenties Slip. This building, which Kieft
had ordered for the Company's tavern, soon
entered on its generous career as tavern, court,
city hall, and prison combined. All the courts
and public meetings of the citizens were held
here, and although there were two stories —
with perhaps a third under the gables — only
one small room on the first floor in the rear
could be spared for the prisoners. Their
quarters were nevertheless far more ample,
and their doings more carefully regulated than
they had been in the dungeons of the Fort.
The Provost Marshal, as combined sheriff,
warden, policeman, and jailer, had entire com
mand of the prison, and frequent ordinances
controlled his various duties.8 He was to live
in the town, where a dwelling was provided
for him. He was to visit the prison constantly,
to feed and lock up the prisoners, and to be re
sponsible for the keys and for the state of the
locks, taking especial care that no "file or rope
or anything sharp '' be left on the premises.

88

©15 prisons anb punisbments

Ube
provost
flDatsbal's Ipowers
anb Buries

The weight and amount of irons necessary
to secure each prisoner, were determined at
his condemnation, by the Fiscal, and the Pro
vost was at liberty to alter the fetters only
when a prisoner had attempted to break out, or
had in other ways proved himself dangerous.
The Provost had power to place in confine
ment any persons brought to him, on condition
that he make a report at once to the Fiscal.
Many persons thus committed were mutinous
sailors who had been thrown into irons while
on the high seas, and on landing were handed
over to the authorities by their ship captains.
A mariner bringing any strange or foreign
passengers to port, was forced to register them
on pain of a fine of forty shillings. He was
also commanded to report pirates ; and "An
Act for Restraining and Punishing Privateers
and Pirates " declared that such should be
"fellons" and should suffer "pains of death
without benefit oi clergy.""
Any soldiers found with drawn swords
either within their barracks or on the street
were liable to arrest by the Provost. Any
persons drawing knives and inflicting any
wounds whatever were fined fifty florins, or,
in default, were sent, " without respect of
persons," to work three months with the
negroes in chains. A few years later, in
1647, the penalties were doubled — one hun
dred florins or six months' hard labor.10

©lo prisons ano punisbments

89

The number of slight offences against which
it was thought necessary to issue ordinances,
increased each year, but in most cases only
"arbitrary correction" or "corporal punish
ment " was threatened. These, however, are
mentioned constantly. It is no wonder that
the old prints always represent the whipping
post and pillory, which stood in front of the
Stadt Huys, as provided with incumbents.11
"Corporal punishment" could be admin
istered "inthe discretion of the magistrates
provided it did not endanger Life or Limb,"
and the whippings so ordered were applied
either by the public whipper or by any other
person desirous of undertaking the same ! ia A
fine opportunity for a personal and yet author
ized revenge.
For every prisoner committed to jail the
Marshal and bell-ringer received one shilling
each, while the Judge's fee was five shillings
for each indictment." The Marshal was paid
twelve stivers a day for the support of each
prisoner. The bill of fare was prescribed in
advance by the Company, and was to consist,
weekly, of the following rations : '
One and a half lbs. of beef
Three quarters of a lb. of pork
One lb. of fish
One gill of oil
One gill of vinegar
Suitable pottage, and
A Supply of Bread

TCbe
*JBlbfppina= post anb
piiloc_

go

©15 prisons an5 punisbments

Ipersecus
tion of tbe
Quafcers

Social offenders were not the only ones who
suffered under the Marshal's hands, or behind
his bars. Religious persecution had already
set in, and Governor Stuyvesant, in spite of
injunctions issued against him by the mother
country, was busying himself with devising
humiliations for the Quakers.
In 1657, a number of them were thrust into
the Stadt Huys prison for several weeks, and
Robert Hodgson, who had imprudently tried
to preach, was fined and scourged, thrust into
a cell, and chained to a wheelbarrow ; but all
in vain. He refused to acknowledge himself
guilty of any law-breaking, and finally, after
he had suffered the most frightful tortures, he
was released on the intercession of the Gov
ernor's sister, Mistress Bayard.3 John Bowne
was freed from prison only to be banished;
and many others were thrust upon the wooden
horse, or into the stocks ; while any one
housing a Friend was fined fifty pounds.
It was many years later, in 1694, that the
persecuted sect seems to have won its first
concession, by an "Act to Ease Peplethat are
scrupulous in Swearing." This new law
allowed a solemn "promise before God "to
have the force of an oath, and made false
promising the equivalent of perjury.14
As the Provost's duties became more and
more complicated, he was relieved of those
which lay outside the prison, and they were

©15 prisons an5 punisbments

91

entrusted to a second official called the Schout.
This personage was directly subordinate, how
ever, to the Koopman, who acted as secretary
and was second in authority to the council."
The Schout was sheriff and prosecutor all in
one, as may be seen from the following in
structions : "
"... He shall ex officio prosecute all contraveners,
defrauders and transgressors of any placards, laws, statutes,
and ordinances, which are already made and published or
shall hereafter be enacted and made public, as far as those
are amenable before the Court of Burgomasters and Sche-
pens, and with this understanding that having entered his
suit against the aforesaid Contraveners, he shall immediately
rise, and await the judgment of Burgomasters and Schepens
who being prepared shall also, on his motion, pronounce the
same. ... He shall take care that all judgments are
pronounced . . . according to the stile and custom of
Fatherland, and especially the city of Amsterdam."
The Schout was empowered not only to
complain of culprits to the Burgomasters and
Schepens, but also to recommend a suitable
penalty for the offence."1 Fortunately for the
cause of mercy, the magistrates were not
bound to accept his suggestions, many of
which seem more severe than the occasion
required. For the crime of impertinence to
the Schout, that officer demanded that a sin
ner be placed on bread and water for a month.
The Schepens' verdict in this case was fifty
guilders, or confinement for three days;
whereupon the defendant remarked that the

Ube
Sebout ot
Sbevlfl anb
bis Una
structions

92

©15 prisons an5 punisbments

Various
¦trials an5
Uerolcts

devil would take him who should first attempt
to arrest him.
Another mutinous prisoner who had in
sulted the Fiscal, De Sille, and his wife, — "so
that they had to have the soldiers called," —
being ordered to pay a fine of two hundred
guilders, exclaimed that he "would rot in
prison first! " And opportunity to do so was
promptly afforded him.
For a small theft, the Schout recommended
scourging at the post and banishment for four
years, but the culprit was let off with a few
days in a certain part of the Stadt Huys. An
other, however, met with all that the Schout
asked; was scourged, gashed on the cheek,
and banished for twenty-five years, all for
having noisily demanded wine in a private
house. A little maid of ten, Lysbet Anthony, was
arrested by the Schout in the act of stealing,
and brought before the council with vigorous
demands for imprisonment on bread and
water. The common-sense verdict, however,
was that "Mary her mother be ordered to
chastise her with rods in the presence of the
Worshipful Magistrates."
The Schout's sense of his duty evidently
did not stop at the living sinners under his
jurisdiction. He pulled the poor suicide,
Hendrick Smith, from the tree where he had
hanged himself, and brought the body to

©15 prisons an5 punisbments

93

court that it might be drawn about town on
a hurdle and then shoved under the same tree
again. But the Worshipful Magistrates lis
tened to the pleas of the neighbors and the
good reports of the suicide's character, and
finally accorded the body decent burial.
The charges of the hard-worked Schout
were adapted to his broad field of duty, as
may be seen by the table published in 1693: "

" Serving a writ, taking into custody, and bail
Bond (without any pretence of riding in the
county) . . . .
Returning a writ . .
A venire . . ...
Returning the same . . . .
Serving an execution under 100 pound .
Every ten pound more . . .
Serving a writ of possession . . .
Scire facias serving and return . . .
Every person committed into the common prison,

£

the same."

In criminal matters fees to be correspondingly

The Stadt Huys continued to serve as the
civil and judicial centre of the town through
its first period of domination by the English ;
again during the Dutch restoration, and even
after the English power was finally estab
lished, until 1699, when the building was
condemned as unsound, and sold to John
Rodman." The Government removed the
bell, the King's arms, iron-work, fetters, and

TTbe
Scbout's Jfccs

94

©15 prisons an5 punisbments

Ibe 3atl
in tbe
(Cit _ "Bail

other accessories 01 the prison, and reserved
the right to have the "cage, pillory, and
stocks before the same remain one year, and
prisoners within said jail within the same City
Hall remain one month," after the sale.3
The new City Hall was on the site of the
present United States Sub-Treasury building
in Wall Street, fronting Broad Street, on the
corner of Nassau. It was completed in 1700,
and was a fine building for the time, though
it did not suit the "Congress" until numer
ous alterations had been made. The whole
building projected over the street, and formed
an imposing arcade across the sidewalk, un
der the lower story.10 The ground floor was
an " open walk" except for the jailer's rooms.
As soon as it was ready to open its doors
for the courts and public meetings, it received
also the prisoners, who were put in the base
ment. Later, the cellar below was used as a
dungeon for dangerous characters, while debt
ors and other transients were lodged in the
garret.19 The stocks and pillory were not placed im
mediately in front of the prison this time, but
were on Broad Street, a little below Wall.
From here the cart used to start when crimi
nals were whipped around town at its tail,
and here, too, were formed the processions
which attended the wooden horse and its un
lucky rider. The victim at this time was put

©15 prisons an5 punisbments 95

on the horse, and then both were placed in ube

the cart and trotted up and down, with added
suffering and humiliation. In honor of the
first person treated to the torture in its im
proved form, this device was always after
called "the horse of Mary Price."
The city at this time was obliged to main
tain a long list of officials : a mayor, recorder,
town clerk, six aldermen, six assistants, one
chamberlain or treasurer, one sheriff, one
coroner, one clerk of the market, one high
constable, seven sub-constables, and one
marshal or sergeant-at-mace. The mayor,
recorder, and aldermen might commit any
persons for misdemeanors, and the mayor
and aldermen alone were to try offenders who
could not give bail. The sheriff was appointed
yearly, and was obliged to give "a thousand
pounds bonds for his faithfulness."11 There
were also a number of justices of the peace,
and the prevailing impression seems to have
been that they were not only too numerous
but too ignorant. Many of them were ap
pointed with no higher qualification than a
seven years' apprenticeship in some clerk's
office. '" The Court of Chancery was also very
obnoxious to the people, and altogether it was
an open question whether New York, with
her complicated system imported from the
mother country, or New England, with her
own cruder experiments and innovations, was

Ctt.'S
Officers

96

©15 prisons an5 punisbments

Zenger's Utfal- Ube
megro plot

the better fitted to cope with new and prob
lematic conditions.
The City Hall was the only prison until
about 1760, and it must therefore have been
in one of its rooms that Zenger was con
fined30 during his notable struggle for the
freedom of the press." Here, too, suffered
the negroes and the whites concerned with
them in the supposed plot ot 1741."
After this great panic the blacks were more
carefully restricted. They were not allowed
to sell anything at any price whatever, on
pain of a fine of five pounds or under; and if
more than three of them met and talked to
gether anywhere, they were to be arrested
and whipped at the post.11
At the same time several new penalties
were established. Any person working on
the Lord's Day was fined ten shillings; and
children breaking the Sabbath by playing, one
shilling. It was forbidden to build on any
street not yet laid out, on pain of forty shil
lings, — rather a tardy effort to guard against
tangled city streets. Six shillings was the
fine exacted from a householder who had no
fire buckets, or who did not keep them in good
condition; and firemen who failed to answer
the alarm bell promptly were also fined.
For many years the jail in the basement of
the City Hall had been pronounced unsafe,
and in 1727, extra precautions were taken by

©15 prisons an5 punisbments

97

appointing a watch of four men to guard it
and prevent escapes. In this same year, too,
a new gallows was placed at the upper end
of the Fields." About 1756, though the date
cannot be ascertained within a decade, a new
stone prison, with four stories, grated win
dows, and a cupola," was erected in its neigh
borhood.10 This, the first real jail of the city,
still stands as the Hall of Records, at the
northeastern corner of the City Hall Park.
It was called at first the New Gaol, but
from the wretched purpose it served, soon
won the title of the Debtors' Prison. The
history of imprisonment for debt is a long
record of stupid injustice; and nowhere was
its folly more bitterly fruitful than in old New
York. It was upon the laborers and mechan
ics, who relied wholly on their daily efforts
for their daily bread, that the prosperity of the
growing city depended; and they were, of
course, the very people most likely to get into
debt. Let a workingman fall ill, and imme
diately on his recovery he would be clapped
into jail, because he had not paid for his pro
visions and medicine ; while the family either
starved or piled up more debts, which kept
him still longer in idle captivity.2' An adver
tisement in a newspaper of the time28 shows
both the painful condition of the men thus
confined, and the peculiar attitude of the pub
lic toward them.

TXbc
"Debtors' prison

98

©15 prisons an5 punisbments

Imprisons ment (ot
Bebt

" The Debtors confined in the Gaol of the City of New
York, impressed with a grateful sense of the obligations
they are under to a respectable publick for the generous
contributions that have been made to them, beg leave to
return their hearty thanks, . . . because they have
been . . . preserved from perishing in a dreary prison,
from hunger and cold."

Among these men was one Major Rogers,
who was the innocent cause of a serious riot.
The soldiers, to evince their contempt of civil
power, forced an entrance into the Gaol, and
demanded his person. They opened all the
doors, and told the prisoners they had leave
to depart freely, which, says the chronicler,
they were "too honourabel to do"; and the
only real outcome of the disturbance was the
death of one of the sergeants."
The Fields — later called the Common, and
now the Park — was in 1769, and the years fol
lowing, so decidedly the centre of the struggle
for Independence, that it has been called " the
Fanueil Hall of New York." It was the scene
of many of the riotous meetings of the Sons
of Liberty, and the poles repeatedly erected by
them and torn down by the soldiery stood at
its northwestern corner. The handbill calling
one of these meetings, though signed merely
"A Son of Liberty," was traced to the office
of James Parker, and he was thrust into the
still extant dungeon in the Fort.38 The printer
then betrayed the writer, Alexander McDou-

©15 prisons an5 punisbments

99

gall, who many years later was to be the
Major-General in charge of West Point. He
too was arrested, and thrown into the Debtors'
Prison; whence in April, 1770, he was re
leased on bail to await his trial.
While confined there he published a "per
sonal" in the New York Journal, inviting his
friends to an original kind of afternoon tea."
He would be, he notified them, " Glad of the
Honour of their Company from Three O'clock
in the afternoon till Six," and the date affixed
was "New Gaol, February 10, 1770."
As the Debtors' Prison was not large enough
to accommodate all classes of prisoners, the
city authorities had seen fit to order a new
city jail;30 and in 1775, the Bridewell came to
make part of the historic surroundings of the
Common. It stood to the west of the Debtors'
Prison, between Broadway and the site of the
present City Hall, and would have been a
handsome building if the original design, call
ing for a pediment and columns, had ever
been carried out. It was of dark gray stone,
two stories high, and contained, on the ground
floor the jailer's quarters and the famous
Long Room for common prisoners, — on the
upper story, apartments for the better class of
convicts."0 It was not finished, however, when the
Revolution opened ; and on the twenty-sev
enth of August, 1776, when the British took

Biejanoer ADcBoils
gall— Ube
JSrtsewell

©15 prisons an5 punisbments

TTbe
JEtitisb
©ccupa= tion

possession of the city, they found not only the
wooden barracks just abandoned by Wash
ington's troops, but the Debtors' Prison on
one side and the new Bridewell on the other,
all empty, and ready for their occupation.
The Debtors' Prison was placed in charge
of the wicked Provost Marshal Cunningham,
and was thereafter called The Provost. It was
made the principal prison, though besides the
Bridewell and old City Hall, the British pressed
into military service the old sugar houses, the
churches, Columbia College, the hospital, and
the abandoned, half-rotten ships-of-war in the
Bay." Space requires the omission of any
details regarding these temporary prisons,
whose interesting history does not, strictly
speaking, form a part of the history of the
prisons of the city.
The Provost and its peculiar terrors were
reserved for the most important prisoners.
Compared to the physical sufferings of the
men confined in the hulks of the Jersey"
and the other "floating hells," as they were
termed, the discomforts of the prisoners in
the Provost were mild. Though they were
too cold, and frightfully crowded, they had
less disease and degradation to contend with.
But Cunningham was a tyrant who did not
stop half way. His was a reign of terror, and
a secret scourge, searing-iron, and gallows,
awaited the unfortunate man who furnished

©15 prisons an5 punisbments

IOI

him with the slightest excuse for persecution.
There is no evidence that he ever executed
any one without trial ; but his trials may have
been conducted in a cursory manner. The
gallows, which was practically a private insti
tution of his own, stood on a little hill in
Chambers Street; and thither he is said to
have accompanied his victims in person, after
giving orders that all householders along the
route from there to the prison should close
their windows on pain of death. He took
care to make this gallows a terror by keeping
it always occupied ; and when a real man was
lacking, he would fill it with an effigy of Han
cock or some other obnoxious rebel.33
This infamous marshal deliberately allowed
many men to starve by reducing or withhold
ing their rations to enrich himself. The ex
tent of his crimes is unknown, and it is useless
to catalogue their reported horrors. Some
writers relate that he was hanged at Tyburn
shortly after his return to England,3 and even
give in detail his dying confession, in which
he says : 3*
"... I shudder to think of the murders I have
been accessory to — both with and without orders from gov
ernment — especially while in New York, during which time
there were more than two thousand starved in the churches
by stopping their rations, which I sold. There were also
two hundred and seventy-five American prisoners executed
. . . hung without ceremony, and then buried by the
Black Pioneer of the Provost. . . ."

Cunnln_= bam ano
bis TRe=
porteo
Cruelties

©15 prisons an5 punisbments

Etban This interesting document is, however, al-
Biien most a palpable fabrication. No record has
ever been found of any such execution, either
at Tyburn or elsewhere; and the best authori
ties insist that Cunningham died peacefully
many years later, in a country home."
The most notable oi Cunningham's prison
ers was Ethan Allen, who, having been re
leased on parole in New York, was seized in
January, 1777, and thrust into solitary con
finement, in spite of his energetic denial of
the charge that he had broken his parole. He
had been first taken at Montreal in 1776,
transported to England, and after a painful
voyage brought back to New York. Here
General Howe offered him a commission,
with the promise of large tracts of land in
Vermont at the close of the war, if he would
only "desert his lost cause, and serve his
King " ; but Allen replied that he did not think
the king would have enough land in America
at the close of the war to redeem any such
promise. *'
When he had been some eight months in
the Provost, he seems to have begun to chafe
under the apparent neglect of his countrymen;
as Joseph Webb writes to Governor Trum
bull, in a letter arranging for an exchange of
prisoners : "
" Ethan Allen begs me to represent his Situation to You
that he has been a most Attached friend to America and he

©15 prisons an5 punisbments 103

says he 's forgot — he 's spending his Life, his very prime and ijbe
now is confin'd in the Provost and they say for breaking his plan of
parole without he own's it in part — 1 cou'd wish some of tbe
'em wou'd be more prudent."
Allen was exchanged in May, 1778, not
long after this, and joined Washington at
Valley Forge.38
The Provost had at this time been strength
ened by the British. Barricades had been
erected between the external and internal lob
bies, and grated doors placed at the foot of
the stairs, where sentinels were stationed
night and day. On the right of the main hall
was the Marshal's room, now the Register's
office, and opposite was the guard, and the
chamber of O'Keefe, Cunningham's deputy
and accomplice. Most of the prisoners were
confined on the second floor, in the northeast
chamber, ironically called "Congress Hall";
and it is here that they were so crowded as
they lay down in rows on the floor, that when
one wished to turn over, he had to wake all
the others, and give the word of command
for all to turn at once.
It was to the door of this room that Cun
ningham ushered his guests, drunk as himself,
after a luxurious dinner, while he exhibited his
prisoners as one would a cage of animals.
"There is that d  d rebel, Ethan Allen,
sir," he would cry; "Allen! get up and walk
around!"33

104

©15 prisons an5 punisbments

.onoition ottbe
prisoners

It is to be said, on the other hand, that
while the seamen on the Jersey were being
exposed to small-pox and abandoned to filth
and starvation,33 the crowded inmates of
"Congress Hall" were carefully guarded
against disease and vermin. Their packs and
blankets were aired every morning and then
hung on the walls during the day ; and in ill
ness they received medical attention.38
When the British troops evacuated the city,
Cunningham and his deputy were among the
last to leave. In the Provost there were still
a few prisoners, and as O'Keefe prepared to
rush off they cried out to know what was to
become of them.
" You may go to the Devil ! " he exclaimed,
throwing the keys on the floor.
"Thank you," they replied; "We have
had enough of your company in this world."
The chief sufferings of the American patriots
in the Bridewell arose from the extreme cold,
for the unfinished building had only iron grat
ings at the windows.40 There were several
old veterans who claimed to have been among
eight hundred and sixteen prisoners-of-war
confined in these crowded quarters from Satur
day to the following Thursday, without food
of any kind." No deaths are mentioned,
however, and as it is scarcely possible that a
large body of exhausted and wounded soldiers
can have survived such treatment, the story

©15 prisons an5 punisbments

i°5

lacks credibility. It is certain that the rations
of the prisoners here were at times withheld
from them, but the reports that many men
had been poisoned by the physicians have
never been verified."
When Washington at one time complained
that the men who had been released from
New York were in such desperate condition
that they were not a fair exchange lor the
British prisoners, Howe replied : "
"... All the prisoners are confined in the most airy
buildings and on board the largest transports of the fleet,
which are the very healthiest places that could possibly be
provided for them. They are supplied with the same pro
visions as are allowed to the King's troops not on service,
. . . the sick are separated and especially cared for by
surgeons. . . ."
At the same time Congress was publishing
in its Journal, regarding the prisoners in New
York: "... Many of them were near four days kept with
out food altogether. When they received a supply, it was
both insufficient in point of quantity, and often of the worst
kind. They suffered the utmost distress from cold, naked
ness, and close confinement."
If we balance the official assertions on each
side, we may come to the conclusion that the
extreme stories of both should be discredited
altogether. The tales, however, were be
lieved by many who heard them and by some

(Conflicts ing
Evidence

io6

©15 prisons an5 punisbments

Close
of tbe
tfievolua tton

who told them, and they played a prominent
part in the minds of the people at the time.40
After the Revolution the Provost was again
used for debtors, and at one time five per cent.
of the whole number of citizens were im
prisoned for debt.43 Much of the misery was
done away with in 1817, when the laws were
so amended as to confine only those who had
incurred debts for amounts larger than twenty-
five dollars.44
About 1787, the Provost was again the
scene of a riot." The methods employed by
some doctors for obtaining bodies for dissec
tion had aroused the most bitter feeling against
the whole profession.20 A mob gathered,
and assailed the houses of the obnoxious
physicians, while their friends covered their
hasty retreat to the jail. There the mob fol
lowed them and did much damage, both to
the police, and to the citizens, who made a
feeble defence at the prison door. One of the
doctors was "wounded by a stone which
laid him up some time, in the head," and the
riot was quelled only by promises of reform.
A drawing of City Hall Park made by W.
G. Wall in 1826, pictures the Hall of Records
as of pale gray stone, while the Bridewell is
green, with tan blinds. A note in the corner
explains that the artist did not "feel justified
in representing the foliage of the Park as in a
handsome state, because it was n't, being

©15 prisons an5 punisbments

107

much affected with caterpillars." 10 One might
question whether this gentleman had been
equally conscientious, when he sprinkled the
foreground with ladies in hoops and poke
bonnets. In 1830, the Provost ceased to be used as a
prison, and was prepared to serve as the
Register's office. The bell was taken down
and remounted as a fire-alarm on the roof of
the Bridewell. The front and back of the
dingy edifice were pretentiously decorated
with columns like those of the temple of Diana
at Ephesus ; 48 and since then, the space thus
made has been again walled in so that the
columns now appear as mere pilasters. In
1835, the building was ready for the purpose
which it has served ever since ; and to-day
the title deeds to all the real estate in the city
are preserved under its venerable roof.38
As for the Old Bridewell, if tradition be true,
it followed the injunction regarding coals of
fire ; for in the war of 1812, many English
captives were confined there, and are said to
have been treated by the keeper, old Tom
Hazzard, with marked kindness, and even to
have been fed in secret at his own expense
when he considered their rations insufficient.43
After this second experience as a war prison,
the Bridewell resumed its uneventful career as
the general city jail. At first, trials were held
only four times a year, and prisoners commit-

Bestrucs tion of
tbe
Bebtors' prison

io8

©15 prisons an5 punisbments

Ube
"Combs

ted for slight offences would perhaps have to
await examination for nearly three months.
Some time before 1828, however, the court
began to be held every month. The prison
ers were here made to pick oakum or were
employed on the city works, and this attempt
at prison labor seems to have succeeded bet
ter than the earlier experiments at Greenwich
prison, of which we shall speak presently.
Although fairly healthy and clean, the Bride
well was far too small to suit the city's grow
ing needs, and the erection of the present City
Hall,47'48 just before the war with England,
had long made its presence in the crowded
Park, undesirable. In 1838, it was destroyed,
some of its stones being used in the erection
of its successor, the Hall of Justice in Centre
Street — early rechristened "The Tombs," on
account of its gloomy Egyptian exterior.
The old Provost bell, which had served as
a fire-alarm on the Bridewell, was sent to the
Naiad Hose Company's station in Beaver
Street, to continue the same office. It was
soon after destroyed by the very fire to which,
for the last time, it had summoned the lines
of wooden buckets.
The Bridewell and the Provost together had
thus served during the latter years of their ex
istence as city jails, though they had been
built for special purposes — the one for debtors,
.the other for a long-term prison. Two re-

©15 prisons an5 punisbments

109

forms had merged their interests. Imprison
ment for debt had been practically abolished,
and the Debtors' Prison thus left free to re
ceive other inmates. A few years earlier a
much-needed State's Prison had been erected,
leaving in the Bridewell, too, space for short
commitments ; while the convicts who were
sentenced to three years or more were sent to
Greenwich. The act appropriating about $208,000" to
relieve the crowded prisons of the city, had at
first provided for two buildings, one to be at
Albany ; but on deliberation it was decided to
devote the entire fund to the Greenwich build
ing.63 It was ready for occupation in 1797,
and seventy prisoners were transferred to it
from the other prisons. The big pile stood at
the head of Tenth Street — then Amos, — on the
bank of the Hudson, a mile and a half from
the Bridewell and the Provost. Strange to
say, the fashionable little village of Greenwich
seemed not to resent the intrusion, but rather
to hail it as raising the value of property, and
giving a stately air to the otherwise rural
scenery.51 It was the handsomest prison and one of
the most imposing buildings the city had yet
seen, being decorated with Doric columns,
surmounted with a fine cupola, and sur
rounded by nearly four acres of grounds. The
whole was enclosed by a stone wall fourteen

ffireenwicb prison

no ©15 prisons anO punisbments

prison feet high in the front, and twenty-three in the
labor back, where the four wings extended from the
main building down to the river. Beyond
this wall was the wharf where were landed
convicts sent from points up the river.43
In every earlier prison the criminals had
been thrust all together into large rooms."
Here an approach to a better system was
made, each of the fifty-two cells lodging three
persons only; while there were also twenty-
eight cells for solitary confinement. In the
north wing was a chapel, in the south a
dining-room, and the centre was given up to
the quarters of the officers. There were also
good cellars, an ice-house, and store-rooms
of various kinds ; and in the courtyard there
was a tank where the prisoners could bathe,
so abundant was the supply of water. The
women were on the ground floor of the north
wing, and had a separate courtyard.53
In 1787, the experiment had been tried in
Philadelphia, of reserving capital punishment —
which had been the penalty of a dozen differ
ent crimes — for that of premeditated murder
alone.64 In New York many offences which
are now termed misdemeanors had been pun
ishable with long imprisonment, or with the
humiliations of the whipping-post and pillory.
At the close of the century the example of the
Quaker Commonwealth began to be followed,
and imprisonment under better conditions,

©15 prisons an5 punisbments

with stated terms and definite regulations, "Cbe
became the rule. ~
The greatest importance attaches to the per
severing attempts here made to introduce
prison labor. For the first time it seemed to
have entered the minds of the authorities that
the work of a prison should be not only to
punish, but to reform. A method of accom
plishing both ends was suggested to them by
a shoemaker who begged for occupation, and
proposed to make himself profitable to the in
stitution, — inspiring his fellow-prisoners to do
the same.66 Spacious brick workshops went
up in the yards of the Greenwich prison.49 To
a certain extent the men were permitted to
follow their own callings. If a man had none,
one was assigned him. The principal trades
were weaving, spinning, shoe- and brush-
making, and carpenter work ; but the lock
smith's art was the most popular among the
convicts, who hoped to profit by their skill in
it on their release. For twelve hours a day
they were compelled to work, being marched
into the dining-hall at meal-times, and locked
into their cells at night. Each convict on his
arrival was compelled to strip and wash, and
dress himself in the striped prison uniform.
This was always made in the prison, and was
of different grades. When an offender was
convicted for the second time, the right side
of his coat and left of his trousers were

©15 prisons an5 punisbments

failure
of prison
labor, an!> of
tbe (Sratjeo
System

black. If a third time, he wore a figure 3 on
his back, and his food was coarser and less
abundant than before. 68
The keeper's salary was eight hundred dol
lars. The rations of each prisoner came to
about five cents a day, the chief items being
oxheads and hearts, indian meal mush and
molasses, pork, black bread, and "Iambs'
plucks." For a few years the system promised won
ders ; but the ease of communication soon
undid everything. The numerous escapes and
extreme corruption may be ascribed to three
distinct causes. First, the solitary cells were
too few. Second, not even they were secure,
as they were not connected by passages, and
so could not be easily kept under watch.
Third, there was so little hope of pardon,
that the men were incited to attempt escapes,
rather than to win commutations of their sen
tences by good behavior.67
As the better class of officials became dis
gusted with the inadequate adaptation of the
building to its purpose, and weary of their
fruitless attempts to contend against heavy
odds, it was natural that inferior keepers
should take their places. In a few years a
low class of men had control of the prison,
and the convicts were corrupted not only by
each other's society, but by the example of
their officers, who are said to have been pro-

©15 prisons an5 punisbments 113
fane and drunken tyrants. Laziness ruled Ube
everywhere. The men were again herded *o»pttai
together, and children thrust in with them,
because it was easier to care for a crowded
room, than for individual cells. Many prison
ers are known to have falsely confessed them
selves guilty of special misdemeanors, that
they might be confined in the less offensive,
solitary cells. Books were withheld on the
pretext that the prisoners destroyed them.
Inhuman whippings were administered by the
keepers for real or fancied personal insults ;
and the bodies of dead convicts were either
buried without ceremony in the Potter's Field,
or disposed of to the dissectors.68
The hospital, consisting of four rooms with
a straw bed in each, was in the north wing.
The resident physician was frequently a youth
easily imposed on by the convicts, who were
skilled in counterfeiting illness and were gen
erally glad of a few days' rest from the work
shop. The most serious of the real diseases
treated in the hospital were those unavoidably
attendant on the close confinement of the
prisoners.63 Deaths were numerous, being as
one in two hundred and fifty each month.
Very few troubles seem to have come from
the undoubtedly coarse, but abundant food ;
and no complaints are made of uncleanliness.
Indeed to such an extent were these humane
and saving points insisted upon by the prison

ii4

©15 prisons an5 punisbments

Besttuc= tion of
(Breenwicb Prison

authorities, that many citizens regarded the
good treatment as equivalent to laxity in dis
cipline ! Less easily refuted are the com
plaints that the system of solitary confinement
was never thoroughly tried. The inspectors
pointed out that one Smith had been placed
in a solitary cell for six months, and had
emerged "a revengeful desperado"; while
the complainants maintained that, as he had
been allowed daily converse with his keeper,
extra diet, and reading matter, the experiment
had not been a fair one.
In spite of all that was said against the dis
cipline and plan of the Greenwich prison, it
marks the beginning of at least an attempt at
a system aiming at reform. For the first time
punishments were regulated by their duration
as well as by mere severity; and the good
effects of prison labor were proved, while its
weak points began to be understood, and
could be guarded against.
It was in 1829, that the prison was sold and
destroyed. A small part of its old wall is
still in existence, having been built into the
brewery on the same site. The prisoners
were gradually transferred, in 1828, and 1829,
to the enormous new pile at Sing Sing.
In 1826, the penitentiary on Blackwell's Is
land had been opened ; B0 and with the closing
of the careers of Greenwich, the Debtors'
Prison, and the Bridewell, and the substitu-

©15 prisons an5 punisbments us
tion of Sing Sing, Blackwell's, and the Tombs,
the old city prisons and the first quarter of the
century came to an end together.

n6

©15 prisons an5 punisbments

{References

i.

REFERENCES.
General J. G. Wilson, (Memorial History of the City
of New York, ii., p. 188.

2.

Broadhead's History of the State of New York.
Martha Lamb's History of the City of New York, p.
118.
J. F. Watson, Historic Tales of Olden Time.

3-

4-

Laws and Ordinances of New Netherlands, 1643 and
1645.

5-
Watson, p. 127.
6.
Stadt Huys of this series.
7-
Century Magazine, iv., p.847. Richard Grant White.
8.
Ordinance, August 20, 1664.
9-
Acts of Assembly Passed in the Province of New York
from 1691 to 1725. Printed by Wm. Bradford,
1726. Acts of 1692.
10.
Ordinances, 1642, 1647.
1 1.
Grolier Club : Exhibition of Drawings of Old New
York.
12.
The Charter of the City of New York, and the Act of
the General Assembly Confirming the Same. Printed
by Zenger, 1735.
¦3-
Acts of Assembly, 1693.
14.
Ibid., 1694.
i*>.
Dutch Records, 1652, 1663, Letter V.
16.
Valentine's Corporation Manuals, 1861, p. 533.
'7-
Lamb, p. 443.
18.
Wilson, ii., p. 222.
19.
Smith's History of the Trovince of New York, to
which is annexed . . the Constitution of the
Courts of Justice in that Colony. London, 1757.
20.
Dunlap's History of the New Netherlands, i.. pp.
297, 302.
21.
Governor's Island of this series, p. 159.
22
Slavery in New York of this series, p. 16.
©15 prisons an5 punisbments

117

23. Wilson, ii., p. 165.

-References

24. Haswell's Recollections of an Octogenarian.

25. History of the People of the United States, McM as

ter, i., p. 98.

26. Gazette and {Mercury, July 27, 1772.

27. Dawson's History of the "Park.
28. Leake's Life of General Lamb.
29. New York Journal, February 17, 1770.
30. Wilson, ii., p. 477.
31. Onderdonk's Incidents of the British Prisons and
British Ships at New York.
32. The Old Jersey Captive . a narrative of the captivity
of Thomas Andros, 1 781 .
33. Lossing's Pictorial Field-Book of the 'Revolution,
Supplement, iv., pp. 658, 660.
34. Wilson, ii., p. 540.
35. Bancroft.
36. Dunlap, ii.
37. S. B. Webb's Reminiscences, ii., pp. 37, 41, 54, 121,
192.
38. Hour-Glass Series : A Historic Landmark, by J. F.
McL., pp. 210, 211.
39. John Pintard's Account of the Time after the Battle
of Brooklyn.
40. New York and its Institutions, by Rev. J. F. Rich
mond, 1872, pp. 74, 514.
41. Journal of Oliver IVoodruff.
42. Davis's Essay on the Old Bridewell. Manuals, 1855,
pp. 486 et seq.
43. In Old New York, Thomas Janvier, p. 243. Petition
to the General Assembly by the Association for the
Relief of Distressed Debtors, 1 788.
44. The Laws of New York. The Town Records.
45. Watson, p. 175.
46. Wilson, iii., p. 342.
47. Century Magazine, v., p. 865 ; The New City Hall,
by E. S. Wilde.
n8

©15 prisons an5 punisbments

References

48.

New York as it was during the Latter Part of the
Last Century, by Duer.

49-

Inside Out ; or, An Interior View of the New York
State's Prison. By One Who Knows, 1823. (Proba
bly by James Stewart or W. A. Coffey), pp. 13, 15.

50.

Harper's Monthly, 87, p. )^g ; Greenwich Pillage,
by T. Janvier.

5'-

Old Greenwich of this series, p. 292.

52-
Defence of the System of Solitary Confinement, by
G. W. Smith.
53-
Journal of Prison Discipline, i., p. 4 ; Inside Out,
Introduction, p. 8.
54-
An Account of the New York State Trison, by One
of the Inspectors, 1 80 1 . Pamphlet of the New York
Hist. Soc, No. 64.
55-
Old Greenwich of this series, p. 290.
56.
Annual Reports of the Inspectors of the State Prison,
1823 et seq.
57-
Old Greenwich of this series, p. 291 ; Inside Out, p.
24.
58.
Inside Out, p. 10 ; Introduction, pp. 29, 54.
59-
Ibid. , p. 1 65 i?f seq.
60.
Grand Jury "Reports, 1849.
ANCESTRAL CHARTS
so arranged as to show any number of generations and record
of ancestral honors, heirlooms, portraits, coat-armor, etc.
This collection of pedigree forms has given satisfaction to numbers of
amateur genealogists, and was principally arranged by Mr. Eben Putnam,
of Salem, Mass., a genealogistof experience, compiler of the " History of
the Putnam Family in England and America, " Military and Naval
Annals of Danvers, Mass.," and various other genealogical works.
Putnam's Historical Magazine
devoted to genealogy, local history, colonial records, etc. , now
in its seventh year. $2.00 per annum. Sample copy 10 cents.
Address Eben Putnam, Box 5, Danvers, Mass.
Genealogical Researches conducted in England and America.
Ancestral Charts may be seen at G. P. Putnam's Sons, or at Brentano's,
or may be had of Mr. Putnam. Price, $1.50. 
•alf fjfltomx Sews
SERIES OF 1897
Price per number io cents
The 12 numbers also bound in volume form, with 29 illus
trations and maps. 12°, cloth bound, gilt top . $2.50
L— Gbe StaOt IbtiBS of TRew SmsterOam.
By Alice Morse Earle.
II— "Ring's College. By John B. Pine.
iii.— Snnetje "Jan's jfarm. By Ruth Putnam.
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Mason.
vii.— Gbe Cit*_ Cbest of IKlew Bmsteraam.
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periodicals or cyclopaedias — The literary agent — Authors' associations —
Advertising — On securing copyright.
Part II. — The Making of Books — Composition — Electrotyping — Press-
work — Bookbinding — Illustrations.
11 Full of valuable information for authors and writers ... A most instructive and
excellent manual." — George William Curtis in Harper's Magazine.
" This handy and useful book is written with perfect fairness and abounds in hints
which writers will do well to * make a note of ' . . . There is a host of other matters
treated succinctly and lucidly which it behoves the beginners in literature to know, and
we can recommend it most heartily to them." — London Spectator.

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, New York and London.

The City History Club
of New York

The City History Club aims to awaken a general
interest in the history and traditions of New York,
believing that such interest is one of the surest
guarantees of civic improvement. Its work is car
ried on through three channels :
i. — A Normal Class
2. — Popular Classes
3. — Public Lectures
For further information, conditions of member
ship, etc., address
Secretary City History Club,
ii West 50th Street,
New York.

3 9002 01402

£be IbalWIfcoon Series
Series of 1898

Published monthly. Per number, id cts.
Subscription price for the 12 numbers, $1.00
The Second Series of the Half Moon
Papers will commence in January, 1898,
with a paper on "Slavery in Old New
York," by Edwin V. Morgan.
Among other subjects treated will be
"Tammany Hall," by Talcott Williams;
" Old Family Names," by Berthold Fernow ;
" Bowling Green," by Spencer Trask ;
"Prisons and Punishments," by Elizabeth
Dike Lewis ; " Breuklen," by Harrington
Putnam ; " Old Taverns and Posting Inns,"
by Elizabeth Brown Cutting • "The New
York Press in the 18th Century," by Char
lotte M. Martin and Benjamin Ellis Martin;
" Neutral Ground," by Charles Pryer ; " Old
Hospitals," by Francke H. Bosworth ; " Old
Schools and Schoolmasters," by Tunis G.
Bergen.
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
New York and London

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