USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the end of the century : a history, Volume 3 > Part 48
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of interest. The following are copied unchanged from the original documents : "I, Nathaniel Dickens, doe declare agaynst Robert Will- iams, for beinge Drunke that day the pinice of Mr. Thockmorton was taken in possession by Benedict Arnold, this last sumer, which even- inge he put the towne to 12 shillings charge in settinge of a needlesse wach; at another time for challengeing a man to fight in his own house." "Mr. Dexter doth affirm yt Mr. Scott beinge also present, hee saw Mr. Robbert Williams reele to and fro like a drunken man, and Daniel Cumstock went to help him, that day the pinice was taken possession of." "John Olderkin affirms yt there was a writtinge in Robert Williams his hand, yt he had the keeping of, and was some way defeated of it, which sett him in a rage, and then he would come at force, and so John Olderkin came with him, and would have had him goe home or to his brothers; and he would not, but would goe abord agayne; and as he was goinge he tumbled overbord and could hardly bee recovered, and soe John Olderkin went his way, and sent Daniel Cumstock to look to him."1 Evidently Mr. Robert Williams was what we should call fighting drunk, but being a prominent citizen he paid his fine and escaped the whipping post. Somewhat later, the brothers Joe and Ben Dale, were soundly flogged for getting drunk and fighting.2
In 1655 two "ordinary keepers were appointed in each town," and leave was given to add one more if the town saw fit. These were the only persons authorized to sell strong drinks "either to English or Indian in a less quantity than a gallon;" and they were forbidden to sell "above a quater of a pint of liquor or wine a day" to any Indian. "If an Indian were found drunk, he was to be whipt or laid neck and heels"; but it was ordered that the "ordinary keeper by whose means he is made drunk shall pay twenty shillings for each person's transgression." There being no doubt that an ordinary keeper would have twenty shillings always at his command, no mention is made of whipping in connection with his offence.
There must have been some flagrant breach of decorum during the sessions of the court of commissioners at Portsmouth; for in 1755 it was found necessary to enact "that in case any man shall strike an- other in yt court, he shall either be fined ten pounds, or whipt accord- ing as ye Court shall see meete." Whether the warning proved sufficient or whether an angry individual at a later date so far forgot himself as to call for either infliction is not recorded.3
One Uselton, a graceless blackguard, having been sentenced at the last Court of Trials to leave the Island of Rhode Island for the peace and comfort of its well disposed citizens, and refusing to go he was
1Town Papers, 1648.
"Town Papers, 1704.
3 Arnold's Rhode Island, vol. i, 257.
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brought again before the general assembly in 1761, when his conduct and language became so insulting that he was sentenced to receive at once fifteen lashes well laid on and to be sent away immediately, with the promise that if he was found again in the colony he would be punished again with the same number of lashes.
At one time it was ordered that all intentions of marriage should be posted in some public place for at least fourteen days, by and with the magistrate's consent, and if this order were not complied with it was provided that the contracting parties should be punished by fine, imprisonment or whipping-which of the three being determined by the financial ability of the delinquents and the convenience of the magistrate.
Illegal voting was common from an early day and was punished with a fine or whipping not to exceed twenty-one stripes or imprisonment for the period of one month.1 That this law was better enforced than the now existing statute against the same offense does not appear.
A young Indian in the town of Portsmouth attempted to kill his master. No law being found to meet the case the general assembly (1727) ordered that the culprit be branded on his forehead with the letter R, a hot iron being used for the purpose, and whipped at the tail of a cart at all the corners in Newport, ten lashes in each place; and that he should then be sold out of the colony to pay the costs of his punishment, and forbidden ever to return.2
The offenses for which whipping was thought a suitable punishment were many and various, from profane swearing to horse stealing. Mary Williams came from Albany to Providence and being at the last named place adjudged a vagrant, by which we need not understand more than that she was a poor and friendless stranger, though she may have been worse, she was sentenced to be "whipped five stripes well laid on her naked back at the public whipping post in the said Provi- dence, on the fourth day of this September at about eight o'clock," and to be sent immediately thereafter out of the state by the most direct road leading toward Albany.
Peter Tollman applied for a divorce from his wife, charg- ing her with adultery. She freely admitted her fault, the petition of her husband was promptly granted and she was arraigned at once before the general assembly to be sentenced for adultery. The penalty passed upon her was that she pay a fine of ten pounds and receive fifteen stripes at Portsmouth on the following Monday, and another fifteen stripes at Newport one week later, and that she remain in prison till the full sentence should be executed. She pleaded for mercy, as well she might ; but on being asked whether she would return and live again with her husband who had published
1Arnold's Rhode Island, vol. ii, 57.
2 Arnold's Rhode Island, vol. ii, 93.
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her fault and just now divorced her, she refused to do this upon any terms. A whipping, much as she feared it, was preferable to his companionship. She was remanded to jail to await her punishment, but escaped from jail, fled from the colony, was absent two years. returned, still refused to live again with her husband, petitioned the court for mitigation of sentence, and had this reduced to fifteen stripes, the fine being remitted. The stripes were inflicted at Newport in May, 1667.
At one time, in 1772, when horse stealing had become very common, a severe law was enacted for its repression ; the estate of the thief was to be confiscated, he wasto be three times publicly whipped, receiving each time thirty-nine lashes and to be banished from the colony : in case of his return he was to be hanged by the neck till he was dead. Whip- ping continued to be the penalty for horse stealing until a compara- tively recent date. The last instance of public whipping was for this offense, on the green in front of the court house at Providence, July 14, 1837. It had been for a long time in disuse; and its infliction at this time calling attention to the half-forgotten fact that it was still legal, it was soon after struck from the statute book as a relic of darker days, unworthy longer to have a place in a Christian commonwealth.
The venerable father of the writer, now advanced in age far beyond four score years, tells of a public whipping that he witnessed when a boy, in the village of Washington. The culprit was a negro, a stranger in the community, who being drunk at the time, stole a pair of badly worn woollen stockings which he found on the ground where they had fallen from the clothesline; they were the property of the deputy- sheriff, who arrested him next morning in the barn where he had slept during the night. There was no doubt of the negro's guilt, he having the socks in his possession when arrested. He was promptly sentenced by the village justice to be whipped at the signpost of the public house ; and the sentence was immediately executed with evident satisfaction by the deputy-sheriff who had secured the warrant for his arrest, who had arrested and committed him to jail, who had testified against him before the court, whose property the stockings were, and who being the village tavern keeper had sold him the rum which he drank on the day of the theft. We may suppose that the honorable official who thus represented the majesty of the law did not fail to congratulate himself that his legal fees in the case aggregated many times the value of his stolen property-which by the way was restored to him by the court.
Penalty calls for agencies and appliances. By universal consent jails and prisons are necessary. The need of such institutions ap- peared at the very beginning of our colonial history. The first admis- sion of freemen in the settlement at Portsmouth occurred Angust 16th, 1638 ; and at the same time, when no man had been in his place more than a very few weeks, it was ordered by the town meeting that "a pair
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of stockes and a whipping post" be immediately constructed. The movement was not too soon, nor was the work complete long before there was a use for it. A few days later eight men were arrested by warrant for "a riot of drunkenness," and being brought before the. town meeting, the only court then and there existing, five of these were sentenced to pay fines, and three who presumably had no money were put in the stocks. During the same summer a vote was taken to build forthwith a house "for a prison, containing twelve foote in length, and tenn foote in breadth, and tenn foote studd," and of "sufficient strength." The construction of this building was entrusted to Mr. William Brenton, and was finished during the following winter. Mr. Henry Bull, "near" or "joyned unto" whose dwelling it had been placed, was appointed its keeper. This jail, the first erected in the colony, was located in the southwest part of the Island Aquidneck, which was at about the same time set off from Portsmouth and incor- porated as a separate town under the name of Newport.
At a general court held at Warwick some ten years later it was ordered that "each town within this colonie shall provide a prison with a chimneye and necessaries for any offender that shall be committed, within nine months." The towns at that time were but four-Provi- dence, Portsmouth, Newport and Warwick. It was further ordered that in the meantime "the prison at Newport should be the Colonie prison, and Richard Knight shall be the keeper of it." The colonists were very poor, dissensions arose between the northern and the south- ern towns, and we find that six years later the terms of this order had been so far disregarded that not a new prison had been built or stocks set up anywhere in the colony. This order was now amended so as to require a new prison at Warwick only, with a pair of stocks at Provi- dence and at Portsmouth; but though the matter was much agitated and constantly kept before the people, and even the date at which the work should be completed was fixed, nothing was ever done toward carrying out its provisions. At Newport, however, the old prison was enlarged and reconstructed so as to make it practically a new building.
When yet another ten years had elapsed and matters still remained as they were, at the May session of the general assembly in 1658, the "Court fynding by experience how difficult it will be to procure two prisons according to the former order, as also two cages, and alsoe the great uncertainty and difficulty as will from time to time arise in the using such prisons and cages for want of sufficient keepers, and furthermore taking into consideration the direct and absolute way and course that the town of Newport have lately taken for the present furnishinge the prison in their towne, which prison is already in a for- wardness-upon the consideration of the aforesayed, the Court do order and declare that sayd prison house at Newport be accordingly finished as the sayd towne have lately agreed to doo, shall be accounted
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to be the prisson for the occasions that may arise in any part of the Col- ony to make use of the same." In other words, when the assembly saw that the people could not be induced to obey its order, and was unable to enforce obedience it annulled the order and made another requiring less, and sent this out hoping that it might receive better treatment. Providence and Portsmouth were excused from building cages, and Warwick from building a prison, and it was permitted the prison at Newport to do service for the whole colony. The general sergeant was appointed to "take care that the prison be not voyd of a sufficient keeper," and the town of Newport alone was required to meet the expense of keeping it in repair. The cost incurred in its reconstruction was apportioned upon the other towns; Providence to pay thirty pounds, Warwick twenty pounds, and Portsmouth ten pounds, in addition to what had been paid already by the latter town.
The office of general sergeant was successively held by Richard Knight, James Rogers, Thomas Frye, and Edmund Calverly, each in his turn providing a keeper for the prison or keeping it himself ; the period of service covered by these four was not less than thirty or thirty-five years. The last named, Calverly, seems to have been a very inefficient officer. His honesty may be questioned; though, when a serious misunderstanding arose between him and the attorney-general, and he was charged with culpable neglect of duty, and the general assembly found him to be deeply in the wrong, he was nevertheless excused on the ground that he had erred "not through wilfulness, but through ignorance, " and at another time when he had permitted seven prisoners to escape "by leaving the prison doore open," he was again excused because of his "poverty." Ignorance and poverty would seem a somewhat unsatisfactory reason for holding in his place by annual election for half a generation a keeper who left the prison door open and allowed the prisoners to walk away at their leisure. It is easy to suspect that the general assembly may have acted from some motive other than charity and good will for public functionaries.
The office of the general sergeant was at about this time merged into that of sheriff, and Capt. Thomas Townsend was elected to this posi- tion. Whether he was as ignorant and poverty stricken as his prede- cessor is supposed to have been we are not told; but it appears that before he had been long in his office, cither by connivance or by wilfull neglect, he allowed a prisoner under indictment for the crime of piracy to escape. The assembly for some reason less considerate now than when Calverly was prison keeper, sharply censured him, and a little later the matter was made the subject of a special investigation by the royal council.
In the meantime the need of increased prison accommodations had been brought again and again to the attention of the general assembly, and more than once action taken by this body in view of such necessity
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had been rendered futile by the studied inactivity of the several towns. In 1663 it was ordered that a cage be built with its inseparable companion, a pair of stocks, at War- wick, but the work was never begun. Some twenty or more years later, the royal commissioners having established a new prov- ience in what has been sinee known as the Narragansett country, ordered a prison to be built and stoeks to be set up at Kingstown, then called Rochester ; the expense to be met by the proceeds from the sale of thirty unmarked wild horses running at large in the province, which were to be eaught and sold under the direction of the justices of the peace, without regard to the property rights of their owners. Daniel Vernon was made marshal of the province and appointed keeper of the prison ; but it never was erected and the stoeks ordered were never provided.1 It seems not unlikely that the independent spirited settlers of the Narragansett country objected to having their horses confiscated and incorporated into a jail in the manner proposed.
In 1695 the general assembly, "still sensible of the want of a prison upon the main land," directed that one be built at Providence and at the cost of that town ; but as we have so often seen, the authority of the general assembly rested quite lightly upon the several towns of the colony, and it is doubtful if at this time any real effort was made by the citizens of Providenee to carry out its wish. Still at a town meeting held in the month of February following it was voted to build a prison ten feet wide and twelve feet long, "near the water's side, next Gideon Crawford's warehouse. "2 Two months later and before any steps had been taken toward putting this action into effect, the town voted to change the location; and the record says that "whilst the matter was in probagating by the town obstruction was made by Samuel Winsor against the same, thereby raising such a tumult among the people that the moderator was put upon to dissolve the meeting." The matter was now for a time dropped. It is difficult to believe that, if it had been built, a ten by twelve prison would have been sufficient to meet the demands of a community so contentious as Providence was at this period in its history.
No further movement was made during the next quarter of a cent- ury, when in 1698 a tax of thirty pounds was ordered to build a prison in Providence, and a committee was appointed with instructions to see that the order was carried into effeet.3 At an early date this committee reported the work finished, at a cost of twenty-one pounds and seven- teen shillings, the necessary loeks not being ineluded in this sum. The structure thus provided was not at all what was needed, and it had but a brief existence. It was destroyed by fire at some date previous to
1Potter's Narragansett.
"Staples's Annals, 179.
$Staples's Annals.
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the year 1705. For reasons now impossible to learn, the general assembly required Joseph Lapham and John Scott to build another jail as good as that which had been burnt, or failing to do this to forfeit the sum of thirty-three pounds. They preferred to pay the money, thirty pounds of which were immediately appropriated to the work of re- building. This jail was located on the west side of Benefit street, nearly opposite the old Grammar School House, and not far from the junction of Benefit and North Main streets. Probably the older jail which it replaced had been located on the same spot. This lot of land was abandoned as a prison lot in 1733 and five years later was sold by the town.
OLD PROVIDENCE JAIL, ERECTED 1705, DEMOLISHED ABOUT 1885.
This building was located on "the prison lot" nearly opposite the Benefit street School House, the rear portion of the house was the part used for the jail. It was abandoned in 1733.
The prison just described was wholly inadequate for colonial pur- poses. Newport was the chief town in the colony with a population twice as large as that of Providence, and there nearly all public busi- ness, criminal and other, was accustomed to be transacted. Newport had a jail whose estimated value was one hundred and fifty pounds, within whose walls domestic offenders with privateersmen and pirates from abroad had been hitherto confined, the latter not always securely confined, as we have seen, and this might be made sufficient for the
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purposes of a colonial prison. Accordingly it was voted by the general assembly at its May session in 1702 that the "Governor and Council, or any four of these, shall have power to cause to be erected in the town of Newport a good and sufficient jail, and cause the same to be fully com- pleted and finished as in their wisdom shall seem meet"; and instead of laying the expense upon the town treasury as had been in so many instances fruitlessly attempted when it was desired to build prisons, or of resorting to the absurd expedient of catching wild horses as the royal commissioners wished to do at Kingstown, the Governor and council were directed "to take and receive from the general treasury of the Colony so much as should be sufficient to finish and complete said jail." Afterwards the sum of one hundred and fifty pounds was appropriated for the purpose. At a later date the work done with this money is spoken of as repairs made to the jail; from which we may infer that upon consideration it seemed wiser to improve the old than to build a new structure. Evidently all that was done was less than the needs of the case. Probably the required funds were not to be had easily. We know that at that this time money for any public enter- prise was not easily secured. So the work dragged along from year to year, only so much being done at any one time as could be no longer deferred, and the jail continue in use even as a very inadequate and unsatisfactory place of confinement for the criminals of every class who must be held within its walls.
At last the sheriff protested to the general assembly against its condition, and the matter was referred to Deputy-Governor Sheffield, with power to decide what should be done. The following year when the subject was again called up the jail was reported to be in a ruinous condition and daily growing worse; there was no such thing as holding secure any person committed to its keeping, "the which might prove to the unspeakable loss of creditors," and surely would "greatly encourage malefactors." We should remember that a jail in those days was quite as much for the imprisonment of poor debtors as for the restraint of law breakers; and the escape of the former was regarded as a public calamity at least equal to the escape of the latter. Between an unfortunate who could not pay and a knave who would steal, but little difference was made. It was therefore ordered that Lieut .- Col. John Wanton and Mr. John Odlin be a committee "to repair, rebuild, augment and enlarge the house and jail aforesaid, so as to make it substantial and firm, and fit for the use intended." This order was understood to include the repairing of the keeper's house, which had become so dilapidated as to be "not tenant- able." The committee was also "to build or cause to be built a good and sufficient yard, adjoining and contiguous" to the jail. The cost was again to be paid out of the general treasury. The necessary funds were obtainable, as an act was passed this year to issue bills of credit
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to the amount of £30,000; paper money being easy to print and as valuable as any other money so long as it was received at its face value in exchange for merchandise and labor. Two years later the committee presented its account to the general assembly when the cost of all that had been done was found to be £426 19s. 5d. The members of the committee were allowed £3 cacli for their services. It appears that the addition to the jail yard ordered was not made at this time, as it was not until eleven years later that the sum of £20 was appropriated to pay for the same. The metropolis of the colony now had a jail com- mensurate with her importance; and though it was permitted each town on the mainland so disposed to build a house of correction and even a small jail within its boundaries, the statute expressly forbade the keeping of offenders who might be waiting trial in these places "longer than till they could be conveniently transported to Newport jail."
When the colony was divided into counties in 1729, each must have its own county seat, with a court house and a jail. It was ordered that in Kings county, these "be set upon the hill, near Robert Case's dwell- ing house in South Kingstown." The hill thus described has been known for many years as Tower Hill. They were miserably built, at the best scarcely fit for use, besides being most inconvenient- ly located, and a constant tax upon the public funds. The people of South Kingstown and prominent citizens in differ- ent parts of the county at length decided that new build- ings were imperatively needed. Three gentlemen, wealthy land- holders, Messrs. Elisha Reynolds, William Potter, and Latham Clark, proposed to give all the land that should be required and to erect the necessary buildings at their own expense, provided only that the loca- tion should be changed to Little Rest Hill. This was some miles nearer the iniddle of the county than the old site, and in every way more con- venient to reach for a large majority of the people. Such a generous offer could not be rejected, though the protest was vigorous and em- phatic from dwellers in the vicinity of Tower Hill. The gentlemen named gave a bond in the sum of £20,000 for the faithful performance of the conditions which they had themselves proposed ; and before the year ended the court house and jail were completed and ready for use, in the place agreed upon. This was not the jail from which a number of prisoners escaped forty years later by the help of masked friends, and fleet-footed Narragansett horses on which they rode away to safety.1 When it had been used twenty-five years complaint began to be made that it was sadly out of repair. This complaint was repeated annually till the Revolution being an accomplished fact, and Kings county hav-
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