delusions or committed suicide. However, it was not until the end of the
century that there was a general move towards less stringent prison conditions.
At York Castle Museum, a former prisoners’yard is being recreated; the
yard originally had a low wall topped by railings, to allow the citizens to come
to stare at the convicts.
An American colonial prison in York County, Massachusetts, succeeded
earlier structures in 1729. A stone building was added to on a number of
occasions, with a wooden gaoler’s house and kitchen for preparing the
prisoners’ food, and an extra wing. A second storey was added during
refurbishments in 1763. This allowed felons to be held separately from
debtors. The gaoler was a deputy sheriff, who looked after an average of
fourteen prisoners a year, but more just before the court sessions. A total of
1,053 prisoners are recorded between 1788 and 1860, male and female.
Burials covered with lime were found at the rear of the buildings. Study of the
food remains seems to indicate that it was the gaoler’s wife who prepared the
meals for the prisoners, and that they ate very similar food to the gaoler and
his own family–plain but healthy.^5
Transportation to the American Colonies as a form of punishment
continued through much of the eighteenth century, until the American
Declaration of Independence in 1776, when it was made clear that the new
CRIME IN THE AGE OF INDUSTRY AND EMPIREFigure 27. Plan of Pentonville Prison 1840–42, designed to facilitate the
‘separate system’(After: Plan by Joshua Jebb, 1844)