The Criminal Codes and Penal Institutions of Colonial Pennsylvania

68BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL SOCIETY. ing houses, and addresses at 3 p.m. on William Penn, by Governor Sproul, of Pennsylvania, and at 3.45 by Dr. Jesse H. Holmes, of Swarthmore College , on " The New Social Order." At 8 p.m. in the Homewood house Dr. Rufus M. Jones addressed a large meeting on " The Message of Christ to the World Today." The visitors came away with vivid impressions of the importance of the occasion, the warmth and extent of the abounding hospitality shown them throughout the entire period, and most of all, the vast possibilities, in the light of the past, which open out in the future before the really devout and dedicated " Children of the Light." Amelia Mott Gummere. A GEORGE FOX MANUSCRIPT. By the kindness of Anna S. D. Hall, of Frankford, Pa., an interesting and valuable manuscript written by George Fox has been placed in the library of Haverford College. It is subscribed, " gff. his paper to the king 1660." It is a scriptural defense of Friends for refusing to take oaths, and a denial of " all plotes, murderes & tumoltus meetings against the king or any of his subjects." Norman Penney connects the paper with the Fifth Monarchy outburst and the fact that the government classed Friends with that movement. See Journal of George Fox (Camb. ed.) 1 : 388 and note I. Anna S. D. Hall received the manuscript in the papers of her grandfather , Thomas Scattergood (1802-1883). There is a facsimile of the manuscript (which omits a few unimportant, inter-lined words) subscribed, "' S. L. Smedley, Philada. 1868." A copy of this facsimile is in the Library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. R. W. K. THE CRIMINAL CODES AND PENAL INSTITUTIONS OF COLONIAL PENNSYLVANIA. By Professor Harry E. Barnes Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts. II. The Penal Institutions. I. The Origins of the Colonial Penal Institutions. In a manner very similar to the development of the criminal codes in the colonial period, the evolution of penal institutions in provincial Pennsylvania passed through three main stages of evolution. The typical detention jail of contemporary England was provided for in the Duke's laws of 1676. This institution was replaced by the Quaker workhouse, or house of CRIMINAL CODES AND PENAL INSTITUTIONS.69 correction, in 1682, and the workhouse remained for about thirty years the basis of the system of penal institutions. After 1718, however, when the criminal' code was altered so as to substitute corporal punishment for imprisonment in most instances, the jail reappeared and became the conventional penal institution of the province until the close of the colonial era. Even the few workhouses which remained or were constructed later were not penal institutions, but a part of the system of social relief designed for the repression of vagrants, paupers and unruly servants. But the theory and practice of imprisonment and the workhouse were not lost and both were speedily revived after the Revolution. The first legislation relative to penal institutions in Pennsylvania occurs in the laws of the Duke of York, promulgated on September 25, 1676. Here it was decreed that, Every town shall at their charge provide a pair of stocks for offenders, and a pound for the impounding of cattle; and prisons and pillories are likewise tot be provided in these towns where the several courts of sessions are to be holden.1 There was thus introduced into the province the conventional English detention jail of the period. It was simply an institution for the "safekeeping " of accused persons during the interval between meetings of the court. As has already been pointed out, the penalties imposed by the code of 1676 were almost exclusively fines or corporal punishment and there was no need for penal institutions adapted to the permanent imprisonment of criminals. If the provisions of the above clause were carried out, there must have been three of these detention jails or prisons in Pennsylvania from 1676 to 1682, as court was held at New Castle, Whorekill, and Upland .2 From the very beginning of Penn's administration the detention jail was supplanted, in law, at least, by the workhouse or house of correction as the basic penal institution...