Proclamation on the Completion of the State Prison, 25 November 1797

Proclamation on the Completion of the State Prison

[25 November 1797]

By His Excellency John Esqr.
Governor of the State of New York

A Proclamation

Whereas by an Act of the Legislature of this State Entitled “an Act making Alterations in the Criminal Law of this State and for erecting State Prisons”1 Boards of Commissioners2 were instituted and appointed for erecting and building the State Prisons, which in and by the said Act were directed to be built in the City of New York, and in the County of Albany—

And Whereas in and by the said Act, it was further enacted “that the Person administering the Government of this State for the Time being, as soon as either of the said State Prisons is ready for the Reception of Prisoners, shall issue a Proclamation giving public notice thereof, and directing the Sheriffs of the several Counties, to convey the Prisoners in the Goals of their Counties to the State Prison wherein such offenders are to be imprisoned, and that thereupon the said Sheriffs shall ^forthwith^ safely convey such Prisoners to such Prison[”] —

And whereas by a subsequent Act entitled “An Act to suspend the Powers of the Commissioners for erecting a State Prison in the County of Albany”3 the said Powers were accordingly suspended, and the thirty fourth Section of the before-mentioned Act was repealed, and it was also enacted “that the State Prison to be built in the City of New York shall be considered as the State Prison for the whole State.”4

And Whereas the State Prison in the City of New York is ready for the Reception of Prisoners—

Now therefore I do hereby give public notice thereof accordingly, and do hereby direct the Sheriffs of the several counties of this State, to convey to the said State Prison in the City of New York, such of the Prisoners in their respective Goals as are adjudged and Sentenced to be imprisoned in the State Prison: And hereof the said Sheriffs and the Keeper of the State Prison, and all others whom it may concern, are to take Notice and govern themselves accordingly—5

Given under my Hand and the privy Seal of the State at the City of Albany, on the twenty fifth Day of November in the year of our Lord one thousand Seven hundred and ninety Seven: and in the twenty Second year of the Independence of the United States of America—

John Jay

By His Excellency’s Command David S. Jones Private Secretary

LbkC, N: Governor’s Lbk 2 (EJ: 03274). PtD, Albany Register, 1 Dec.; Commercial Advertiser (New York), 2 Dec. 1797.

1. Greenleaf’s New York Journal, 1 Mar. (extract); Daily Advertiser (New York), 9 Apr.; Albany Gazette, 19 Apr. 1796; N.Y. State Laws, 19th sess., (1796), 20–24.

2. Philip Schuyler, Abraham Ten Broeck, Daniel Hale, Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, and Tunis T. Van Vechten served on a board of commissioners for building the state prison in Albany and were authorized to purchase a four-acre lot for this purpose. “An Act making Alterations in the Criminal Law of this State, and for erecting State Prisons,” 26 Mar. 1796, N.Y. State Laws, 19th sess. (1796) description begins [New York State], Laws of the state of New-York. Nineteenth session (New York, 1796; Early Am. Imprints, series 1, no. 30876) description ends , 22. For more on the work of these commissioners, see JJ to Schuyler, Ten Broeck, Van Rensselaer, and Van Vechten, 1 Aug. 1796, LbkC, N: Governor’s Lbk. 1 (EJ: 03032); JJ to PJM, 21 Jan. 1797, above; Albany Chronicle, 6 Feb; Diary, and Minerva (both New York), 7 Feb.; Herald (New York), 8 Feb. 1797; JJ’s Message to the New York State Senate, N.Y. Senate Journal, 20th sess. (1796–97) description begins [New York State], Journal of the Senate, of the state of New-York; at their twentieth session, the first meeting began and held at the city of New-York, the first day of November, 1796; and the second, at the city of Albany, the third day of January, 1797 (Albany, [1797]; Early Am. Imprints, series 1, no. 32554) description ends , 41; 21 Jan. 1797, NYGM description begins State of New York, Messages from the Governors comprising Executive Communications to the Legislature and other Papers relating to Legislation from the Organization of the First Colonial Assembly in 1683 to and including the Year 1906 vol. 2 1777–1822 (Albany, 1909) description ends , 2: 387.

3. N.Y. State Laws, 20th sess. (1797) description begins [New York State], Laws of the state of New-York, passed at the twentieth session of the Legislature, begun at the city of New-York, and held by adjournment at the city Albany (New York, 1797; Early Am. Imprints, series 1, no. 32556) description ends , 19–20.

4. Ibid.

5. For the construction and early use of Newgate Prison, see the editorial note “Crime and Punishment in Federalist New York,” above.

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Source Project: Jay Papers
Title: Proclamation on the Completion of the State Prison, 25 November 1797
Author: Jay, John
Date: 25 November 1797

Reference

Cite as: “Proclamation on the Completion of the State Prison, 25 November 1797,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jay/01-06-02-0295. [Original source: The Selected Papers of John Jay, vol. 6, 1794–1798, ed. Elizabeth M. Nuxoll. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2020, pp. 598–599.]