County Jail

Built by 1822 with the courthouse and clerk’s office, the Prince William County Jail, or gaol, was larger than most Virginia jails of its time. Debtors, runaway slaves, thieves, and murderers awaited trial there in timber-lined rooms, with meals at first provided by nearby taverns and later by a jail kitchen. The jailer or sheriff supplied and maintained the jail through local tax money and prisoner fees, and at times personally paid for upkeep before being reimbursed. County records ordered such items as locks, buckets, blankets, beds, and stoves, and the Civil War left the jail in bad repair, forcing the county to borrow money from citizens for repairs. Numerous escapes showed that the building was never fully secure. The ten-acre Prison Bounds were recorded on November 30, 1822, and an August 29, 1872, newspaper description of a Brentsville jail cell portrayed a small second-floor room with an iron-grated window, a solid wooden door, an iron bedstead with a mattress, chairs, a fireplace, and bare walls needing whitewashing. The county sheriff held a lucrative post, keeping part of the taxes collected and receiving fees for issuing warrants, administering punishment, and summoning witnesses, while also maintaining the jail, overseeing elections, keeping order in the courthouse, serving as a county magistrate, and holding a two-year appointment from the governor. The office often rotated among magistrates, but by the end of the nineteenth century changes across Virginia reduced sheriffs’ authority and fees while preserving their court and officer functions. In 1870 the sheriff became an elected office, and records also show the sheriff’s possession of jail items on June 6, 1849, and a summons issued to Sheriff John Hooe, Jr. after he failed to preserve order in County Court on November 2, 1830.

Virginia · United States