Barnstable’s Old Gaol, built around 1690 in Barnstable Village, Massachusetts, is widely regarded as the oldest wooden jail in the United States. Ordered by the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colony courts, it served as Barnstable County’s jail until about 1820, holding only about six prisoners and reflecting the small scale of colonial justice on Cape Cod. Among its most famous inmates were Goody Hallett in 1716 and survivors from pirate Samuel Bellamy’s wrecked flagship, the Whydah Gally, and the Mary Anne. Rediscovered in 1968 after long neglect, it was moved to its present site and later gained historic recognition while remaining tied to local folklore and ghost lore.