They were examined and discharged forthwith, with or without bail, in virtually every case.®

Women as well as men were sent to prison. 7 On April 20, 1778, the board protested to the commanding officer against the undue liberty granted to prisoners in the garrison. Six months later Governor Clinton wrote the board that he had learned that patriot prisoners were being treated with less rigor than formerly by the British, and requested that certain tory prisoners in Albany " be released from their present

Confinement and placed in another as easy and mild as the board could possibly make it to them." 8 In June, 1778, the April 23, 30, 1778; September io, 1779. July io, 1778. 8 September 4, 1780. September 4, 1778 September 14, 1778. October 23, 27, 31; November 2; December 10, 1778. 7 August 10, 11, 1778. October 27, 1778.

46 State of New York

board ordered the arrest of a person employed as a secret express in conveying letters from New York City to tories, and that the papers or their contents be revealed immediately. 1

By the act of June 30, 1780, all persons who came from the British lines and were found lurking secretly in any part of the State, were to be tried by courts martial as spies. 2 Overcrowded jails were not conducive to health, and many prisoners became ill. Usually the jailer recommended their removal to the hospital, which was followed by an order from the board to the director of the hospital. They included wounded, "exceedingly ill" persons, and smallpox cases. Sickness was a good plea for liberation and such requests were not infrequent, and were sometimes granted. In a particular case, the request was refused, but a weekly allowance was given for the subsistence of the person during his illness, because he was one "whose Evidence may be of the utmost Consequence to the State".