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". Dangerous persons were also allowed to be removed to the hospital. In such a case General Stark was requested by the board "to order a Centry to be placed at the Door of the Room". Other precautions were taken against escape, by requiring the director of the hospital to report, from time to time, the condition of the health of certain confined prisoners. When he reported their recovery, they were at once ordered to be remanded to the jail. On September 4, 1778, the board ordered Dr. Joseph Young, the director of the Albany Hospital, "to receive into the Hospital such State Prisoners" as the board might send him "and provide them with such Things as he shall think necessary for their Nourishment and Recovery of their Health, and keep an accurate Account of the whole, June 18, 20, 23, 1778. * Lavs of .\rv York. Poughkeepsie John Holt, 1782, p. 143.

Introduction 47

which we will pay either in Money at the Current Price of the Articles expended, or return the like Quantity and Quality to the issuing Commissary of the Northern Department, as may best suit the Director of the Hospital for the Time being." A very sick woman was allowed to be removed to a house in the city, and a husband and his "very" sick wife were released on a recognizance, not to go out of the city's limits, and to "appear once a Day" before the board.