Law & Order in Kingston
Punishment
In the early 1800s, punishment didn't always happen behind closed doors. On the front lawn of this building, people found guilty of crimes could be punished in public. Depending on the offense, this might include time in the pillory, whipping, or even more severe penalties like branding or ear cropping.
But times changed. In 1838, Rhode Island's General Assembly reformed the criminal code, ending these harsh forms of punishment and moving toward a more modern justice system.
Reminiscences of Little Rest
The Reverend John Hagadorn Wells (1817-1907) was a prominent resident of Kingston in the 19th-century. He was the pastor at the Kingston Congregational Church from 1862 to 1877, and heavily involved in many community events. In his 1897 memoirs, he describes the sights and sounds he saw in the courthouse.
“Could a gramophone have been placed in the old Court House in 1776, the year of its construction, and continued there until it ceased to be used for the purpose for which it was built, and now set to work revealing the sounds it had been treasuring up for over a 100 years, with what intense interest would congregations gather around to hear!
Could I graphically reproduce what I myself have seen and heard within its walls... A room full of men waiting on the law of the State; representatives of the legal profession from all parts of the state; judges sitting in sedate dignity, whose well weighed and well timed words seemed like the nod of Jupiter...; the care and sagacity involved in empaneling a jury; the developing of issues; the searching inquisition by which the minds of witnesses would be laid bare in spite of themselves; the arguments and pleas of advocates, sometime highly eloquent and stirring, sometimes it is true, just the opposite; the anxious awaiting the deliberations of juries; the manifest conflicting emotions of the victor and the vanquished on the rendition of the verdict; the elation of the accused on hearing the word of acquittal; the impressive silence, and sometimes profound solemnity, on the conviction and judgement of the guilty...
Farewell venerable old seat of law and justice! The intense life that resounded within thy walls for over a hundred years has passed into the stillness of death! The ghosts of old statesmanship, of judicature, of legislation and litigation, hang around thee still... So farewell Court House! Hail Library Hall!”
-- Kingston Annals: Reminiscences of Little Rest, 1897, Rev. J. Hagadorn Wells