The Guard House- Barracks & Prison

The Guard House- Barracks and Prison. . During 1777, soldiers quartered in this building. Entrusted with protecting New Jersey's rebel government from attack, these soldiers also guarded prisoners here that the Council of Safety sought to question. , Here in Haddonfield, on March 15, 1777, the New Jersey legislature reauthorized the Council of Safety's (twelve men and the governor) charge to apprehend "any person disaffected to, or acting against the Government."The council remained quite busy in March and May, questioning almost fifty individuals. Most were adjudged not dangerous and permitted to return home after pledging allegiance to the rebel government. The council required others to post bond, while they remanded some to the "Guard House., On May 23.1777. twenty six prisoners guarded by Lieutenant Andrew Irvine and eleven men of the 7th Pennsylvania Regiment jammed the Guard House. Many other prisoners passed through Haddonfield on their way to imprisonment in Pennsylvania or North Jersey., During Lord Cornwallis' occupation of Gloucester Town, November 24-27 1777, these captives included sixteen British soldiers and seven Hessian riflemen. , The Guard House. , Alexander Morgan, Esquire, constructed this house shortly before his death in 1751. He built it as a scaled-down version of his mansion on the Delaware River at the mouth of Pennsauken Creek. Both dwellings had facades with pent roofs interrupted balconies and gambrel roofs with dormers.