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Gallows Neck is the historical name for the land peninsula in York Harbor, Maine, now occupied by the Stage Neck Inn, and it earned this name because it was once used as a public execution site. The name was later replaced with "Stage Neck," as fishermen rebuilt their houses and boats there, drying their fish on stages. Today, the name "Gallows Point" is still used for an outdoor dining area at the Stage Neck Inn. Gallows Point Provisions is name of the store at Stage Neck Inn.
“Meeting Houses” was a term that was used to describe a place of worship and for Court proceedings. The third Meeting House is where the First Parish Church is located. The first Meeting House is thought to have been on the land that is now covered by the Emerson-Wilcox house (Once owned by Ralph Waldo Emerson) across the street from the Town Hall. The first Meeting House is likely where the trial of Mistress Cornish took place for the murder of her husband in 1644 and sentenced to death. She would have likely met her fate at Gallows Point.
One of the Indians, named Joseph Quasson, employed in the warfare against the Eastern tribes in 1725 killed another Indian, also a soldier named John Peters at Wells, and in due course he was tried here, found guilty and sentenced to death.
Parson Moody relates the visits of religious women to give him consolation and affords some interesting information regarding the execution itself which took place on June 29. Moody states that most of the ministers in the county and several others accompanied the prisoner from the gaol to the place of execution. He states that “the mile’s Walk was improved in directing, encouraging & cautioning the Prisoner to Hope.” When they came in sight of the gallows he was asked if he were not terrified, to which he replied: “Not at all.” Again, this conversation ensued when they beheld “the first sight of the Sea, on the Shore of which was the Place of Execution” when one of his escort asked him if he were not afraid to embark on the “Ocean of Eternity,” to which he expressed entire readiness to take the journey. In this manner the time was occupied by these dismal suggestions of his approaching doom, “The Gallows was fixed in a Valley with Hills on the one Side and on the other so that the numerous Spectators (they were by Conjecture about Three Thousand — there having been no such Example in the country for more than Seventy Years), had an advantageous Prospect.” When all was ready for the final act he ascended the ladder and made a short address, after which he offered a prayer of some length, and out of this scene Parson Moody has made an instructive picture of the way criminals were executed in his day.
Patience Boston, born Patience Samson, was a Native Nauset indentured servant. In 1734 she killed the eight-year-old grandson of her master in Falmouth (modern-day Portland) and was imprisoned in York to await trial. While in prison, she gave birth to a son she named Philemon. Her trial was held on June 19, 1735, at which she pled guilty and was sentenced to death. She was publicly hanged on July 24, 1735, likely near the Old Gaol. During her long imprisonment in York, she was spiritually counselled by Rev. Samuel Moody and his son Rev. Joseph Moody. In 1738 the Moodys published a narrative of her conversion experience, titled A Faithful Narrative of the Wicked Life and Remarkable Conversion of Patience Boston alias Samson (Boston: S. Kneeland and T. Green). The bulk of the pamphlet is a narrative told in Patience's own voice, while the concluding section describing the execution is taken from Joseph Moody's diary. The Faithful Narrative is an extraordinarily detailed example of the genre of criminal conversion narrative and a rare instance of the preserved voice of an eighteenth-century Native woman. [This paragraph was contributed by Dr. Danny Bottino]
You can read a paper on Patience Boston by Dr. Danny Bottino and Hannah Peterson by clicking this link The title of the paper is “I Hope I Have a Treasure in Heaven, Because My Heart Is There” Salvation and Damnation in the Conversion Narrative of Patience Boston
A Negro named Tony, living with his master in Kittery, murdered the young daughter of the family by throwing her down the well. He said that he did it to bring himself to the gallows, so that he would, bring an end to his alleged hard usage. Asked why he did not kill himself instead, he said that it would be wicked. Under the circumstances he was accommodated by a conviction for willful murder in June 1756 and on July 29 following, the sentence was carried out at the usual place. “He behaved very penitently,” as was reported.
It is not known when the gallows at Gallows Point was removed but the location is still annotated on Daniel Sewall’s survey map of 1794. About this time is when public executions ended with the American Revolution.