Built: 1840
Location: 10 Brock Street
Built in 1840, Newboro’s Court House retains its original exterior design. There was one addition, evidence of which can be seen along the west face. Once used as Town Hall, Court House and jail, the door to the cell was recently located and has been re-hung in the back room of the building. Interestingly Newboro employed an executioner for years, although it is unclear if his services were ever required.
Paddy O’Rourke was one of the first persons to be tried in Newborough’s new Court House. In November of 1842, Paddy was angry with the magistrate for fining him “seven & sixpence” for being intoxicated while trying to board a steamboat without fare. During the night, he stole what he thought was a keg of blasting powder from Tett’s warehouse and concealed it behind the courthouse. The next afternoon, Court was in session with the same despised magistrate presiding. Paddy, keg under arm and ambitions of Guy Fawkes in mind, looked around the courthouse for a basement door. Finding none (for there was no basement), he planned to set the keg against the end of the building, light the fuse and run. When he knocked the bung from the keg, he found its contents not to be blasting powder but rum. This was too good to pass up; so sitting beside it, Paddy commenced to drink the rum, the fuse still sticking out of the barrel. Needless to say, he was eventually found passed out, arrested, and tried for theft. For many years afterwards, the youth of Newboro made dummies to represent old Paddy. Each November 10th, they would wheel it through the streets shouting, “A penny for old Paddy please”. A popular rhyme of the day was:
“Please do recall,
The boozy downfall
Of Paddy O’ Rourke’s crazy plot.
We will remember
The 10th of November.
In Newboro, it won’t be forgot!”
Newboro Newsletter; Nov.13, 1911
Once used as a public school, separate entrances for boys and girls can still be seen on the front façade. One might surmise that some students found little distinction between the building’s role as a school and as a jail. This place of rhyme and reason is now our Library.