Text from the Plaque
Here stood the court-house and gaol of the Niagara District. Erected in 1817, they were considered to be among the finest public buildings in the province. Robert Gourlay, the radical reformer, was imprisoned and tried for sedition here in 1819. In 1837 an escaped American slave, Moseby, threatened with return to his master, was forcibly rescued here by local negroes abetted by other residents of Niagara. The courts moved elsewhere in 1847, and the gaol closed in 1866.
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