In 1714, Jonathan Belcher, William Partridge, and one of the original company’s clergy, Timothy Woodbridge Jr, leased the area from the town and raised £10,000 to resurrect the mine.

Alongside miners brought specifically to the mine, local workers and farmers from nearby Windsor were employed as labor.

On top of this, African and Native American slaves, both imported and indigenous, were leased from masters and forced to work the mines.

The unsuccessful mine, with its labyrinth of caves and shafts, was explored as an option as an escape-proof institution in which isolated prisoners could be kept from society.

On December 2, 1773, representatives for the Colonial Legislature approached Captain John Viets, owner of a tavern nearby the mine, with an offer to be the prison keeper, which he accepted.

The ventilating shaft in which Hinson had made his escape from was also to be covered with “stones about 15 to 18 inches square and of suitable length… secured with a strong iron gate, about six feet below the surface.” Further to this, it was decided that the prisoners were to be used as forced labor in order to extract ore.[9] In order to assist the convict workers, a number of expert miners were hired to work alongside them.

[9] The build-up of tensions throughout the Thirteen Colonies on the eve of the American Revolutionary War, saw Loyalists persecuted and targeted by local Patriots.

[11] With the eruption of conflict following the Battle of Lexington and Concord, suspicion of those suspected of Loyalist sympathies grew even stronger.

Those persons alleged to have joined the enemy, robbed, or plundered were not to be considered prisoners of war, but convicted before the superior court and either sentenced to death, whipped, or imprisoned.

Patriotic leaders sought means to remove the more vocal loyalists from society and saw the answer in the ready-made prison at Simsbury.

[12] Mining was abandoned and the need for punitive work expanded their hard labor to include making hand wrought nails.

Situated at an area near the end of one of the passageways, the cell was consisted of bare rock and was twenty feet square with no light.

[9][12] Despite the increase of prison security, now numbering 27 soldiers armed with muskets and cutlasses, another escape attempt occurred on May 18, 1781.

While two officers were raising the shaft’s gate, it was violently heaved upward and the men, armed with rocks and scraps of metal, scrambled up the ladder into the blockhouse.

[13][14] On November 6, 1782, the wooden buildings of the prison were destroyed by fire, allowing for another escape of inmates to take place.

Of all the inmates held in captivity in the prison during the war, it is estimated that approximately half absconded and escaped in some capacity.

With the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783 bringing a conclusion to the conflict, the new United States government lost interest in using the mine as a federal prison.

Several more buildings were constructed: a large kitchen, several small factories, a hospital, quarters for female convicts, and a thirty-foot treadmill that was operated by twenty two inmates climbing paddle blades to grind grain.

In 1824, a four-story building was erected containing offices, a granary, mess hall, and additional cells for fifty prisoners.

The mine was purchased by private owners who, for a price, provided candles and guided tours of the old prison for curious visitors.

[16] Nearby Peak Mountain offers a bird's eye view of Old New-Gate Prison from the Metacomet Trail.

[17] The site features a large wooden pillory (often referred to as stocks) outside of the buildings entrance, allowing those visiting the opportunity to take a memorable photo.

The Connecticut state website provides potential visitors with a description of the conditions and terrain to be expected (such as not being accessible to wheelchairs, strollers, or walkers and involves multiple sets of metal stairs leading down to the mine).

The prison features in an episode of the podcast Ben Franklin’s World in which its history and use during the American Revolution is explored.