On a town plan map from 1769 the key lists only 4 things: A, Church B, Burial Ground C, Court House D, Goal
The church and burial ground are shown next to each other as expected. The court house and goal are next to each other as well. What on earth is "Goal"? I thought maybe some sort of stockade or hanging platform type of situation being next to the court house, but google has no answers! What is "Goal"???
Additional context: This is from the town plan of Bath NC, United States. The Original map is kept at the British Library in London.
"Goal" was either a variant or erroneous spelling of "gaol", which is the traditional spelling of the modern word "jail".
See for instance, from the OED entry on "Jail, Gaol":
Hence though both forms gaol, jail, are still written, only the latter is spoken. In U.S. jail is the official spelling. It is difficult to say whether the form goal(e, common, alike in official and general use, from the 16th to the 18th cent., was merely an erroneous spelling of gaol, after this had itself become an archaism, or was phonetic: compare modern French geôle/ʒol/.