When
our Puritan ancestors set up shop in New England,
the business at hand was keeping the flock pious, proper, and productive. Public
humiliation was one popular form of keeping order, as well denting the purse --
essentially, the vices and folly of the citizens financed and sponsored the pretentious,
dogmatic ideals of a handful of tyrants. The courts had carte blanche to dole
out punishments and benefited immensely from any “wanton” deviant behavior.
As the colonies grew, so did the records of naughtiness. Punishment came in many forms, and all respectable settlements had the latest mutilation machines and contraptions on hand. For instance, laws required each town to acquire a set of stocks. Both Concord and Newbury were fined 5 pounds (March 1638) for non-compliance and soon got up to code. There were also many other forms of executing justice -- badges, brandings, and bridles, to name a few. So sit back and enjoy these ancestral tales of crime and punishment, and be grateful you live in present-day Massachusetts rather than the "ice age -- sterile, forbidding, unproductive, its history dotted only with boulders and stunted growth" (Howe, The Puritan Republic).
Some “good” wives of Mass
Bay were more like
mischievous mice than obedient crones -- some sought to play while their cat
fellows were away. A case from 1672-1673, Sarah Roe of Ipswich
was forced to wear a sign on Sabbath day: “For My Baudish Carriage.” Roe had an
affair with Joseph Leigh while her husband was away at sea, and both were
charged with “unlawful familiarity.” Leigh suffered a day of
severe lashing, plus a 5-pound fine. Roe, in addition to her debasing debut at
the meeting house, spent a month behind bars. George Palmer, after committing
folly with Margary Ruggs “through her allurement,” confessed voluntarily, so he
only endured a few hours in the stocks; however, the sultry temptress Ruggs was
severely whipped in public for “enticing and alluring.”
Another interesting case of fleshy
intrigue in Newbury (1633) really made windows steam and had every Chatty Cathy
buzzing. The incident occurred between a traveling doctor named Henry Greenland
and Mary Rolfe, wife of John Rolfe, a shipwright. While Rolfe was away on a voyage,
Greenland lodged at a tavern owned by John
Emery (Mary's stepfather), conveniently located next door to the lonely lass. Apparently,
Greenland was quite a looker, and after just
one night of window tapping, he made his way into her hot bed. Her companion,
Betty, hired by Mary’s husband during his absence, claims Mary fainted when Greenland attempted his advances. When the news hit the
townie grandes dames, Greenland had nowhere to
hide and was hauled into court, convicted, and fined 30 pounds for “attempting
adultery.” Although the outcome left Mary's reputation unscathed, she no doubt had
some fetching memories of the event.
Our ancestors often referred to the
burden of the human flesh as “that pang of pleasure.” Like the mice wives,
hitched men folk (and some single studs, too) also liked to sport around town on
occasion. John Davies of Ipswich
was whipped for “gross offenses and
attempting lewdness with diverse women” and forced to wear a “U” for "Unclean"
upon his chest for six months. Suffolk
County records report a sentence requiring
Thomas Jay “to stand upon a block or stool in the Boston
marketplace with a paper upon his breast written in large characters: For
Lascivious Carriages towards Young Women” (1675). Likewise, John Stanwood was
sentenced to prison for committing fornication with Christian Marshman, who was
with child by him. He tried to deny it, but there was too much evidence stacked
up against him, and his lusty love bite cost him 50 pounds in damages. For her
part in the scandal, Marshman received a severe public lashing.
Drunkenness was next on the list of
naughty rituals. Called “habitual tipplers,” these folks were like gangsters
put in the proverbial “black book.” In 1639, the General Court passed a law that
made excessive drinking a penal offense. Many entries in the record books read
like this: "James Brown is censured for drunkeness to bee set two hours in
the bilboes upon market day at Boston
publiquely." The magistrates ordered all ordinaries and public places that
served strong waters to make note of frequent tipplers, and serving them meant incurring
a fine. Additionally, officials placed strict surveillance upon innkeepers and
tavern owners and required them to procure licenses.
Laws
required every innkeeper to be "always provided of strong, wholesome Beer,
of four bushels of Mault (at the least) to a hogshead, which he shall not sell
at above twopence the Ale quart." Innkeepers were also expressly forbidden
to sell sack or strong water, to allow any drunken person on their premises, or
to suffer any person "to drink excessively, viz., above halfe a pint of
wine for one person, at a time, or to continue Tipling above the space of halfe
an hour, or at unseasonable times, or after nine of the Clock at night" (Mass.
Records Vol. 10).
Among the abundant court records involving drunkenness, here are a few regarding tanked-up naughties: John Shotswell was fined eleven shillings in September of 1633 "for distemping himself with drink at Agawam." Similarly, Robert Coles was fined for his excesses and "enjoined to stand with a white sheet of paper on his back wherein A Drunkard shall be written in great letters, as long as the Court thinks meet.'' John Lee was sentenced to be whipped and fined for calling Mr. Ludlowe "a false-hearted knave and hard-hearted knave, heavy friend etc" while on one of his benders. Daniell Ela, presented in Salisbury Court in 1672 for being drunk in Newbury at Robert Holmes' house, as well as for cursing and swearing, was convicted and fined. He was then ordered to remain in prison until the judgment was satisfied.
The
1652 court records list this judgment against Dr. William Snelling: “presentment
for cursing is fined ten shillings and the fees of court.”
It seems the good doc was not one to wait for the 5 o’clock happy hour, and instead
he happily sipped his way through all his appointments. He reportedly recited this
fun foot therapy after chasing a few beers - a stunt which landed him in front
of the magistrates:
"I'll
pledge my friends,
And for my foes,
A plague for their heels,
And a poxe for their toes."
And for my foes,
A plague for their heels,
And a poxe for their toes."
In his History of Newbury, Currier notes
Snelling was “denouncing his enemies within temperate zeal." His friends
William Thomas and Thomas Milward signed and filed the following statement with
the clerk of the court: "This is to certify whom it may concern that we,
the subscribers, being called upon to testify against Mr. William Snelling for words by him uttered, affirm that
being in way of merry discourse, a health being drunk to all friends.” He
answered with the above lines, but later defended himself by asserting he meant
it only for the West
County folk. Affixed to
this statement was the following acknowledgment:
March 12, 1651-2, all which I acknowledge
and I am sorry I did not express my intent, or that I was so weak as to use so
foolish a proverb.
Guilielmvs Snelling.
Notwithstanding
this humble apology, it appears from the court records that on the thirtieth
day of March 1652 "Mr. William Snelling upon his presentment for cursing
is fined 10 pounds and fees of court."
Along
with sins of the flesh, drunkenness, and cursing, the Sabbath
day became another hot topic for Puritan punishment. There are numerous court
documents from brawling to “sundry abuses and misdemeanors, committed by sundry
persons… to drink, sport and otherwise to misspend that precious time, which
things tend much to the dishonor of God.” Thomas Bragg and Edward Cogswell had
a heated quarrel "on the Lord's day in time of exercise" and both
were fined 10 pounds. Humphrey Griffin was fined 10 pounds for unloading barley
on the Sabbath before sunset, as well as for picking peas. Edmond Bridges was fined
five shillings for writing a note to John Todd in Rowley meeting house during
lecture time.
The years 1674 - 1676 proved to be
busy years for church disorderliness. The General Court took the matter in hand
and transferred powers to both the officers of the congregation and the
Selectmen of Towns to appoint a patrolman "to reform all such disordered
persons, in the congregations or elsewhere about the meeting houses."
These reforms certainly did not stop Stephen Cross, who “struck out at
worshipper” and was fined. Elizabeth Hunt and Abigail Burnam disrupted public
service and were arraigned before the Court, and their fathers admonished. Sam Hunt
Jr. was admonished and fined for “his light behaviour.” John Averill was hauled
into Court for striking Thomas Twigs in the meeting house "in the time of
public ordinances on the Sabbath."
Family feuds were yet another naughty
transgression that would certainly have earned colonists a spot on Jerry
Springer. John Tilliston/Tilston? of Newbury tied his wife to the bedpost with a plow
chain to keep her at home. He was fined and put on notice to “keep good
behavior and live with wife and provide for as husband ought to do.” This was
not Tilliston's first offence; he had a rap sheet as long as my arm -- A Sketch of Newbury lists the following:
John Tillotson was presented for scandalous and
reproachful speeches cast on the elders and others in a publick church meeting
on a Lord's day.
John Tillotson on
his many offences is fined twenty pounds, bound to his good behaviour, and
fined twenty-seven pounds for killing a mare belonging to Mr. James Noyes.
In an old manuscript
formerly owned by the Reverend James Noyes and now held by one of his
descendants, Mr. Silas Noyes, there is an account of the testimony taken in the
case of John Tillotson and a record of some of "his many offences" that
induced the court to lay so heavy a fine on him. The evidence concludes:
At last he killed
our elder's mare, great with foal, and a special good beast she was, provoked
with her at ye instant, he killed her with a long pike, thrust through both her
sides ... the morning after this transaction he made a deed to convay all his
estate away from himselfe offering it to goodman (name illegible) whereby our
elder would have been wholly defrauded of his mare.
According to
existing documentation, Tillotson was a definite bad boy, perhaps suffering
from some fatal attraction mixed with a boiling temper.
Hannah
Gray, who was quite the home wrecker and hell raiser, is another prime example
of Puritan deviance. She appears in the court records for her rampant lascivious
behavior. She was described as “a lying girl, and several times in the night
when deponent waked, she missed her and heard her laughing and giggling at the
boys' bed which was in the same room.” She was also seen carrying on with
Andrew Davis, as testified by Mary Sollas, as well as others. According to
Sollas, her brother Robert mentioned, “Hana would entice the 'scoller boys,'
and that she was guilty of baudy language and acts among the boys and girls.” Likewise,
John Batcheler deposed that when Hannah Gray lived with his family, she was a
lying little devil and his wife Elizabeth could say the same. Hannah “for great
offences, was ordered to stand at the meeting house at Salem upon a lecture
day, with a paper on her head on which was written in capital letters, I STAND
HEERE FOR MY LACIVIOUS & WANTON CARIAGES. In addition, she would repeat in
like manner, in Beverly
or else be whipped.”
The servants made it into the court records
as well: for example, Benjamin Rolfe's maid in Newbury, for having a
child out of wedlock. In 1671, Hugh March's maid, Elizabeth Iago of Newbury, for
wishing that the devil had Mary Ladd and all the company, in which company was
her master, John Attcason/Atkinson and Daniell Ely. Edward Stone, complained of for
running away fourteen or fifteen times from his master, Nathaniell Tredwell,
was ordered to serve his said master one year past the term of his indenture.
So there you have it! And there's lots more to come, so stay tuned!
3 comments:
John Emery was my ancestor.
Melissa Awesome writing on a fascinating historical subject! I love the illustrations! Seriously, you should write a book.
Connie Rulon-Miller
I love it, love it, love it! What a hoot! Can't wait for the sequel! :)
Thanks Melissa for sharing this.
Post a Comment