Southern New England, 1639-45, image 2 of 19
John Davenport and His Church
“And the vigilance was unceasing. The records of the proceedings of the General Court that chose the first chief magistrate of the new Commonwealth, also show that by the decree of that fountain of law one Edmunds was to be whipped at a cart’s tail on a lecture day at Hartford; that one Williams was to stand upon the pillory from the ringing of the first bell to the end of the lecture, and to be whipped at the cart’s tail, both in Hartford and Windsor; and that one Starke was to be punished in the same way, to pay a heavy fine, and to have besides the letter R branded upon his cheek. The crime of each and all was wrong done one Mary Holt, – such wrong that Starke was also condemned to marry her; which, however, he probably never did. At the Next General Court, four months afterwards, it was ordered that Mary Holt herself be whipped for misconduct with a fourth paramour, and be banished from the jurisdiction’ not that she was good enough for Boston, but that Boston, perhaps, could better manage her.”
“But offenses of this kind – of the frequency and often most revolting character of which, notwithstanding the severity of the laws of the Puritans, there is abundant evidence in the early records of all the colonies – were by no means the only ones which the magistrates undertook at once to expose and to punish. Unseasonable and immoderate drinking, or even the suspicion of it; any violence of language or of conduct; reflections upon the actions of the General Court; ‘the sin of lying which,’ says the record (1640), ‘begins to be practiced by many persons in this Commonwealth;’ extravagance in the fashion of apparel, ‘that divers persons of several ranks are observed to exceed in;’ the selling of goods beyond reasonable prices; ‘a stubborn or rebellious carriage against parents or governors;’ – these and other offences of a like character, which in older societies are usually left to the control of private conscience, or judgment, or influence, were subjects of legislation, and brought upon the perpetrators prompt and sever penalties.”