Note 587 — Chapter XII · OBLIGATORY CIVIL MARRIAGE IN THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES (continued 2)
Reading edition
Here are two typical cases:
Aug. 27, 1711: "Joseph Holbrook and Mary Cooke ... being presented ... for fornication, He appeared and owned the same; and that he is since Married to her. Ordered That [he] ... shall pay a Fine of Three pounds in behalf of himself and his 2d Wife & Costs ... standing Co[=m]itted."—MSS. Records of the Court of Gen. Sessions of Suffolk, I, 234.
April 4, 1721: "Mary Shaw the Wife of Benjamin Shaw ... being presented for having a child in September last, about five Months after Marriage, appeared and owned the same. Ordered That [she] ... pay a fine of Forty Shillings ... Costs ... standing committed."—Ibid., III, 83.
A sentence that includes the alternative of whipping is rare; for an example (July, 1702) see ibid., I, 4. The proceedings in the case of Benjamin and Hopestill Allen, March 5, 1696-7—Nov. 23, 1698, are especially instructive. They were presented by the grand jury of Bristol for having a child within six months after publishment. Hopestill was fined 50 shillings, or to be whipped ten stripes. On appeal to the superior court the legality of the marriage was called in question. The privilege of appeal was granted by special act of the legislature: with the MSS. Early Court Files of Suffolk, No. 3728, compare the MSS. Records of the Superior Court of Judicature, II, 198; and the petition and act regarding appeal in MSS. Mass. Archives, XL, 476, 478, 483.