Note 529 — Chapter XII · OBLIGATORY CIVIL MARRIAGE IN THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES

In 1654, for rape, a man, besides being whipped in Boston and again in Watertown, is sentenced during the court's pleasure to wear a rope around his neck, the end of it "hanging downe two feete long." If found at any time without the rope "aboue forty rodd from his house," he is to be whipped: Mass. Col. Rec., IV, Part I, 212. There is a similar case in 1642: Davis, The Law of Adultery, 30. That such sentences were executed is shown in a realistic way by a petition of 1670 preserved in the Suffolk Files. William Stacey, suffering for some offense not mentioned, prays "that the rope which he is forced to wear around his neck may be taken off. In answer the Secretary is required to send a copy of the Court's sentence to the Constable of Charlestoun that he may see that the sentence requiring the rope to be worn outside the clothes is carried out."—MSS. Early Court Files of Suffolk, No. 988. On May 6, 1646, "Elizabeth Fairefeild" petitioned the court of assistants that her husband might be discharged "from yt pte of ye censure inflicted on him for his notorious evills, of wearing ye rope about his necke." He was, however, compelled to wear the rope six years more; for it was not until 1652 that his faithful wife's prayer was granted: Mass. Col. Rec., III, 67, 161, 273.