Note 530 — Chapter XII · OBLIGATORY CIVIL MARRIAGE IN THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES

Already in 1673, for having an illegitimate child and imposing it on her husband, a woman had been sentenced by the court, "if found in this Colony two months after this date that shee stands in the markett place on a stoole for one hower wth a paper on hir breast wth ye Inscription Thvs I Stand For My Advlterovs And Whorish Carriage and that on a lecture day next after the lecture and then be seuerely whipt wth thirty stripes."—Noble's Records of the Court of Assistants, I, 10.