Note 533 — Chapter XII · OBLIGATORY CIVIL MARRIAGE IN THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES
Reading edition
Ibid. (May 2, 1721), IV, foll. 355, 356. According to the MSS. Early Court Files of Suffolk, No. 15,180, the order of execution to the sheriff says she was convicted on her own confession and accused the negro Humphers of being the father. The woman was apparently an experienced sinner. Fifteen years earlier "Jemima Colefix ... being presented ... for whoredom with a Negro, appeared and owned the same but that it was before marriage with her present Husband." Severely whipped twenty stripes, costs, and stands committed: MSS. Records of the Court of General Sessions of Suffolk (Jan. 27, 1706), I, 144.