Note 54 — B. NEW ENGLAND TO 1660 (continued 2)

It is refreshing to see that the gentle Puritan women were not to be controlled in the matter. In 1638, four years later, Winthrop has the following item:

"The court, taking into consideration the great disorder general through the country in costliness of apparel, and following new fashions, sent for the elders of the churches, and conferred with them about it, and laid it upon them, as belonging to them, to redress it, by urging it upon the consciences of their people, which they promised to do. But little was done about it; for divers of the elders' wives, etc., were in some measure partners in this general disorder."