Note 22 — Chapter I
Reading edition
Laws of Massachusetts Colony (1672), 61. The Act of 1661 provided that “Vagabond Quakers” should “be stripped naked from the middle upwards, and tyed to a Carts tail, and whipped through the Town, and from thence immediately conveyed to the constable of the next Town towards the borders of our jurisdiction, as their warrant shall direct, and so from constable to constable till they be conveyed through any the outward-most Towns of our jurisdiction.” If the Quaker returned he was to be branded and whipped as before and if he returned again suffer death. The Act of 1662 reduced the whippings to three towns.