5JAE-UNIVERS/A 
 
 .^lOS-AN 
 f
 
 ONNECTIClTr 
 
 FALSE BLUE LAWS 
 
 FORGED BY PETERS 
 
 EDITED BY" 
 
 J.HAMMOND TRUMBULL 
 
 1376
 
 THE 
 
 TRUE-BLUE LAWS 
 
 OF 
 
 CONNECTICUT m NEW HAVEN 
 
 AND THE 
 
 FALSE BLUE -LAWS 
 
 INVENTED BY THE REV. SAMUEL PETERS 
 
 TO WHICH ARE ADDED 
 
 SPECIMENS OF THE LAWS AND JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS 
 
 OF OTHER COLONIES AND SOME BLUE-LAWS OF 
 
 ENGLAND IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 J. HAMMOND TRUMBULL 
 
 HARTFORD CONN. 
 AMERICAN PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
 
 1876
 
 COPYRIGHT 
 
 BY AMERICAN PUBLISHING Co. 
 1876.
 
 Stack 
 Annex 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PREFACE, . . . . . v 
 
 INTRODUCTION, . . . - . . 9 
 
 1. FIRST CONSTITUTION OF CONNECTICUT, 1639, . .51 
 
 2. CAPITAL LAWS OF CONNECTICUT, 1642, ... 59 
 
 3. THE FIRST CODE OF LAWS, 1650, . . . .61 
 
 4. LAWS, ORDERS &c. OF THE CONNECTICUT COURTS, . 142 
 
 5. FUNDAMENTAL AGREEMENT AT NEW HAVEN, . . 161 
 
 6. THE NEW HAVEN CODE, 1655,. .... 177 
 7 LAWS, ORDERS, AND JUDGMENTS, OF NEW HAVEN 
 
 COURTS, 1639-1660, ..... 275 
 
 8. THE " BLUE LAW " FORGERIES OF PETERS, . . 301 
 
 
 
 9. LAWS AND JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS OF OTHER COLONIES : 
 
 NEW YORK, ...... 309 
 
 VIRGINIA, ...... 321 
 
 MARYLAND, ...... 330 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS, ..... 333 
 
 10. BLUE LAWS OF ENGLAND, IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I., 347 
 
 2012315
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The publishers assure me that a new edition of the " Blue Laws " 
 is wanted, and at their request I have undertaken to prepare one. I 
 have regarded this as, in some sort, missionary work. There are 
 regions, in which schools and printing-presses have for years been 
 at work, where Peters's " History of Connecticut " is still read as 
 history. There are hundreds who still believe and thousands who 
 profess to believe that to kiss one's child on the Sabbath-day, to 
 make minced pies, and to play on any instrument of music except 
 the drum, trumpet, and jews'-harp, were made criminal offences by 
 the ancient laws of New Haven. There are honest inquirers, not a 
 few, who write, week after week, to the newspapers, for information 
 about these ' Blue-tLaws,' and to ask where authentic copies of them 
 can be found. It has seemed worth while to bring together, in one 
 volume of convenient size, the truth and the falsehood about the 
 early legislation of Connecticut and New Haven colonies. Those 
 who like to read the famous code which Peters gave to " the inde- 
 pendent dominion of New Haven," may find it here, in unadulter- 
 ated mendacity. They may find also some genuine curiosities of 
 legislation and jurisprudence, taken from the records of Connecticut 
 and other American colonies ; and, for comparison with these, a 
 few specimens of the laws which were in force in England, in the 
 reign of James the First. 
 
 I have aimed to give this volume some permanent value to
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 another class of readers. It comprises accurate copies (in modern- 
 ized orthography) of the first constitutions and the first codes, 
 criminal and civil, of Connecticut and New Haven. In these 
 colonial governments, " deriving their authority from the voluntary 
 association and agreement of the people, we have," said Chief Justice 
 Swift, " the most singular, and the fairest example of the opera- 
 tion of that 'natural principle which impels mankind to unite in 
 society : here the social compact was made and entered into, in the 
 most explicit manner: here is the origin of a government upon 
 natural principles." The Connecticut constitution of 1638-9 is the 
 foundation of the republican institutions of the colony and state. It 
 may claim, on still higher considerations, the attention of students 
 of political science and of general history, as " the first properly 
 American constitution a work in which the framers were permitted 
 to give body and shape, for the first time, to the genuine republican 
 idea, that dwelt as an actuating force, or inmost sense, in all the 
 New England colonies." 
 
 v J- H. T. 
 
 HARTFORD, Nov. ist, 1876.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " TRUE BLUE WILL NEVER STAIN " says an old prov- 
 erb, and Bailey's Dictionary gives this explanation of 
 it: " As a true blue colour or dye never fades or chan- 
 ges its colour, so a man of fixed principles and resolu- 
 tions, firmly grounded upon the reasonableness and 
 justice of such principles, will not be easily drawn 
 aside to depart from them, or be guilty of any evil 
 or mean action." The epithet True blue had nearly 
 the same meaning as that by which a democrat of the 
 old school is occasionally commended as "dyed in the 
 wool." Blue was the symbol of constancy and fidelity. 
 In Ciiaucer's Court of Love, the 
 
 " folke that knele in blew 
 They weare the colour, ay and ever shal, 
 In signe they ever were and ever wil be true, 
 
 Withouten change" 
 
 Fixed principles were out of fashion after the Res- 
 toration. Nothing could be more unpopular at the 
 court of Charles the Second than constancy in virtue 
 and adherence to convictions of duty. "True blue" 
 became a term of reproach, reserved for puritans and 
 schismatics. It served to point Butler's satire, in the 
 description of Sir Hudibras: 
 
 " For his religon, it was fit 
 To match his learning and his wit ; 
 'Twas Presbyterian true blue" 
 
 To be "blue" was to be "puritanic," precise in 
 the observance of legal and religious obligations, rigid, 
 gloomy, over-strict, in a word, to be in morals and 
 manners the very opposite of a courtier, wit, or gallant 
 of the time. 
 
 The colonists of New England were, with very few 
 exceptions, " true blue," and their legislation every- 
 where caught a reflection of the color. They accepted 
 the word of God as a sufficient rule of conduct. 
 The freemen of Massachusetts resolved to model their 
 Body of Liberties from the code of Moses ; and 
 the early laws of Connecticut and New Haven were in
 
 10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 great part copied from those of Massachusetts. The first 
 planters of New Haven resolved "that, as in matters tha{ 
 concern the gathering and ordering of a church, so like- 
 wise in all public offices which concern civil order, as 
 choice of magistrates and officers, making and repealing 
 of laws, dividing allotments of inheritance, and all things 
 of like nature, we would all of us be ordered by those 
 rules which the scripture holds forth to us." "There 
 is," observes Dr. Palfrey (History of N. England, ii. 27), 
 " no higher, and no other just conception of human law, 
 than was theirs, when they recognized it as an embodi- 
 ment of the will in other words, of the law of God. . . 
 The mistake which had more or less clouded the mind 
 of the Puritan New-Englander was in his regarding the 
 law of Moses as a declaration of the law of God for all 
 times and places. But he did not embrace this error in 
 its full extent." In New Haven, such only of "the 
 judicial laws of God, delivered by Moses," as are " a 
 fence to the moral law, being neither typical nor cere- 
 monial, nor having any reference to Canaan," were made 
 a rule to the courts in their proceedings against offen- 
 ders. * No one of the colonies adopted the whole code 
 of Moses, even in respect to capital offences. A recent 
 editor of the " Blue Laws of Connecticut and New 
 Haven " has commented on the " quaintness, bluntness, 
 particularity, and antiquated excess of penalty, which 
 have gained for them the equivocal epithet by which 
 they have been generally designated for several genera- 
 tions."! Quaint and blunt enough, certainly, some of 
 these laws appear in the light of the nineteenth century. 
 They are often perhaps too particular and precise in 
 their application of " rules of righteousness " to the 
 conduct of individuals. But he who believes that the 
 early legislation of New England was distinguished, in 
 its time, by the severity of its penalties, knows little of 
 the history of criminal law in Great Britain or America. 
 " In determining what kind of men our fathers were, we 
 are to compare their laws, not with ours, but with the 
 laws which they renounced." \ Thirty-one offences were 
 
 *New Haven Colony Records, I. 130. (1644.) 
 
 fThe Blue Laws of Connecticut ; edited by Samuel M. Smucker, 
 LL.D. (Philadelphia, 1861), Preface, p. 3. 
 | Dr. BacQn's Historical Discourses, p. 32.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 punished by death, in England, at the beginning of the 
 reign of James the First. The list grew larger from year 
 to year, until in 1819 it had reached the number of two 
 hundred and twenty-three, of which one hundred and 
 seventy-six were without benefit of clergy. Massachusetts 
 by her first code, in 1641, and Connecticut in 1642,* 
 imposed the penalty of death on twelve offences only. 
 New Haven added two or three to the number of "capi- 
 tal laws," but with such reservations as to leave the 
 exaction of the supreme penalty to the discretion of the 
 courts. 
 
 In the reform of penal legislation New England was at 
 least a century in advance of the mother country. If 
 any one doubts this, let him look into the State Trials 
 or the old Reports. 
 
 Two years before the sailing of the Mayflower, " one 
 Wrennum " was prosecuted, in the Star Chamber, on the 
 charge of having " divers times petitioned the King against 
 Sir Francis Bacon, the Lord Chancellor, pretending that 
 the said Lord Bacon had done him great injustice," and 
 moreover, for having dedicated to King James a book in 
 which the Chancellor was "traduced and scandalized." 
 On his conviction, the attorney-general cited a precedent 
 in the same court, in the second year of the same reign, 
 "where one Ford, for an offence in like manner against 
 "the late Chancellor, was censured, that he should be 
 "perpetually imprisoned, and pay a fine of ^1000, and 
 " that he should ride, with his face to the tail, from the 
 <4 Fleet to Westminster, with his fault written upon his 
 " head, and that he should acknowledge his offence in all 
 the courts in Westminster, and that he should stand a 
 reasonable time upon the pillory, and that one of his ears 
 should be cut off, and from thence should be carried to 
 prison again, and in like manner should go to Cheap- 
 side, and should have his other ear cut off, &c." And 
 the Court proceeded to sentence Wrennum "according 
 to the said precedent, "f 
 
 The case of William Prynne, a learned barrister, is 
 more familiar to American readers. His real offence 
 
 * Four years Fater, two additional offences were made capital, by 
 both colonies. 
 
 f Popham's Reports.
 
 12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 was in publishing anti-prelatical tracts and opposing 
 the innovations in religious worship introduced by 
 Archbishop Laud. He was prosecuted in 1633, in the 
 Star Chamber, for having written a book '(Histriomas- 
 tix, or a Scourge for Stage-Players") in which he 
 had " railed not only against stage-plays," but, as was 
 alleged, "against hunting, public festivals, Christmas- 
 keeping, bonfires and may-poles," etc. He was sen- 
 tenced to lose both his ears in the pillory, to degradation 
 from the bar, a fine of ^3000, and imprisonment for 
 life. Three years afterwards, he gave new offence to 
 Laud, by publishing a pamphlet against the hierarchy. 
 He was again prosecuted, and was sentenced to lose 
 what remained of his ears, to pay a fine of ^5000, to be 
 branded on both his cheeks with the letters S L (for 
 ' Seditious Libeller '), and to remain in prison for life. 
 The severity of this sentence was equalled by the 
 savage rigor of its execution. 
 
 With such precedents, is it strange that the colonists 
 of New England chose to frame a new code on the 
 model of the Mosaic, rather than trust themselves to 
 the tender mercies of English law? 
 
 The law of England which condemned a prisoner 
 who " stood mute " or refused to plead to be slowly 
 pressed to death by weights placed upon his chest 
 (the peine fort et dure), was not repealed till 1772. 
 Several instances of the infliction of this horrible 
 penalty after 1700, are recorded; one, so late as 1741. 
 
 Until 1790, every woman convicted of counterfeiting 
 gold or silver coin of the realm, was sentenced to Le 
 drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution and there 
 " to be burned with fire till she was dead." This, says 
 Blackstone, * was "the usual punishment for all sorts 
 of treasons committed by those of the female sex." 
 After 1700, the practice became more humane than the 
 law authorized, and usually the offender was strangled 
 before being burned: "there being very few instances, 
 and those accidental or by negligence, of any person's 
 being emboweled or burned,, till previously deprived 
 of sensation by strangling." f By such an accident, a 
 woman was actually burned alive at Tyburn in 1726, 
 
 * 4 Blackstone's Commentaries, 204. f Ibid, 377.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 for killing her husband (a crime that English law 
 made " petty treason "). Twenty thousand people 
 gathered to see a woman burned, in 1773.* Another 
 suffered the same penalty in 1777; and another, for 
 making counterfeit shillings, in 1786. 
 
 In the reign of Henry VIII, poisoners were, by act 
 of parliament, condemned to be boiled to death. This 
 act was repealed in the following reign, but not before 
 several offenders had suffered its penalty. In Germany, 
 even in the i7th century, this horrible punishment was 
 inflicted on coiners and counterfeiters. Taylor, the 
 Water Poet, describes an execution he witnessed in 
 Hamburg, in 1616. The judgment pronounced against 
 a coiner of false money was that he should " be boiled 
 to death in oil; not thrown into the vessel at once, but 
 with a pulley or rope to be hanged under the arm- 
 pits, and then let down into the oil by degrees; first the 
 feet, and next the legs, and so to boil his flesh from his 
 bones alive." 
 
 When Connecticut and New Haven were' framing their 
 first codes, larceny above the value of twelve pence 
 was a capital crime in England as it had been since the 
 time of Henry I. In some cases the thief might claim 
 "benefit of clergy" for the first offence, but the second 
 was punished by death. From many descriptions of 
 larceny, the law expressly took away the benefit of clergy : 
 to steal a horse, or a hawk, or woollen cloth from the 
 weaver, was a hanging matter. So it was, to kill a deer 
 in the king's forest, or to export sheep from the kingdom. 
 " Outlandish persons calling themselves Egyptians " (i. e. 
 gipsies) who remained more than one month in England, 
 and all persons who consorted with them, were declared 
 felons, without benefit of clergy. Thirteen gipsies were 
 executed, under sentence of court, at one term, in 
 Suffolk, for no greater crime than vagabondage. The 
 brutal severity of the laws against vagrants and idlers, 
 in the sixteenth and seventeenth century almost sur- 
 passes belief. In the reign of Edward the Sixth, it 
 was enacted, that " if any man or woman able to work 
 should refuse to labor, and remain idle for three days, 
 he or she should be branded on the breast with the , 
 letter V, and adjudged the slave, for two years, of any 
 
 * Elizabeth Herring. See the " Annual Register," 1773, p. 131.
 
 14: INTRODUCTION. 
 
 one who should inform against such idler:" if the 
 slave ran away, he or she when recaptured was to be 
 branded on the cheek with the letter S, and to become 
 a slave for life; and running away a second time, was 
 to be punished with death. It was not much better in 
 the reign of James the First, when a law which 
 continued in force till the time of Queen Anne pro- 
 vided that any mendicant or vagrant whom a justices' 
 court should adjudge " incorrigible and dangerous, should 
 be branded on the left shoulder with a hot iron of the 
 breadth of a shilling having a Roman R upon it, and if 
 after such judgment they were found begging and 
 wandering, they were to be adjudged felons and to suffer 
 death, without benefit of clergy." 
 
 Before criticising too sharply the penal codes of New 
 England in the first half of the seventeenth century, it 
 may be well to look at the picture a recent English 
 historian has drawn, of England in the middle of the 
 eighteenth, and at the beginning of the reign of George the 
 Third. " Our criminal law," says Phillimore, " at that 
 time the inexorable scourge of the lower orders, cart- 
 loads of whom were carried off every month to execution 
 administered in that day too frequently by corrupt 
 and ignorant judges, generally, as any one who turns to 
 the reports of the period will see, by narrow-minded 
 and inferior men, was for the cruelty, multitude, and 
 inutility of the punishments it inflicted, no less than for 
 the caprice and brutality with which it was abused by 
 the lower officers of justice, and the bottomless magazine 
 of absurdity in the technical forms, rules, and language 
 to which the lawyers clung with interested tenacity 
 in all probability the worst, for its effects upon the 
 temper and morals of the community, in civilized Europe. 
 .... It is difficult to find, in the history of the most 
 despotic countries in the darkest ages, proofs of more 
 stupid and revolting injustice. . . The reader of the state 
 trials. . . might almost imagine that he is reading the 
 narrative of Gregory of Tours, or the history of some 
 tribe in the infancy of civilization."* 
 
 The planters of New England were Englishmen, not 
 exempt from English prejudices in favor of English 
 
 * Phillimore's History of England during the Reign of Geogre III. 
 
 pp. 47, 48, 50.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 institutions, laws, and usages. They were Englishmen 
 of the sixteenth century, not social scientists and law- 
 reformers of the nineteenth. They lived half a do^en gen- 
 erations too early for the discovery that sanguinary and 
 excessive punishments multiply offences. They had not 
 been taught to question the wisdom or the humanity of 
 English criminal law. They were as unconscious of 
 its barbarism, as were the parliaments which had 
 enacted or the courts which dispensed it. That some- 
 what of this barbarism appears in their own beginnings 
 of legislation and in their methods of punishment is 
 not to be wondered at. 
 
 Nor should it seem more strange, that their laws 
 manifest intolerance of dissent in matters of religion. 
 Most of them were born and nurtured in the Church 
 of England, and that church certainly had been at 
 no pains to teach, by precept or example, the excel- 
 lence of toleration. Catholic or Protestant, Calvinistic 
 or Arminian, under Henry the Eighth or Mary the 
 Bloody, Elizabeth or James, the English Church held 
 fast at least one article of faith the obligation of the 
 State to repress heresy, to punish apostacy, to enforce 
 conformity, and to give effect to ecclesiastical censures 
 by penal laws by fines, imprisonment, confiscation, 
 banishment, or death. "All religious communities" 
 says Sir James Mackintosh, with reference to the 
 Church of England after the Reformation, "were at 
 that time alike intolerant; and. there was, perhaps, no 
 man in Europe who dared to think that the State 
 neither possessed, nor could delegate nor could re- 
 cognize as inherent in another body any authority 
 over religious opinions." 
 
 The Act of Supremacy of 1559 declared the queen to 
 be "supreme governor of the realm .... as well in 
 spiritual and ecclesiastical things or causes, as in 
 temporal;" and the Act of Uniformity, the same year, 
 forbade the use of other forms of prayer than those 
 provided in the Book of Common Prayer, under 
 penalty of loss of goods and chattels for the first 
 offence, a yeaVs imprisonment for the second, and 
 imprisonment for life for the third. James the First, 
 shortly after his accession, made known his determi- 
 nation to " have one doctrine and one discipline, one
 
 16 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 religion in substance and in ceremony," and he gave 
 his sanction to the canons adopted by the Convocation 
 of 1604, by which excommunication "a precursory 
 judgment of the latter day," as Lord Bacon called it, 
 was added to the other penalties for nonconformity. 
 "To exercise the right of private judgment, so far as 
 to quit the Church of Rome, which had governed 
 Christendom for centuries, was the duty of every 
 Christian ; but to exercise it so far as to differ with 
 the Articles put out not one hundred years before, by 
 a Church that did not pretend to be infallible and 
 teachers that laid no claim to inspiration, was a crime 
 to be punished, in some instances by the stake, in all 
 others by confiscation, by the lash and shears of the 
 hangman, and by the pestilential dungeon, within the 
 walls of which was death."* 
 
 The colonists of New England call them fanatics, 
 bigots, persecutors, or what you will did no more 
 than repeat, in their new home, a few of the lessons 
 they had been taught in the mother country and by 
 the mother church. They believed it to be the duty of 
 civil magistrates, to maintain the order and discipline 
 of the churches and "the liberty and purity of the 
 gospel." The General Court of Massachusetts took 
 counsel, now and then, with "the neighboring Elders" 
 just as Parliament gave ear to Convocation. The 
 Plymouth pilgrims who had lived in Holland under 
 the ministry of John Robinson had gained some 
 notion of religious liberty and the right of private 
 judgment. So had Thomas Hooker, the father of 
 Connecticut, and some of those who came with him. 
 But in England of the reign of Elizabeth or James 
 under the primacy of Whitgift, Bancroft, or Laud 
 how should a nonconformist learn the meaning of 
 toleration except as he may have heard it denounced 
 as the sin of Gallio? 
 
 The writ for burning a heretic (de haretico comburendo) 
 on the judgment of an ecclesiastical tribunal, was not 
 abolished in England till late in the reign of Charles 
 the Second. Elizabeth caused two Dutch baptists to 
 be burned at Smithfield, in 1575, and two Socinians, 
 sentenced by the church as "obstinate, contumacious 
 
 Phillimore's Reign of George III., p. 27.
 
 IXTRODUCTIOX. 17 
 
 and incorrigible heretics," were sent to the stake in 
 1612, by James the First. Two Brownists were hung, 
 in 1583, tor circulating a tract in which the queen's 
 supremacy in the church was denied; John Udal, a 
 nonconforming minister, died in prison, under sen- 
 tence of death, in 1593, for having written a book 
 against the bishops; and the same year, for a similar 
 offence, Greenwood and Penry, ministers, and Barrow, 
 a lawyer, suffered death ; several of the Brownists died 
 in prison, and hundreds were driven into exile. As for 
 Puritans " I will make them conform, or I will harry 
 them out of the land, or else do worse," said King 
 James; and, by help of the High Commission and the 
 Star Chamber, he more than kept his word. 
 
 With what fervid zeal "the sweet peace of the 
 church" was in those days guarded against dissent, 
 we get a notion from a passage in one of the letters of 
 honest and pious James Howell, in 1635: "I rather 
 pitty than hate Turk or Infidell," he wrote, "for they 
 are of the same metall, and bear the same stamp as I 
 do, tho' the inscriptions differ: If I hate any, 'tis those 
 Schismatics that puzzle the sweet peace of our Church ; 
 so that I could be content to see an Anabaptist^ to hell on 
 a Brownist's back." 
 
 When New Haven adopted her Code, in 1656, the law 
 of England imposed a fine of 100 marks, for speaking in 
 derogation of the Book of Common Prayer, and for the 
 third offence the penalty was imprisonment for life. 
 Baptists were disqualified to make wills or to receive 
 legacies, and were exposed to corporal punishment; to 
 deny the lawfulness of infant baptism, or to affirm that 
 such baptism was void, subjected the offender to imprison- 
 ment ; absence from the parish church, a single Sunday, 
 incurred a fine of one shilling only, but absence for a 
 month together was fined ^20 which was about twenty- 
 fold the penalty attached to the same offence by the laws 
 of Connecticut and New Haven. 
 
 In the reign of Charles the Second after New Haven 
 was included in the Connecticut charter the Act of 
 Elizabeth for the "suppression of conventicles" was 
 revived, and with increased severity: "recusants" were 
 punished by banishment, and in case of return, by death, 
 and all meetings of five or more nonconformists, under
 
 18 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 color or pretence of religious worship, were forbidden 
 under the same penalties. In 1670, this law was re- 
 enact'ed, with a further provision which imposed a heavy 
 fine on every person present at any religious exercise not 
 in accordance with the liturgy of the Church of England 
 (Acts of 16 and 22 Charles II.) 
 
 It would be easy to fill a volume with "blue laws" 
 enacted by the parliaments of Elizabeth, James the First, 
 and Charles the First. The instances that have been 
 given are enough to show whence came whatever is harsh 
 or repulsive in the early laws and judicial proceedings 
 of New England and by what lessons the puritan colo- 
 nists were taught intolerance. 
 
 To each of the Capital Laws enacted by Massachusetts 
 was appended a reference to the text or texts of scripture 
 that authorize the penalty of death. The other colonies 
 copied these laws and references, without much alteration. 
 Everyone who has anything to say about the " Blue 
 Laws " alludes to this eccentricity of puritan legislation, 
 as showing the judaizing tendency of the religion of 
 New England. To modern eyes, the citation of scriptu- 
 ral authorities, in a penal code, certainly does look 
 odd. The Bible is about the last book to which 
 lawyers or legislatures now-a-days are expected to look 
 for precedents. But Nathaniel Ward, who drafted the 
 Massachusetts Body of Liberties, had been " a student 
 and practiser in the courts of the common law " in Eng- 
 land, before he became a minister, and he may have taken 
 an idea from Coke's Institutes. When commenting on 
 the infernal penalty attached to high treason by the law 
 of England, Coke was careful to point out the scriptural 
 warrant for each revolting particular of the execution. 
 For drawing to the place of punishment, he cites i Kings, 
 2. 28, the case of Joab ; for hanging, that of Bigthan and 
 Teresh, Esther 2.23; for emboweling, that of Judas, Acts, 
 i. 18; for piercing the body "while he was yet alive," 
 that of Absalom, 2 Sam., 18. 14; for beheading, that of 
 Sheba, 2 Sam., 20. 22; for quartering and hanging up, 
 that of Rechab and Baanah, 2 Sam., 4. n, 12 ; finally, for 
 corruption of blood and forfeiture of estate, David's im- 
 precation against his enemies, in Psalm 109,9 Z 3!* 
 And in the last century, Sir William Blackstone, treating 
 . * 3 Institutes, 211.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 19 
 
 of those unnatural crimes which are the subject of the 6th 
 and 7th capital laws of the Connecticut code, observes 
 that their punishment is "by the voice of nature and 
 of reason, and the express command of God, determined 
 to be capital," and for this he cites in a note * the same 
 texts (Levit. 20. 13, 15) which were cited by Connecticut 
 and New Haven. So, too, when writing of witchcraft 
 and its penalty, he refers, as the law-makers of New 
 England in the preceding century had referred, to " the 
 express law of God " in " Exodus, 22. 18." 
 
 Something may be said, here, about this law against 
 witchcraft, which to many readers has seeised more 
 deeply tinged with " blue " than any other in the criminal 
 codes of the puritans. "It was not to be expected of the 
 colonists of New England that they should be first to see 
 through a delusion which befooled the whole civilized 
 world, and the gravest and most knowing persons in it. 
 Men are not omniscient, nor is it common, any more than 
 just, to blame them for not being so." f The colonists 
 of New England in Connecticut and New Haven, as 
 well as in Massachusetts, "like all other Christian 
 people at that time, at least, with extremely rare individ- 
 ual exceptions, believed in the reality of a hideous 
 crime called witchcraft " \ Herein, if in nothing else, 
 they remained in conformity with the Church of England. 
 To go back to the reign of Elizabeth, we find good 
 Bishop Jewel writing, in 1559, to his friend Peter Martyr: 
 " The number of witches and sorceresses has everywhere 
 become enormous." The same year, when preaching 
 before the Queen, he called attention to the fact "that 
 this kind of people, within these last few years are 
 marvellously increased " in England : and humbly peti- 
 tioned, in behalf of her majesty's poor subjects, " that the 
 laws touching such malefactors may be put in due execu- 
 tion." Accordingly, at the next session of parliament a 
 bill was passed declaring enchantment and witchcraft to 
 be felony. In the visitation of parishes, the commission- 
 ers were enjoined to inquire respecting such as used 
 charms, sorcery, witchcraft, " and any like craft, invented 
 by the devil." ' 
 
 * 4 Commentaries, 216. 
 
 f Palfrey, History of New England, IV. 127. \ Ibid., 96. 
 Jewel's Works (Parker Society), pt. 2, p. 1028 ; and Strype's 
 Annals, I. i. 88.
 
 20 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 A good many witches were convicted in Elizabeth's 
 reign. Three were hanged at Warbois in Huntingdon- 
 shire, in 1593, and their property forfeited by con- 
 viction of felony was used to provide for the delivery 
 of an annual sermon on witchcraft, by some Cambridge 
 doctor or bachelor of divinity. This sermon was preached 
 yearly till 1718, and perhaps later. * It seems to have 
 borne some fruits, for zeal against witchcraft was kept 
 burning in that neighborhood, after it had cooled in other 
 parts of England. In 1716, a woman and her daughter, 
 nine year s old, were hanged in Huntingdon for selling their 
 souls to the devil, and raising a storm by pulling off their 
 stockings! 
 
 The act of 1562 was superseded, in the first year of 
 James the First's reign, by another, more severe, making 
 witchcraft punishable with death, and without benefit of 
 clergy. 
 
 The king, who had acquired in Scotland a taste for 
 witch-hunting, did not suffer this law to become a dead 
 letter. He was as zealous for the suppression of witch- 
 craft and sorcery as for the enforcement of conformity. 
 He had devised new tortures f to extract confessions from 
 the accused; and he had published a learned and con- 
 vincing treatise on the Doctrine of Devils, which all loyal 
 subjects and aspiring courtiers took care to read and 
 admire. That the witchcraft delusion soon became 
 epidemic throughout England, was a natural conse- 
 quence. Seven or eight years before the sailing of the 
 
 * Hutchinson's Hist. Essay on Witchcraft, p. 130. 
 
 \ Before leaving Scotland, James assisted in the execution of 
 several ' warlocks ' and witches. One of them, on his second exam- 
 ination, retracted the confession forced from him by the horrible 
 torture of the iron boot, on his first : "whereupon the King's 
 Majestic, perceiving his stubborn wilfulnesse," suggested a remedy. 
 The finger-nails of the accused " were riven and pulled with an 
 instrument called a turkas fa smith's pincers] : and under every nail 
 there was thrust in two needles even up to the heads." Still refusing 
 to confess, " he was then with all convenient speed, by commandment, 
 conveyed again to the torment of the boots, where he continued a 
 long time, and abode so many blows in them that his legs were 
 crushed and beaten together as small as might be, and the bones and 
 flesh so bruised, that the blood and marrow spouted forth in great 
 abundance, whereby they were made unserviceable for ever." He 
 had little use for them for the confession being somehow obtained, 
 he was condemned, strangled, and burnt. Pitcairn's Criminal 
 Trials, i. 213, and after.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 21 
 
 Mayflower, twelve persons were condemned at one 
 time, in Lancaster, and as many more the next year. 
 Two were hanged at Lincoln, in 1618. The wonder is 
 that the Puritans did not bring the mania with them to 
 New England at their first coming. It did not appear 
 here till nearly 1650, and then only in sporadic cases. 
 In Great Britain, it prevailed, with occasional intermis- 
 sions, for neary a century. The last execution under the 
 act of James the First was in 1722, when an old woman 
 was burned at the stake, in the north of Scotland, but the 
 law was not repealed till 1735 : and so late as 1759, an old 
 woman, accused of bewitching her neighbor's spinning- 
 wheel, was tried by a self-appointed jury, and stripped 
 'to her shift to be weighed, in the church, against the 
 parish Bible. Fortunately she ^/weighed it, and was 
 acquitted by the populace. * 
 
 The delusion was at its height in England at the time 
 when Connecticut was framing her criminal code. 
 Seventeen persons had been convicted of witchcraft in 
 Lancashire in 1634, sixteen were condemned at Yarmouth 
 in 1644, fifteen at Chelmsford (Thomas Hooker's old 
 home) in Essex, in 1645; nearly sixty in Suffolk, and as 
 many in Huntingdonshire, in 1645 and 1646. "During 
 the whole of James's reign, amid the civil wars of his 
 successor, the sway of the Long Parliament, the usurpation 
 of Cromwell, and the reign of Charles II., there was no 
 abatement of the persecution." f 
 
 The Church manifested as little doubt of the reality of 
 the crime or of the sufficiency of the evidence on which 
 the accused were convicted, as did the courts, the jurors, 
 and the mass of the people of England. The act of 1562 
 seems to have been passed, as was before mentioned, at 
 the instance of Bishop Jewel. Twelve bishops were in the 
 committee by which the act of James I. which Coke and 
 Bacon assisted to prepare *-was discussed in the House 
 of Lords. Dr. Francis (afterwards Bishop) Hutchinson 
 intimates J that the divines who made the authorized 
 version of the Bible introduced in it "some phrases that 
 favor the vulgar notions" of witchcraft, familiar spirits, 
 etc., at the particular desire of King James, out of " the 
 
 * Annual Register, 1759, p. 73- 
 
 f- Mackay's Memoirs of Popular Delusions, ii. 141. 
 
 \ Hutchinson's Historical Essay on Witchcraft, p. 225.
 
 22 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 great reverence they had to the King's judgment." The 
 learned and eminent Dr. Henry More (who was a pre- 
 bendary of Gloucester, and_ declined a bishopric) was a 
 firm believer in witchcraft and the power of raising evil 
 spirits. The third book of his "Antidote to Atheism," 
 published after the restoration of Charles the Second, 
 abounds in marvels, some of which are unsurpassed, as, 
 tests of credulity, by any in Mather's Magnalia. Bishop 
 Hall, in his treatise on " The Invisible World," proclaimed 
 his belief in " the assumed shapes of Evil Spirits." 
 Dr. Thomas Fuller, in his " Holy and Profane State," 
 maintains that " there are witches in the present " as in 
 the past, and that some of them "indent downright with 
 the devil." Sir Thomas Brown, who wrote on "Vulgar 
 Errors," did not reckon the belief in witchcraft as one 
 of them. " For my part," he said,* " I have ever believed, 
 and do now know, that there are witches ": and when two 
 women were prosecuted for this crime, in 1664, his testi- 
 mony had no small influence in procuring their conviction. 
 It was on this trial that Sir Matthew Hale, in his charge 
 to the jury, told them, " he did not in the least doubt 
 there were witches ; first, because the Scriptures affirmed 
 it; secondly, because the wisdom of all nations, particu- 
 larly our own, had provided laws against witchcraft, which 
 implied their belief of such a crime." No book published 
 after the restoration of Charles the Second was more 
 influential in reviving the waning belief in witchcraft, 
 none supplied the magistrates at Salem with so many 
 authoritative precedents, on none did the Mathers draw 
 more largely for " wonders of the invisible world," than 
 the " Sadducismus Triumphatus " of the Rev. Joseph 
 Glanvil a fellow of the Royal Society, one of the 
 chaplains of Charles II., rector of the Abbey Church at 
 Bath, and subsequently a prebendary of Worcester. 
 
 At one of the last witch-trials in England that of 
 Jane Wenham, in Hertfordshire, in 1711, before Sir 
 John Powell (afterwards Chief Justice), two clergy- 
 men of the Church of England were witnesses against 
 the accused, and testified to the efficacy of the Book of 
 Common Prayer, in exorcism of the bewitched; and a 
 third, the Rev. Francis Bragge, displayed great zeal in 
 the prosecution and published " a defence of the pro- 
 
 * Religio Medici, 30.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 23 
 
 ceedings, wherein the possibility and reality of Witch- 
 craft are demonstrated," &c. The accused was found 
 guilty, upon the evidence. " Do you mean," asked 
 Judge Powell, "that you find her guilty upon the 
 indictment for conversing with the Devil in the shape of 
 a cat?" "We find her guilty of t/iat" replied the 
 foreman; and the poor creature was sentenced to 
 death : but, on the recommendation of the Judge, she 
 received a pardon. Mr. Bragge averred that she was 
 sustained by the dissenters, and that she had received 
 contributions while in prison from their party. " We 
 are willing to part with her," he added, " and wish the 
 Fanaticks much joy of their new convert:" but he 
 deplored "the proneness of the age to Sadducism and 
 Infidelity." * 
 
 These instances, which might be multiplied a hun- 
 dredfold, are mentioned, not as proofs that the Church 
 of England was mainly responsible for the witchcraft 
 delusion and the thousands of lives sacrificed to it in 
 Great Britain, but to counteract the impression which 
 a certain class of writers have been at some pains to 
 produce that the delusion was confined chiefly to 
 puritans and dissenters, and was to be regarded as in 
 some sort a result of "schism." The truth is, that it 
 pervaded the whole Christian church. The law-makers 
 and the ministers of New England were under its 
 influences just as and no more than were the law- 
 makers and the ministers of Old England. The 
 learned and excellent divines and staunch churchmen 
 whose names I have mentioned above, were not, in this 
 matter, in advance of their age. " We clergymen," 
 said Bishop Hutchinson, in 1717, "are not thought to 
 have kept our order altogether free from blame in this 
 matter. . . . Yet, in the main, I believe our Church 
 and its clergy have as little to answer for in this 
 respect as any." f As much may be said, and with 
 equal truth, for the churches of New England; and 
 emphatically, for Connecticut. 
 
 "The infatuation never extended to the less gloomy 
 people of Rhode Island," says the historian of that 
 
 * Preface to Witchcraft Further Displayed, 1712. 
 \ Hist. Essay concerning Witchcraft : in Dedication.
 
 % INTRODUCTION. 
 
 colony : " the offence appears on the statute book * but 
 no prosecutions were ever had under it. ... More 
 important matters to them than the bedevilment of 
 their neighbors engrossed their whole attention. "f 
 Distracted by faction barely able to maintain the 
 semblance of civil order there was reason enough 
 why Rhode Island should not look beyond her borders 
 for "bedevilment." When New Haven was framing 
 her code of law, the general court at Providence was 
 striving to keep the peace between its members by 
 passing an Act to punish by fine or whipping "any 
 man who should strike another person in the Court" \ 
 "Torn and rent by divisions," it was some compensa- 
 tion for her troubles, that her magistrates whether 
 through lack of disposition or of authority to enforce 
 the laws instituted no prosecutions for witchcraft, 
 and gave themselves or the colony no trouble on 
 account of "familiarity with the devil." 
 
 Just when or by whom the acts and proceedings of 
 New Haven colony were first stigmatized as Blue Laws, 
 cannot now be ascertained. The presumption, however, 
 is strong that the name had its origin in New York, 
 and that it gained currency in Connecticut, among 
 episcopalian and other dissenters from the established 
 church, between 1720 and 1750. 
 
 Several causes contributed to bring Connecticut into 
 disfavor with her western neighbors. In the first 
 place, she had defeated every project for the abrogation 
 of her charter and for annexing her to the province of 
 New York under a governor commissioned by the 
 crown. Andros and Dongan had believed that it 
 would be "impossible for the government of New 
 York to subsist without the addition of Connecticut." 
 Fletcher, and Cornbury, and Hunter, all turned long- 
 ing eyes to the little colony on the east. They saw 
 not much promise for the future in the condition of 
 affairs at home. They sneered at the set ways of 
 
 *In the Laws of 1647: " Witchcraft is forbidden by this present 
 Assembly to be used in this Colonie ; and the Penaltie imposed bv 
 the Atithoiitie that we are subject to [i. e. the law of England] is 
 Felonie of Death. I Jac. 12." R. I. Col. Records^ i. 166. 
 
 (Arnold's History of Rhode Island, i, 525. 
 
 \ R. Island Colonial Records, i. 321.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 25 
 
 puritanism and its intolerance of dissent, but they 
 were not insensible to the advantages New England 
 had gained by maintaining a higher standard of morals 
 and a more general regard for at least the externals of 
 religion. Governor Dongan, when questioned by the 
 Board of Trade, in 1687, as to the "religious persua- 
 sions" of the people of New York, replied: "New 
 York has, first, a chaplain belonging to the Fort, of the 
 Church of England; secondly, a Dutch Calvinist; 
 thirdly, a French Calvinist; fourthly, a Dutch Luth- 
 eran. Here be not many of the Church of England, 
 few Roman Catholics, abundance of Quakers' preachers 
 men, and women especially, singing Quakers, ranting 
 Quakers, Sabbatarians, Anti-sabbatanans, some Ana- 
 baptists, some Independents, some Jews; in short, of 
 all sorts of opinions there are some, and the most part of 
 none at all."* Colonel Heathcote a member of the 
 Provincial Council, and for three years mayor of New 
 York, in a letter to the Society for the Propagation 
 of the Gospel, written in 1704, says, f that at his first 
 coming to the Province in 1692: "I found it the most 
 rude and heathenish country I ever saw in my whole 
 life, which called themselves Christians, there being 
 not so much as the least marks or footsteps of religion 
 of any sort." Matters had not much improved in 
 1711, when Lewis Morris, chief-justice of the province, 
 wrote to the same Society: "Nine parts in ten of 
 ours will add no great credit to whatsoever church 
 they are of; nor can it well be expected otherwise: 
 for as New England excepting some families was 
 the scum of the old, so the greatest part of the English in 
 this Province was the scum of the New, who brought as 
 many opinions almost as persons, but neither religion 
 or virtue, and have acquired a very little si nee." J Mr. 
 Muirson, the Society's missionary in 1708, was sad- 
 dened at the hopelessness of Christianizing the Indians 
 of New York, so long as the English "give them such 
 a bad example, and fill their mouths with such objec- 
 tions against our blessed religion : " and the " dissenters, 
 both in this and in the neighboring colony " [Connect- 
 icut], say, " that many of the members of the Church 
 
 * Doc. History of New York, i. 116. 
 
 t Humphrey's Historical Account, p. 33. 
 
 \ Doc. Hist, of N. York, iii. 152. Ibid. 566.
 
 26 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of England are irregular in their lives, and therefore 
 they ought not, and will not join it."* 
 
 That New England and especially that portion of 
 New England which was best known to New York 
 should not be regarded with much favor in such a 
 community as is here described, is not surprising. To 
 the lawless all laws are ' blue,' to the vicious all 
 moral restraints are ' puritanic,' to the men who " are 
 of no religion at all," any profession of religious 
 obligation is hypocrisy or superstition. 
 
 There were other considerations which, at the period 
 referred to, provoked hostility to Connecticut laws and 
 institutions, and there were special reasons why this 
 hostility was, after a while, particularly directed toward 
 New Haven. 
 
 In 1701 the year in which Yale College was incor- 
 porated " for upholding and propagating of the Chris- 
 tian protestant religion, by a succession of learned and 
 orthodox men" the Society for the Propagation of 
 the Gospel in Foreign Parts was organized in England, 
 and immediately began its work for the establishment 
 of the episcopal church in the colonies. In New York 
 and other provinces dependent on the crown, the 
 Society's missionaries found no great hindrance to 
 their work. In Connecticut, they were less cordially 
 welcomed. "They tell our people," wrote the Rev. 
 George Muirson, to the Society, in 1708, "that they 
 will not suffer the house of God to be defiled with idol- 
 atrous worship and superstitious ceremonies. They 
 are so bold that they spare not openly to speak 
 reproachfully and with great contempt of our church." 
 Good Mr. Beach the Society's missionary at New- 
 town complained that this contempt for "the Church" 
 was manifested even by the Indians of Connecticut. 
 When he made an attempt to instruct those who lived 
 about Newtown, "after a short time" (he writes),"! 
 found that I laboured in vain, and they refused to hear 
 anything about religion from me, and, to shew how 
 much they defied the thoughts of the Church of 
 England, they would call me Churchman! Churchman! 
 out of contempt which they had learned from the 
 neighbouring Dissenters." Connecticut had an estab- 
 
 * Beach's Second Address (Boston, 1751), p. 70.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 27 
 
 lished church of her own, and was somewhat jealous 
 of its privileges. Col. Heathcote, in a report made 
 to the Society, in 1705, says: " For Connecticut, I am 
 and have been pretty conversant, and always was as 
 much in their good graces as any man : " as to " the 
 best and most probable way of doing good among 
 them there is nothing more certain than that it is the 
 most difficult task the Society have to wade through. . . . 
 They have abundance of odd kinds of Laws to prevent 
 any dissenting from their church," etc. * For such 
 "odd kinds of laws," blue was a convenient epithet; 
 and not for these only, but for whatever else in colo- 
 nial laws and proceedings looked over-strict, or queer, 
 or 'puritanic.' 
 
 Early in the episcopal controversy in New England, 
 the religion of the "dissenters" was ridiculed as 
 "true blue." John Checkley, of Boston, was prosecu- 
 ted and fined, in 1724, for publishing, under the title of 
 " A Discourse concerning Episcopacy," a virulent 
 attack on the churches of Massachusetts, which the 
 court held to be "a false and scandalous libel." In 
 1738, the book was reprinted for Checkley, in London, 
 with the addition of his Plea to the court and his 
 sentence; and, on a single page, was given "A Speci- 
 men of a True Dissenting Catechism, upon Right 
 TRUE-BLUE Dissenting Principles," followed by the 
 lines, 
 
 " They're so perverse and opposite 
 As if they worship'd God for Spite.' " 
 
 This couplet, taken from Butler's description of the 
 religion of Hudibras (which was " presbyterian true- 
 blue"} shows where Checkley found the epithet. \ His 
 book, it appears, continued to be very " industriously 
 handed about," among the episcopalians in western 
 
 * Doc. History of New York, iii. 80. 
 
 \ Rev. Sam. Peters, also, made this couplet serviceable. Describ- 
 ing " the grand meeting-house " in Norwich, Conn., of which " the 
 tp^p'a stands at the east end," he said : " The following couplet 
 was written by a traveller, on the steeple : 
 
 ' They're so perverse and opposite, 
 As if they built to God in spite." 
 
 Hist, of Connecticut, p. 140.
 
 28 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Connecticut, twenty years after its publication,* and 
 doubtless helped to give the epithet currency. 
 
 Colonel Caleb Heathcote, before mentioned, who 
 was a member of the Society for the Propagation of 
 the Gospel and directed its work in New York and the 
 neighboring colonies, lived at Wes-tchester, on the 
 western- border of Connecticut. It was from this 
 quarter, and with his introduction, that the first 
 missionaries of the Society were brought into the 
 Colony. "In those days" (as Mr. Wm. L. Kingsley 
 remarks),! "when all traveling was attended with 
 every kind of difficulty, New Haven which was the 
 nearest town of importance and the one with which 
 the English at New York had most to do was to them 
 practically ' New England.' It was the part of New 
 England about which they knew the most, and that 
 part of it which they pictured to themselves whenever 
 'New England' was spoken of." Another circum- 
 stance contributed to draw attention to New Haven, as 
 the strong-hold of 'puritanism' and dissent. "A 
 thing which they call a college, wherein a commencement 
 was made some three or four months ago " as Col. 
 Heathcote informed the Society, in November, 1705, J 
 was permanently established at New Haven, in 1716. 
 [Six years after, when the Rev. Timothy Cutler, was 
 won to episcopacy, the fact that he was " President of 
 Yale College in New England, a station of credit and 
 profit," added a laurel to the triumph.] The Rev. Dr. 
 Samuel Johnson, a missionary of the Society, formerly 
 a tutor in Yale, felt it necessary to apologize to his 
 employers for sending his son to New Haven : " It is 
 indeed a great mortification to me and to him," wrote 
 Mr. Johnson, "that lam obliged to send him to a 
 dissenting college, or deny him any public education 
 at all, and rather than deny any collegiate education, I 
 confess I do not deny him going to meeting, when he can't 
 help it." || It is a comfort to know that the young man 
 
 * Rev. Dr. Noah Welles, in Dedication of a Sermon preached at 
 Stamford, April 10, 1763, page iii., note. 
 
 f In a valuable paper on the "Blue Laws," in The j.Vici- Eng- 
 lander, for April, 1871. 
 
 \ Doc. History of New York, iii., 80. 
 
 SHumphreys, Historical Account, 33*. 
 
 I Hawkins, Hist. Notices of the Missions of the Church of England.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 29 
 
 was not quite ruined. William Samuel Johnson is not 
 the least among the magnates of Yale. 
 
 There was another reason and it is perhaps the prin- 
 cipal one for visiting upon New Haven the authorship 
 of all the " odd kinds of laws " which New York found 
 objectionable. In the colony of New Haven, before the 
 union with Connecticut, the privileges of voting and of 
 holding civil office were, by the " fundamental agree- 
 ment," restricted to church-members. This peculiarity 
 of her constitution was enough to give color to the assertion 
 that her legislation was, pre-eminently, blue. That her 
 old record-book contained a code of "blue laws" which 
 were discreditable to puritanism and which testified to 
 the danger of schism became, among certain classes, an 
 assured belief. To this imaginary code wit and malice 
 made large additions, sometimes by pure invention, 
 sometimes by borrowing absurd or arbitrary laws from 
 the records of other colonies. And so the myth grew 
 till the last vestige of truth was lost in fable. 
 
 The earliest mention of the " New Haven Blue Laws " 
 that I remember to have seen in print, is in a satirical 
 pamphlet published in 1762, entitled: "The Real Advan- 
 tages which Ministers and People may enjoy, especially 
 in the Colonies, by conforming to the Church of England," 
 etc. The anonymous author (probably the Rev. Noah 
 Welles, D. D. of Stamford, a zealous opponent of episco- 
 pacy,) addressing a young friend who had some thoughts 
 of conforming, tells him that " it is a principal advantage 
 of the Church of England, that the religion which is 
 generally practised by her members is perfectly agreeable 
 to polite gentlemen ; whereas no gentleman can belong to 
 other persuasions without meeting with a great deal of 
 uneasiness from their doctrines, but more especially from 
 their discipline " (p. 6) : 
 
 " You have doubtless often observed, that the dissenters in New 
 England have such a discipline among them as is very shocking to 
 many fine gentlemen, and ladies too. If a gentleman drinks a little 
 freely, or happens to love a pretty girl somewhat too warmly, nothing 
 will content these rigid bigots, but they must stand on the stool of 
 repentance, or in the broad-alley, and make a long whining confession. 
 Now you know that this rigorous discipline is chiefly levelled and 
 contrived to pester and afflict polite gentlemen, to whom women and 
 wine are far from being disagreeable, now and then. Indeed I have 
 heard that some of them begin to be ashamed of their blue laws at 
 New Haven, yet they still retain so many penances, confessions, and
 
 30 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 satisfactions, as are extremely disagreeable to every fashionable 
 gentleman " (p. 29). 
 
 From the manner in which this allusion is introduced 
 it is evident that reproach of New Haven for her "blue 
 laws" was already a familiar weapon of religious contro- 
 versy. A few years later in 1767 William Smith, Chief- 
 Justice of New York, had the curiosity to inspect " the 
 first records of the colony of New Haven, vulgarly called 
 the Blue Laws." In the continuation of his History of 
 New York, he gives (p. 93) the result of his examination : 
 
 " A note ought not to be supressed concerning these records, to 
 correct a voice of misplaced ridicule. Few there are, who speak of 
 the Blue Laws, (a title, of the origin of which the author was igno- 
 rant,) who do not imagine they form a code of rules for future 
 conduct, drawn np by an enthusiastic, precise set of religionists ; and 
 if the inventions of wits, humorists, and buffoons were to be credited, 
 they must consist of many volumes. The author had the curiosity 
 to resort to them, when the Commissaries met at New Haven, for 
 adjusting a partition line between New York and the Massachusetts, 
 in 1767 ; and a parchment-covered book of demi-royal paper was 
 handed to him for the laws asked for, as the only volume in the 
 office passing under this odd title. [It is not likely that there was, 
 at this time, a copy of the printed " Laws for Government," of 1656, 
 in the office at New Haven, or that its contents were known to 
 those who talked of " Blue laws."] It contains the memorials of the 
 first establishment of the colony, which consisted of persons who 
 had wandered beyond the limits of the old charter of the Massachu- 
 setts Bay, and who, as yet unauthorized by the crown to set up any 
 civil government in due form of law, resolved to conduct themselves 
 by the Bible. As a necessary consequence, the judges they chose 
 took up an authority similar to that which every religious man 
 exercises over his own children and domestics. Hence their atten- 
 tion to the morals of the people, in instances with which the civil 
 magistrate can never intermeddle under a regular well-policied 
 institution ; because, to preserve liberty, they are cognizable only 
 
 by parental authority So far is the common idea of the blue 
 
 laws being a collection of rules from being true, that they are only 
 records of convictions, consonant, in the judgment of the magistrates, 
 to the word of God, and dictates of reason." 
 
 Chief-Justice Smith, was educated at Yale College. 
 So was his father, Judge William Smith, who for many 
 years enjoyed the distinction of being one of the two men 
 (Judge James Delancey was the other) in the province 
 of New York who had received a liberal education. The 
 " Blue Law " story probably came to the Chief-Justice by 
 inheritance, and like his fellow citizens of New York, 
 generally, he never questioned its truth, till his visit to 
 New Haven twenty-two years after his graduation. 
 
 Occasional allusions to the " Blue Laws " are found in
 
 INTRODUCTION. 31 
 
 newspapers and pamphlets printed before the Revolution, 
 but no specimens of the laws so stigmatised seem to have 
 been published before 1781, when "a sketch of some of 
 them " was given to the world by the 
 
 REV. SAMUEL PETERS, 
 
 in "A General History of Connecticut, from its First 
 Settlement under George Fenwick, Esq.," etc. : " By a 
 Gentleman of the Province : " printed in London, " for the 
 Author." 
 
 Five or six years before this " History " was fabricated, 
 its author was the subject of a one-line sketch in Me Fin- 
 gal', 
 
 " Our fag-end man, poor Parson Peters," 
 
 As the sole authority for the only " New Haven Blue 
 Laws" that are now popularly known by the name, he 
 and his book are entitled here to a larger notice. 
 
 The late Professor J. L. Kingsley, in the notes to his 
 Historical Discourse at New Haven (1838), was at the 
 pains of pointing out '' a few of the errors " as he chari- 
 tably named them of "the work which, more than any 
 other, has given currency to various misrepresentations 
 respecting the New Haven colony: " and in this connec- 
 tion, he quoted a remark made by the the Rev. Dr. 
 Trumbull, the historian, who was a townsman of Peters 
 and had known him from childhood, that, "of all men 
 with whom he had ever been acquainted , Dr. Peters, 
 he had thought, from his first knowledge of him, the least 
 to be depended upon as to any matter of fact; especially 
 in story-telling." The best excuse that can be made 
 for him is, that he was a victim of pseudomania ; -that his 
 abhorrence of truth was in fact a disease, and that he was 
 not morally responsible for its outbreaks. He could not 
 keep even his name clear of falsification. It passes into 
 history with doubtful initials and fictitious titles. He 
 wrote himself, sometimes " Samuel Peters," sometimes 
 "Samuel Andrew (or, Samuel A.) Peters." He append- 
 ed to his name the letters " LL. D." but no one can guess 
 how he came by them. Some books of reference have 
 made him D. D. ; others (including the latest American 
 biographical dictionary) have conferred on him both the 
 doctorates. His life begins with fable in fact, the fable 
 is pre-natal, for he claimed descent from a brother of 
 Hugh Peters, who (if proof of a negative can ever be
 
 32 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 trusted) had no existence. His autobiography which 
 he was fond of writing is everywhere as untruthful as 
 are his contributions to history. In one place he des- 
 cribes himself as 
 
 " The Rev. Samuel Peters, an episcopal clergyman, who by his 
 generosity and zeal for the Church of England, and loyalty to the 
 House of Hanover, has rendered himself famous both in New and 
 Old England, and in some degree made an atonement for the fana- 
 ticism and treasons of his uncle Hugh, and of his ancestor on his 
 mother's side, Major-General Thomas Harrison, both hanged at 
 Charing-Cross in the last century." History of Connecticut, 172. 
 
 In a " History of Jonathan Trumbull, the Rebel Gover- 
 nor," etc., evidently from the pen of Peters, in a London 
 "Political Magazine," for January, 1781, he introduces 
 himself as 
 
 " the Rev. Mr. Peters, a church clergyman, of an ancient and 
 opulent family in the Colony, and one of those they stiled their 
 Noblesse, being a descendant " etc. ..." and his wife was a descendant 
 of Dr. John Owen." [As a matter of fact, he married the great-grand- 
 daughter of a John Owen who was living in Windsor, Conn., before 
 1650, the cotemporary and only eight years the junior of Dr. John 
 Owen.] . . . . " Mr Peters had been brought up to the law, and was 
 extremely popular in the country ; but . . . renouncing the inde- 
 pendent faith, he received holy ordination from the Lord Bishop of 
 London." .... 
 
 ' In proportion to a man's goodness, is he persecuted. Mr. Peters's 
 stile of life in Connecticut was generous and exemplary, and his 
 fortune considerable. It is most likely he would have arrived to the 
 Government of the Colony, had he not forsaken the Republican 
 system of his ancestors, and become an admirer of the English con- 
 stitution and a convert to the Church of England." 
 
 To descend to prose : Mr. Peters was born in Hebron 
 in 1735, graduated at Yale College in 1757, went to 
 England for episcopal ordination, and returned in 1760, 
 to take charge of the little episcopal church in his native 
 town, where he continued to reside till the beginning of 
 the revolutionary contest. In 1774, his obstinate and 
 aggressive toryism rendered him very obnoxious to his 
 neighbors and finally provoked the resentment of the 
 Sons of Liberty. A party of two or three hundred men 
 paid him a visit, threatened him (so he averred) with tar 
 and feathers, handled him somewhat roughly when they 
 detected him in falsehood, and drew from him a promise 
 that he would not again meddle in public affairs. After 
 a few weeks, he gave new offence, and was again called 
 to account. This time, he was made to subscribe, " with- 
 out equivocation or mental reservation," a pledge to
 
 INTRODUCTION. 33 
 
 " support the measures taken to obtain redress of our 
 grievances," etc. He was not much hurt, in person or 
 property, but was badly frightened, and apprehensive of 
 worse to come. He fled from Hebron to Boston, breath- 
 ing out threatenings and slaughter against his tormentors. 
 " For my telling the Church people not to take up arms, 
 etc., it being high treason, etc.," he wrote from his place 
 of refuge, to his friend, the Rev. Dr. Auchmuty, of New 
 York, " the Sons of Liberty have destroyed my windows, 
 rent my clothes, even my gown, etc., crying out, down 
 with the Church, the rags of Popery, etc. ; their rebellion 
 is obvious treason is common and robbery is their 
 daily diversion : the Lord deliver us from anarchy." He 
 found his only comfort in the anticipation that, if his 
 plans of vengeance should succeed, Connecticut might be 
 blotted out : " the bounds of New York may directly 
 extend to, Connecticut river, Boston meet them, New 
 Hampshire take the Province of Maine, and Rhode 
 Island be swallowed up as Dathan." In October, 1774, 
 he sailed for England, where he remained until 1805. 
 He obtained a small pension from the crown, and some 
 compensation for the property he professed to have lost 
 in Connecticut: and it was perhaps in the hope of eking 
 out a livelihood, as well as of gratifying his resentment, 
 that he employed his pen in abuse of the colony which 
 gave him birth, and the religion of his fathers. He did 
 not, says Mr. Duykinck, " carry his point of dismem- 
 bering Connecticut, but he punished the natives almost 
 as effectually by writing a book his History of the State. 
 It was published anonymously, but it was as plainly Pe- 
 ters 's as if every page had been subscribed by him, like 
 the extorted declarations."* 
 
 His work seems to have been in no sense a success. 
 He had presumed too far both on the credulity of Eng- 
 lish readers and on their ill-will to America. With less 
 inveterate aversion to truth, he might have imparted 
 plausibility to fiction; with less exuberance of malice, he 
 might have tickled the Englisli ear with the absurdities 
 and misdeeds of the "rebels," and have passed for a 
 humorist. As it was, the Monthly Review doubtless 
 expressed the general sentiment : 
 
 " We find it destitute of every claim to the rare quality [of impar- 
 tiality] ; and observe in it so many marks of party spleen and idle 
 
 * Cyclopaedia of American Literature, i. 191.
 
 34: INTRODUCTION. 
 
 credulity, that we do not hesitate to pronounce it altogether 
 unworthy of the public attention." 
 
 " Extravagant and incredible," " ludicrous and apocry- 
 phal," are the epithets by which the historian of Episco- 
 pacy in Connecticut (the Rev. Dr. Beardsley) has 
 characterized the statements of Peters's book. It would 
 have fallen forever into the oblivion it merits, had it not 
 been that its malignant fabrications have supplied so 
 many respectable and reverend authors with facilities for 
 breaking the ninth commandment without incurring 
 personal responsibility. 
 
 The book was first published in 1781. The next year, 
 it received a new title-page, which described it as a 
 "second edition." Whether this was done to stimulate 
 the sale, or merely to improve a blank space in the title, 
 by the insertion of one more falsehood, is not clear. 
 
 " Its narrations," says Duykinck, in his notice of the 
 author, "are independent of time, place, and probability. 
 A sober critic would go mad over an attempt to correct 
 its misstatements." What could sober criticism do, for 
 instance, with the account of Bellows Falls, where " the 
 water is consolidated by pressure, by swiftness, between 
 the pinching, sturdy rocks, to such a degree of induration 
 that no iron crow can be forced into it,' and the stream is 
 '* harder than marble " (p. 127), or, with the bridge over 
 the Quinebaug, at Norwich, " under which ships pass 
 with all their sails standing "(p. 139), or with "the in- 
 famous villainy of [the Rev. Thomas] Hooker, who spread 
 death upon the leaves of his Bible and struck Connecticote 
 (a great Sachem) mad with disease " (134), or with the 
 Rev. Mr. Vesey's exorcism of the devils who came to 
 attend an Indian powwaw at Stratford, and the result- 
 ing introduction of episcopacy into Connecticut (215 
 217), or with the statement, that the people of Massa- 
 chusetts " sent Mr. John Winthrop privately to Hartford, 
 to promote a petition to Charles II. for a charter, as a 
 security against the ambition of New Haven " (74), 
 or with the assertion that Yale College was "originally 
 a school established by the Rev. Thomas Peters at Say- 
 brook" (199), or with the story of the alarming incur- 
 sions of the Windham frogs, or the descriptions of those 
 remarkable quadrupeds ".the whappernocker " and " the 
 cuba," or with the conviction and punishment of an 
 episcopal clergyman in 1750, for breaking the Sabbath by
 
 INTRODUCTION. 35 
 
 walking too fast from church and combing a lock of 
 his wig on Sunday (p. 305), or, in fine, with any half- 
 dozen consecutive sentences in this wonderful " History." 
 Its lies, like Falstaffs, are " gross as a mountain, 
 open, palpable." Indeed, some of the apologists for 
 Peters have insisted that he never intended his book to 
 he believed. Yet through this slough of mendacity, a 
 Lord Bishop of Oxford (Wilberforce) could wade, to 
 cull specimens of the "Blue Code of Connecticut " which 
 " made it criminal in a mother to kiss her infant on the 
 Sabbath-day," and "which strictly forbids making mince- 
 pies," etc., etc.,* and the Reverend Henry Caswall, "D. 
 D. of Trinity College, Connecticut, Prebendary of Sarum," 
 etc., could repeat in his work on " The American Church 
 and the American Union," (on the authority of this His- 
 tory of Connecticut, "as quoted by the Bishop of Oxford"} 
 the story of " the fundamental principles of the New 
 Haven settlement/' and " the most remarkable of the laws 
 passed by the New Haven dominion", and the Rever- 
 end Isaac Taylor, vicar of Holy Trinity, Twickenham, 
 can transfer to the pages of his " Words and Places " (4th 
 edition, 1873, p. n,) these same blue laws, "mince-pies, 
 trumpet, drum, Je\vs'-harp," and all, as " a curious picture 
 of life in this Puritan Utopia," and can retain through 
 several editions of a popular book a statement which he 
 had, to say the least, good reason to suspect to be untrue 
 that these laws are " given by Hutchinson," and the 
 Reverend J. S. M Anderson, Chaplain to the Queen, etc., 
 etc., in a " History of the Church of England in the 
 Colonies," can quote, and cite as authority (vol ii. pp. 
 353, 354) this "General History of Connecticut " of 1781. 
 With such teachings is it strange that the average 
 Englishman believes the story of the ' Blue Laws ' as 
 implicitly as he believes the Thirty-nine Articles and 
 with much less mental reservation. 
 
 Judge Haliburton of Nova Scotia, the author of " Sam 
 Slick " and several other quasi-historical works, in a 
 note to one of them " Rule and Misrule of the English 
 
 * History of the Prot. Episcopal Church in America (2d edition), 
 p. 76. In a note, Bishop Wilberforce cited as his authority Peters's 
 " History of Connecticut, 1781," and " Capt. Marryat's Diary, Blue 
 Code. A copy of which, through the kindness of the last named 
 gentleman, lies before me." He might have added, that Peters lied 
 before Capt. Marryat.
 
 36 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 in America " remarked that " the Connecticut Laws, 
 which were framed and executed by people vastly inferior 
 in ability and education to those of Massachusetts, are 
 conspicuous for their harshness as well as their absurdity;" 
 and in proof of this, quotes four of Peters's fabulous New 
 Haven Blue Laws, " No man shall run on the Sabbath," 
 etc : " No one shall read Common Prayer, make mince 
 pies," etc. 
 
 So lately as 1867, Mr. " M. Me N. Walsh, A. M., 
 LL.B., of the New York Bar," published a handy-book 
 entitled "The Lawyer in the School Room," in which 
 appears Peters's whole code, as veritable laws of New 
 Haven colony. 
 
 Worse yet : Prof. Schele De Vere, of the University 
 of Virginia, in his recent volume of "Americanisms'* 
 (N. York, 1872, p. 273), endorses the Blue-Law story 
 of Peters, as "confirmed beyond doubt." Connecticut, 
 he says, " is still often mentioned as the Blue State, 
 unquestionably from its being [as, unquestionably, it 
 was not] the original stronghold of the Presbyterians." 
 Prof. De Vere admits that "the authenticity of the 
 famous laws of New Haven .... known as the Blue 
 Laws" has been "often denied, and Dr. Peters's well- 
 known book on the subject has been declared a libel ; " 
 but "-they are confirmed beyond any doubt by" what? 
 "by the reprint of the 'Abstract of Laws of New 
 England " [which were laws proposed for Massachusetts, 
 by John Cotton, but were never in force in that colony 
 or any other,] in Governor Hutchinson's 'Collection 
 of Papers,' London, 1655 [that is, Boston, 1769], where 
 the identical provisions [but not one of those given by 
 Peters which are vulgarly denominated "blue laws"] 
 may be found." 
 
 When divines, jurists, and learned professors concur 
 in maintaining that fiction is fact, we cannot wonder 
 that so many of the laity are under the "delusion, that 
 they should believe a lie." Every now and then, the 
 well-worn specimens of "New Haven Blue Laws" 
 go the rounds of the newspaper press and certain 
 classes of readers swallow them with as much avidity 
 and confidence as they swallow the quack nostrums 
 advertised in the next column. "Thousands," said 
 Professor Kingsley,"have believed implicitly in the
 
 INTRODUCTION. 37 
 
 existence of the 'blue laws,' who could scarcely be 
 said to have any other article of faith." With such, 
 disproof avails no more than contradiction. He who 
 is predetermined to believe, will believe. Inshallah! 
 In the bitterness of political strife, between 1800 and 
 the triumph of "Democracy and Toleration" in Con- 
 necticut in 1817, the "Blue Laws" were much talked 
 of by the opponents of "steady habits" and "the 
 standing order." During the war of 1812-1814, the 
 "Blue Lights" story came into being, and supplied 
 another taunt at the federalists. In 1817, a poem was 
 published in New York, entitled: "Blue Lights, or 
 The Convention. In four Cantos. By Jonathan M. 
 Scott, Esq." Of course, the author introduces some 
 allusions to the Blue Laws. He tells how the law- 
 students in Yale College are taught to 
 
 "Explain old codes, and wisely shew 
 
 The good effects of statutes Blue, 
 
 Beneath whose stern control, the swain 
 
 Might never swear nor drink in vain; 
 
 Whose rule the nuptial kiss restrains 
 
 On Sabbath day, in legal chains; 
 
 And should some youth, in daring brunt, 
 
 Answer with oath the dire affront, 
 
 Enrich' d by pettifogging toil, 
 
 The parish battens on the spoil ; 
 
 And should the rash offender fail 
 
 To pay the fine or find his bail, 
 
 In cloven stick his tongue must rest, 
 
 'Till ev'ning shades embrown the west." (p. 31.) 
 
 In a note, the writer says, that, "as this excellent 
 code of laws has never, we believe, been committed to 
 the press, he has, with infinite pains, obtained a few 
 extracts from it, principally for the benefit of our 
 western brethren ": and proceeds to give "some speci- 
 mens of the wisdom of the New Haven lawgivers" 
 conceived in the spirit of Peters, but without the 
 pretence of writing " history." For example : 
 
 " I. Whosoever kisseth his wife on the Sabbath day, shall be fined 
 in the sum of three shillings and four pence, or in default thereof 
 shall receive at the post, forty stripes save one." 
 
 " 4. Whosoever shall be convicted of profane swearing, shall have 
 the oath of which he was convicted, written on his hat, with chalk, 
 for the space of one week ; and for the second offence, shall stand 
 with his tongue in a split stick until the going down of the sun."
 
 38 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " 5. All cracking of nuts, eating of apples, and such like unbe- 
 coming amusements, are strictly forbidden, during the time of 
 divine service, as being highly repugnant to ecclesiastical discip- 
 line," etc. 
 
 Peters's finished " sketch " of the " Blue Laws " will 
 be given in another part of this volume. But the 
 True Blue legislation of Connecticut and New Haven 
 must have precedence of the false; and we begin with 
 
 i. THE CONNECTICUT CONSTITUTION OF 1638-39, 
 or the " fundamental orders " by which " the inhabitants 
 and residents of Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield," 
 became "associated and conjoined to be as one Public 
 State or Commonwealth," not a confederacy of petty 
 sovereignties, but a union under a government of the 
 people's choice, exercising "the supreme power of the 
 commonwealth," and maintaining liberty, under law. It 
 has been justly characterized as "THE FIRST PROPERLY 
 AMERICAN CONSTITUTION a work in which the framers 
 were permitted to give body and shape, for the first 
 time, to the genuine republican idea, that dwelt as an 
 actuating force, or inmost sense, in all the New England 
 colonies." * 
 
 A sketch of the Rev. Thomas Hooker's sermon preached 
 before the General Court in May, 1638, and an extract 
 from his letter to Governor Winthrop of Massachusetts, 
 giving his views of the nature of civil government and 
 his conviction that " a general council, chosen by all, to 
 transact businesses which concern all " is " most safe for 
 the relief of the whole," are prefixed to the copy of the 
 first Constitution. 
 
 2. THE CAPITAL LAWS, ESTABLISHED, 1642. 
 These, as was before stated, are copied, with little alter- 
 ation, from the capital laws of Massachusetts. 
 3. THE FIRST CONNECTICUT CODE. 
 
 This code, adopted by the General Court, May, 1650, 
 was compiled, probably, by Roger Ludlow, who, in 
 April, 1646, was desired "to take some pains in drawing 
 forth a Body of Laws for the government of this Com- 
 monwealth, and present them to the next General Court." 
 The work was not completed in May, 1647, and it was then 
 ordered, that when the Body of Laws should be perfected, 
 
 *Dr. Bushnell's Historical Estimate ("Work and Play," p. 177).
 
 INTRODUCTION. 39 
 
 as the Court had desired, Mr. Ludlow " should, besides 
 the paying the hire of a man, be further considered for 
 his pains." Nothing more, concerning the progress and 
 completion of the work, appears on the records, until 
 February, 1651, when the Court ordered compensation 
 to the Secretary for "his great pains in drawing out and 
 transcribing the Country Orders, concluded and estab- 
 lished in May last." Colonial Records, i. 138, 154, 216. 
 
 The code comprises all laws of general concernment 
 enacted by the General Court, and remaining in force in 
 May, 1650, with large additions, most of which were taken 
 from the laws of Massachusetts. 
 
 4. ORDERS OF THE CONNECTICUT COURT, 1636-1662. 
 
 Under this head are comprised some orders which were 
 repealed before the adoption of the code of 1650, and 
 some which were made between 1650 and the re-estab- 
 lishment under the Charter, in 1662 ; with a few judg- 
 ments rendered and sentences pronounced by the General 
 and Particular Courts. 
 
 The Particular Court, or Court of Magistrates, was 
 constituted (under the xoth Fundamental Order of the 
 Constitution) of the Governor and at least four other 
 magistrates: after February, 1645, of the Governor 
 or Deputy Governor and three other magistrates. Col- 
 onial Records, i. 71, 119. 
 
 5. THE FUNDAMENTAL AGREEMENT OF THE PLANTERS 
 OF NEW HAVEN. 
 
 This agreement the Constitution of New Haven col- 
 ony was adopted by "all the free planters," June i4th, 
 1639, and continued in force until the Union of the two 
 colonies in 1665. 
 
 It differs from the Connecticut constitution, radically, 
 by restricting to church-members the management of 
 public affairs and the right of suffrage. Mr. Hooker 
 maintained that "the foundation of authority is laid, 
 firstly, in the free consent of \\\Q people." Mr. Davenport 
 believed that in "a new plantation, where all, or the 
 most considerable part of the free planters, profess their 
 purpose and desire of securing to themselves and their 
 posterity the pure and peaceable enjoyment of Christ's 
 ordinances," " such planters are bound, in laying the 
 foundations of Church and Civil State, to take order that 
 all the free burgesses be such as are in fellowship of the
 
 40 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Church or Churches which are or may be gathered 
 according to Christ," and " that this course will most 
 conduce to the common welfare of all."' 
 
 " If you call their adoption of this principle fanaticism, 
 it is to be remembered," says Dr. Bacon, " that the same 
 fanaticism runs through the history of England. How 
 long has any man in England been permitted to hold 
 office under the crown, without being a communicant in 
 the Church of England ? " 
 
 6. THE NEW HAVEN CODE OF LAWS. 1655. 
 
 "The laws in this code were passed at various times, 
 and perhaps collected and digested about 1648 or 1649, 
 though revised and in some degree altered in 1655, upon 
 the perusal by Governor Eaton of the " new book of 
 laws in the Massachusetts Colony," and the " small book 
 of laws newly come from England, Avhich is said to be 
 Mr. Cotton's." \ 
 
 "The laws which, at the Court's desire have been 
 drawn up by the governor," Theophilus Eaton, were 
 " read and seriously weighed by the Court, and by vote 
 concluded, and ordered to be sent to England to be 
 printed," at the October Court, 1655. J 
 
 In June, 1656, Gov. Eaton "informed the Court that 
 there is sent over now, in Mr. Garret's ship, 500 law 
 books, which Mr. Hopkins hath gotten printed," etc. 
 
 A copy of this volume of the New Haven Laws, 
 " printed by M. S. for Livewell Chapman," London, 
 1656, is in the Library of the American Antiquarian 
 Society at Worcester, Mass. Until lately, this copy was 
 regarded as perhaps unique, and in 1834 a transcript of 
 it was made, at the request of the General Assembly of 
 Connecticut, to be preserved in the office of the Secretary 
 of State. Since then, two copies of the original edition 
 
 * " A Discourse about Civil Government in a New Plantation 
 whose design is Religion," written (as Dr. Bacon has demonstrated) 
 by Davenport, though attributed, by its publisher, to John Cotton. 
 For an exposition of the New Haven constitution, and a defence of 
 the colonists from the stereotyped charges of " fanaticism and 
 bigotry," see Dr. Bacon's admirable Historical Discourses, pp. 25-32. 
 Extracts from the " Discourse about Civil Government" are given in. 
 his Appendix, pp. 289-292. 
 
 f C. J. Hoadly, in Preface to New Haven Colonial Records, vol. L 
 JNew Haven Records, ii. 154. %Ibid. 186.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 41 
 
 have been discovered (one of which is somewhat imper- 
 fect), and both are "now in the library of the late Mr. 
 George Brinley, of Hartford. 
 
 This code was first reprinted (from the manuscript 
 copy in the Secretary's Office) in 1838,' in a volume 
 entitled: "The Blue Laws of New Haven Colony, 
 usually called Blue Laws of Connecticut," etc. " Com- 
 piled by an Antiquarian." (Hartford, i2mo.) The Com- 
 piler was the Hon. R. R. Hinman, then Secretary 
 of State. Il was reprinted again and with absolute 
 accuracy by Mr. Hoadly, at the end of his second 
 volume of New Haven Colonial Records, in 1858. 
 7. LAWS AND JUDGMENTS OF THE NEW HAVEN 
 GENERAL COURT, BEFORE 1655. 
 
 What Hutchinson has said of early judicial proceed- 
 ings in Massachusetts is equally true for New Haven: 
 "Whilst they were without a code or body of laws, and 
 the colony had but just come to its birth, their sentences 
 seem to be adapted to the circumstances of a large 
 family of children and servants." A remark of Chief 
 Justice Smith, to the same effect, has been quoted (on 
 page 30). The judges, he says, "took up an authority 
 similar to that which every religious man exercises over 
 his own children and domestics." By the unanimous 
 agreement of the planters, the General Court was en- 
 trusted with the power not only of " declaring and 
 establishing, for the plantations, the laws of God," and 
 of " making and repealing orders for smaller matters, 
 not particularly determined in Scripture," but, gener- 
 ally, " with all care and diligence from time to time to 
 provide for the maintenance of the purity of religion and 
 suppress the contrary," etc. 
 
 " Their judicial proceedings," says Hutchinson (i. 83), 
 varied in very few circumstances from the Massachusetts ; 
 one, indeed, was a material one, that they had no jury, 
 neither in civil nor criminal cases. All matters of fact, 
 as well as law, were determined by the court." 
 
 From specimens of the true blue laws and judgments 
 of New Haven, we pass to 
 
 8. THE " BLUE LAW " FORGERIES OF PETERS. 
 
 His first reference to New Haven " Blue Laws " is as 
 follows : 
 
 " The lawgivers soon discovered that the precepts in the Old and
 
 42 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 New Testaments were insufficient to support them in their arbitrary 
 and bloody undertakings : they, therefore, gave themselves up to 
 their own inventions in making others, wherein, in some instances, 
 they betrayed such an extreme degree of wanton cruelty and oppres- 
 sion, that even the rigid fanatics of Boston and the mad zealots of 
 Hartford, put to the blush, christened them the Blue Laws ; and the 
 former held a day of thanksgiving, because God, in his good provi- 
 dence, had stationed Eaton and Davenport so far from taeiu " 
 (Peters's " History," p. 43). 
 
 After giving a " sketch of some of these laws " (which 
 will be found in this volume), he remarks that 
 
 " They consist of a vast multitude, and were very properly termed 
 Blue Laws, i. e. bloody Laws ; for they were all sanctified with 
 excommunication, confiscation, fines, banishment, whippings, cut- 
 ting off the ears, burning the tongue, and death. . . . And did not 
 similar laws still [that is, in 1782] prevail over New England as the 
 common law of the country, I would have left them in silence," etc. 
 (pp. 69, 70). 
 
 Writers who have copied the " blue law " fiction seem 
 to have overlooked the very important statement which is 
 here italicized. That the provision that " every male 
 should have his hair cut round according to a cap " (or 
 " the hard shell of a pumpkin ") and the law forbidding 
 the making of mince-pies were in force not only in New 
 Haven colony, but that they or " similar laws " still pre- 
 vailed over New England, in' the last quarter of the 
 eighteenth century is a fact which the Bishop of Oxford 
 and the Rev. Isaac Taylor would have done well to note. 
 
 The definition of ' blue ' by ' bloody ' was probably 
 original with Peters. It is amusing to see how unsuspi- 
 ciously it has been adopted by believers in the " Blue 
 Laws." When we tell a friend that he is " looking blue" 
 we do not usually intend to convey the impression that 
 his aspect is remarkably sanguine or sanguinary. 
 
 9. EARLY LAWS AND JUDGMENTS OF OTHER COLONIES. 
 
 For comparison, in " quaintness, bluntness, particular- 
 ity, and antiquated excess of penalty," with the laws of 
 Connecticut and New Haven, some specimens of laws 
 enacted in several other American colonies particular- 
 ly New York, and Virginia, are grouped under the 
 several heads: Crimes and Punishments; Laws against 
 Dissenters, Quakers, Papists, and Disturbers of the 
 Church ; and Sumptuary Laws, regulating dress, diet, 
 and expenditure, with some other curiosities of legis- 
 lation.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 43 
 
 Peters's Blue Laws have often been reprinted, and 
 several compilations, more or less complete, of the early 
 laws of Connecticut and New Haven have been published 
 under the name of " Blue Laws." Some of these may be 
 named here, beginning with 
 
 A General History of Connecticut. ... By a Gentleman of the 
 Province. London, 1781. 8vo. 
 
 The same ivork, with a new title-page (and a " p. s." of three lines 
 on the last page of the text, mentioning the death of the Rev. 
 Nathaniel Hooker of Hartford), called " Second Edition." London, 
 1782. 
 
 TTie same : " To which is added, A Supplement verifying many 
 important statements made by the author. Illustrated with eight 
 engravings." New Haven, Published by D. Clark and Co., 1829. 
 12 mo. 
 
 This reprint has an additional preface of Spaces, and a Supple- 
 ment (of Notes) of 87 pp. (319405). The editor has hitherto ts- 
 cnpcd detection, or, if suspected, has not been absolutely con- 
 victed. 
 
 The Code of 1650 : being a compilation of the Laws and Orders of 
 the General Court of Connecticut : also, the Constitution, or civil 
 Compact, entered into and adopted by the towns of Windsor, 
 Hartford, and Wethersfield, in 1638-9. To which is added, Some 
 Extracts from the Laws and Judicial Proceedings of New Haven 
 Colony, commonly called BLUE LAWS. Hartford, Published by Silas 
 Andrus, 1822. (12 mo, pp. 120.) 
 
 Some copies had, by way of frontispiece, a coarse wood-cat repre- 
 senting the arrest of a tobacco-taker, by a constable. 
 
 The Code of 1650 was first printed in this volume and with 
 creditable accuracy. Peters's "Blue Laws" are not include-l in 
 the compilation. Like other publications of Mr. Andrus, this 
 book was a favorite with the book-peddlers, by whose agency 
 several editions of it were scattered through the country. 
 
 The same: Hartford, Silas Andrus, 1825. I2mo, pp. 119. 
 Woodcut. 
 
 The same : with a new title-page only. Hartford, S. Andrus & 
 Son. n. d. I2mo, pp. 119. 
 
 The Blue Laws of New Haven Colony, usually called the Blue 
 Laws of Connecticut ; Quaker Laws of Massachusetts ; Blue Laws 
 of New York [and other colonies] .... Compiled by an Antiqua- 
 rian. Hartford, 1838. I2mo. pp. 336. 
 
 The compiler WHS Royal R. Hlnmnn, who was Secretary of Con- 
 necticut, 18o5 1842. The New Haven Code of 1655 was for tins 
 first time reprinted, in this volume, from a manuscript copy (in 
 the Secretary's Office) of the London edition of 1656, Peters'a 
 "Blue Laws" arc found on pages 121 124. 
 
 The Blu* Lnws of Connecticut. [The Code of 1650, and Laws and 
 Orders of 1638 39.] Cincinnati, 1850. 12mo. 
 
 The Blue T.aws of Connecticut : a Collection of the earliest statutes 
 and judicial proceedings of that Colony; being an exhibition of the 
 rigorous morals and legislation of the Puritans. Edited, with an
 
 44: INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Introduction, by Samuel M. Smucker, LL. D. Philadelphia, 1861. 
 I2mo. 
 
 This editor, like some of his predecessors, mistakes the 
 Connecticut code of 1650 for "the celebrated code at 
 present stigmatized as the 'Blue Laws.' " The fabulous 
 code of New Haven colony was so ' stigmatized ' by 
 Peters and those who believed or professed to believe 
 his story; but the name was not given, till the present 
 generation, to the genuine Connecticut code of 1650, or to 
 any laws enacted by Connecticut. 
 
 Every now and then, some English or Scotch writer 
 parades the choicest specimens of Peters's collection as 
 genuine " curiosities of Puritan legislation," or as " afford- 
 ing a curious picture of life in this Puritan Utopia." 
 Only a few years ago, a paper on the " Blue Laws " was 
 published in Slack-wood's Magazine (for April, 1870), in 
 which the old story was repeated, that 
 
 " In the Blue Laws of New Haven, which were not, however, 
 drawn up or codified by the State of Connecticut [why should they 
 have been ?], it was ordered that no one should ' travel, cook victuals, 
 make beds, sweep house, cut hair, or shave on the Sabbath-Day ; 
 that no woman should kiss her child on the Sabbath or Fasting-day, 
 that no one should keep Christmas or Saint days ; and that every 
 male should have his hair cut round, according to a cap? 1 ' "Such 
 were the Blue Laws," etc., etc. 
 
 This article contains, in its dozen pages, more mis- 
 statements than even Peters managed to condense in the 
 same compass. The writer tells us that " the laws 
 codified by Roger Ludlow [i. e. the Connecticut laws of 
 1650] were the famous 'Blue Laws;'" that "the phrase 
 Avas suggested by the old English phrase of ' the blues,' 
 and ' blue-devils ' [which, as every English scholar 
 knows, are not old English phrases] and the common 
 vulgarism 'to look blue; ' " that "this code remained in 
 operation until 1686, when Sir Edward Andros sus- 
 pended the charter of the Colony, as well as the 
 Puritanic laws " [Sir Edmund Andros assumed the gov- 
 ernment of Connecticut in 1687, and did not suspend the 
 " puritanic laws," though he promulgated some new 
 laws; but the whole body of Connecticut laws, includ- 
 ing the code of 1650, had been revised, amended, 
 re-codified, and published, in 1673, long before Andres's 
 coming] ; that shortly after the completion of his task of 
 codification, " the worthy Justice Ludlow was publicly
 
 INTRODUCTION. 45 
 
 called ' Justass Ludlow,' by one Captain Stone," and 
 "for this offence the Captain was fined ^100," etc. 
 [Captain Stone's offence was committed and punished 
 in Massachusetts, two years before Connecticut was 
 settled, and about seventeen years before the Connecti- 
 cut laws were codified] ; and the " one significant para- 
 graph by Roger Ludlow," which is quoted is, in fact, 
 the declaration of rights prefixed to the Massachusetts 
 "Body of Liberties" of 1640, and adopted by Connec- 
 ticut, nearly word for word, in 1650.* It was this article, 
 perhaps, which suggested the remarks made by the late 
 Rev. Dr. John Todd, in a conversation with an intelli- 
 gent Scotch traveller who subsequently published his 
 impressions of "The Americans at Home." f 
 
 " Speaking of the old Puritan strictness, and of the so-called Blue 
 Laws of Connecticut, the Doctor said : ' I have been amused to see 
 that some of your writers imagine that there really were such laws in 
 New England. The whole thing is an absurd fiction. ... It was 
 not wonderful, perhaps, that people so ignorant about us as the 
 English were should have been hoaxed into the belief that there 
 had really been laws in Connecticut making it penal for a man to 
 kiss his wife on Sundays, and all that nonsense ; but to find some of 
 your living writers still falling into an error so preposterous, is very 
 melancholy. What would you think of an American, writing about 
 England, and quoting ' Jack and the Bean Stalk ' as an authentic 
 historical 'work ? " 
 
 " These Blue Laws," says the writer in Blackwood's, 
 " were of five kinds general, theological, municipal, 
 commercial, and personal." A somewhat similar clas- 
 sification might be made, of the writers who believe 
 or profess to believe the Blue-Law story. Perhaps 
 the " theological " believers are the most numerous. 
 English churchmen, particularly, find it difficult not 
 to believe in the fabricated code which has so con- 
 veniently been appropriated in pios usus, or that laws 
 forbidding the making of mince-pies and playing on 
 any musical instrument, " except the drum, trumpet, 
 and jews* harp," were not the natural and necessary 
 fruits of schism. There seems to be, in some minds, 
 an honest doubt, whether the prohibition in the ninth 
 
 *This article was put to a better use than it deserved, by Mr. 
 Wm. L. Kingsley who made it the target of " A Long-range Shot," 
 in The New Englander, for April, 1871 (vol. xxx., pp. 284-304). 
 
 f By David Macrae. 2 vols. Edinburgh, 1870. The passage was 
 quoted by Mr. J. A. Picton, in " Notes and Queries," January, 1871.
 
 46 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 commandment really extends to witness borne against 
 New England puritanism. 
 
 Several communications on the Blue Laws appeared 
 in "Notes and Queries," in 1871. In the number for 
 March 4th (4th Series, vii. 191) the Rev.J. A. Picton, after 
 searching all the authorities within his reach, presented 
 the result of his inquiries. The work on which he was 
 obliged mainly to rely was the little volume published 
 by Silas Andrus, in 1825, as a chap book with its 
 rude frontispiece, representing the arrest of a tobacco- 
 taker; but he had also examined what that compila- 
 tion did not include the genuine New Haven Code 
 of 1655. Of course, he found, neither in this, nor in 
 the Connecticut Code of 1650, "the slightest traces of 
 the absurdities usually attached to the idea of the Blue 
 Laws" Mr. Picton went further, and "having seen 
 what the Connecticut and New Haven Codes are not" 
 was at the pains of" stating what they really are " with 
 an intelligent appreciation that it is really refreshing 
 to meet with in an English periodical. He is mistaken 
 as to the identification of church and state even in 
 New Haven Colony, where only church-members were 
 entrusted with the privileges of freemen certainly, 
 in Connecticut; and he seemingly exaggerates the 
 severity of these codes as compared with the laws of 
 England, at the same period by his reference to " the 
 ruthless sacrifice of human life," which they exacted. 
 
 "They are," writes Mr. Picton, "very valuable illustrations of the 
 tone and temper of mind of the stern pioneers who went out to 
 people the wilderness, and whose customs, manners, and civil and 
 religious opinions have been the normal type after which the great 
 American commonwealth has been modeled. The founders of New 
 England were resolute God-fearing men of the Roundhead stamp. 
 In the foundation of their institutions, the following principles lie 
 at the base : 
 
 1. Perfect equality and mutual responsibility amongst all the 
 members of the commonwealth. 
 
 2. The identity of Church and State, with the necessary corollary 
 that all laws should be founded on the Word of God. 
 
 3. The obligation of the civil magistrate to enforce ecclesiastical 
 discipline. 
 
 4. That the law should take cognizance of immorality as well as 
 of crime. 
 
 These principles were logically and relentlessly carried out into 
 practice : sometimes making one shudder at the ruthless sacrifice of 
 human life, and at other times raising a smile at the ludicrous 
 minuteness with which the law intermeddled with private affairs.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 4.7 
 
 (i.) The Enactments of the Code breathe the true spirit of freedom 
 and equal rights, the system of manhood-suffrage and annual elections 
 containing the germ of the future institutions of the United States. 
 Several of these laws are far in advance of their age, such as voting 
 by written papers, freedom of debtors from arrest except in case of 
 fraud, etc. 
 
 (2.) The Word of God was held to be supreme in all cases not 
 otherwise provided for by the law, and all enactments were supposed 
 to be founded thereon. Unfortunately it was the Mosaic Code 
 rather than the Gospel, which was resorted to 
 
 (3 & 4.) The ecclesiastical discipline enforced by the magistrate 
 descended to the ordinary intercourse of private life, in the most 
 minute particulars. 
 
 On this point, Mr. Picton cited from the New Haven 
 Records, May, 1660, the proceedings in the case of two 
 young persons, "the charge being that, after some 
 chaffing, Jacob had taken away Sarah's gloves." We 
 have no objection to joining him in a laugh over this 
 or other illustrations of the strictness with which, in 
 "the day of small things," the rule of righteousness 
 was applied to the conduct of individuals. Indeed, 
 some pains has been taken, in making selections for 
 this volume, to amuse good-natured readers, as well 
 as to remove unfounded prejudices and correct populai 
 misconceptions. Connecticut can well afford to let 
 her records go to the world. "There is no State in 
 the Union," wrote Mr. Bancroft, "and I know not any 
 in the world, in whose early history, if I were a citizen, 
 I could find more of which to be proud, and less that I 
 should wish to blot." " Nearly two centuries have 
 elapsed," the same historian has said elsewhere, 
 "the world has been wiser by various experience, 
 political institutions have become the theme on which 
 the most powerful and cultivated minds have been 
 employed, dynasties of kings have been dethroned, 
 recalled, dethroned again, and so many constitutions 
 have been framed or reformed, stifled or subverted, 
 that memory may despair of a completed catalogue; 
 but the people of Connecticut have found no reason 
 to deviate from the government established by their 
 fathers." The state came to be known as "the land of 
 steady habits," and was proud of the name. It was her 
 boast that her sons were " antiqua virtute ac fide " 
 which, according to Ainsworth, is the Latin equivalent
 
 48 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of " TRUE BLUE WILL NEVER STAIN." (" Di boni ! " said 
 
 Terence's Demea, 
 
 " Nae illiusmodi jam nobis magna civium 
 Penuria 'st, homo antiqua virtute ac fide : 
 Haud cito mail quid ortum ex hoc sit publice.") 
 
 And to the charge that " the advancement of political 
 science, generated by our Revolution, had neither changed 
 her constitution nor affected her steady habits" one of 
 her poets replied, in 1804: 
 
 " Straight on her course she firmly steers, 
 
 Nor jibes, nor tacks, nor scuds, nor veers, 
 
 Not the whole force they all can yield, 
 
 Can drive her vet'rans from the field, 
 
 The same pure, patriotic fires 
 
 Which warm'd the bosoms of their Sires, 
 
 That generous, that effulgent flame, 
 
 Which glow'd in WINTHROP'S deathless name, 
 
 Unsullied through their bosoms runs, 
 
 Inspires and animates her sons." 
 
 The Constitution of 1638-9, "the first one written 
 out, as a complete frame of civil order, in the new 
 world, embodies," said Dr. Bushnell, in his noble 
 Speech for Connecticut, "all the essential features of 
 the constitutions of our States, and of the Republic 
 itself, as they exist at the present day. It is the 
 free representative plan, which now distinguishes our 
 country in the eyes of the world." Mr. Calhoun de- 
 clared in the Senate of the United States, that it was 
 owing mainly to two States, Connecticut and New 
 Jersey, that we have, as a nation, " the best government 
 instead of the worst and most intolerant on earth. Who 
 are the men of the States to whom we are indebted for 
 this admirable government ? I will name them," he 
 said, " their names ought to be engraved on brass and 
 live forever. They were Chief-Justice ELLSWORTH, 
 ROGER SHERMAN, and Judge PATTERSON of New Jersey. 
 . . . To the coolness and sagacity of these three men, 
 aided by a few others, not so prominent, we owe the 
 present Constitution."
 
 LIBERTY UNDER LAW. 
 
 "I fully assent to those staple prirtciples which you set down ; to 
 wit, that the people should choose some from amongst them, that 
 they should refer matter of counsel to their counsellors, matter of ju- 
 dicature to their judges ; only, the question here grows, what rule 
 the judge must have to judge by? secondly, who those counsellors 
 must be? 
 
 " That in the matter which is referred to the judge, the sentence 
 should lie in his breast or be left to his discretion, according to which 
 he should go, I am afraid it is a course which wants both safety and 
 warrant. I must confess, I ever looked at it as a way which leads 
 directly to tyranny and so to confusion, and must plainly profess, if 
 it was in my liberty, I should choose neither to live nor leave my 
 posterity under such a government. Sit liber judex, as the lawyers 
 speak. 17 Deut., 10, n, 'Thou shalt observe to do according to all 
 that they inform, according to the sentence of the Law' Thou shalt 
 seek the Law at his mouth : not ask what his discretion allows, but 
 what the Law re-quires. And therefore the Apostles, when the rulers 
 and high priest passed sentence against their preaching, as prejudi- 
 cial to the State, the Apostle Peter made it not dainty to profess and 
 practice contrary to their charge, because their sentence was contrary 
 to law, though they might have pretended discretion and depth of 
 wisdom and policy in their charge. 
 
 "And we know in other countries, had not the law overruled the 
 lusts of men and the crooked ends of judges, many times, both places 
 and people had been, in reason, past all relief, in many cases of diffi-s 
 culty. You will know what the heathen man said, by the candle- 
 light of common sense ; 'The law is not subject to passion, nor to be 
 taken aside with self-seeking ends, and therefore ought to have 
 chief rule over rulers themselves.' 
 
 "Its's also a truth, that counsel should be sought from counsellors ; 
 but the question yet is, who those should be ? Reserving small mat- 
 ters, which fall in occasionally in common course, to a lower counsel, 
 in matters of greater consequence, which concern the common good, 
 a general counsel, chosen by all, to transact businesses which con- 
 cern all, I conceive, under favor, most suitable to rule and most safe 
 for relief of the whole. This was the practice of the Jewish church, 
 directed by God, Deut., 17 : 10, n ; 2 Chron., 19 ;and the approved 
 experience of the best ordered States give in evidence this way.
 
 Solomon's one wise man, and the one wise woman in Abel that 
 delivered the city, shows the excellency of wisdom and counsel 
 where it is, but doth not conclude that one or few should be counsel- 
 lors, since 'in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.'" Rev, 
 Thomas Hooker's Letter to Gov. Winthrop of Massachusetts, 1638. 
 
 THE PEOPLE'S PRIVILEGE OF ELECTION; ABSTRACT 
 
 OF MR. HOOKER'S DISCOURSE BEFORE THE GENERAL 
 
 COURT AT HARTFORD, MAY 31, 1638. 
 
 Deut. I. 13. "Take you wise men, and understanding, and known 
 among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you." (Captains 
 over thousands, and captains over hundreds over fifties over tens 
 etc.) 
 
 Doctrine. I. That the choice of public magistrates belongs unto 
 the people, by God's own allowance. 
 
 II. The privilege of election, which belongs to the people, there- 
 fore must not be exercised according to their humours, but according 
 to the blessed will and law of God. 
 
 III. They who have power to appoint officers and magistrates, it 
 is in their power, also, to set the bounds and limitations of the power 
 and place unto which they call them. 
 
 Reasons. I. Because the foundation of authority is laid, firstly, in 
 the free consent of the people. 
 
 2. Because, by a free choice, the hearts of the people will be more 
 inclined to the love of the persons chosen and more ready to yield 
 obedience. 
 
 3. Because of that duty and engagement of the people. 
 Uses. The lesson taught is threefold : 
 
 1st, There is matter of thankful acknowledgment in the appre- 
 ciation of God's faithfulness toward us, and the permission of these 
 measures that God doth command and vouchsafe. 
 
 adly, Of reproof to dash the conceits of all those that shall oppose 
 it. 
 
 3dly, Of exhortation to persuade us, as God hath given us Liberty, 
 to take it. 
 
 And lastly, as God hath spared our lives, and given us them in 
 liberty, so to seek the guidance of God, and to choose in God and/0r 
 God.
 
 I. 
 
 FIRST CONSTITUTION OF CONNECTICUT. 
 
 FUNDAMENTAL LAWS, ADOPTED BY THE INHABITANTS 
 OF THE THREE RIVER TOWNS, 1638-9. 
 
 FORASMUCH as it hath pleased the Almighty God by 
 the wise disposition of his divine providence so to 
 order and dispose of things that we the inhabi- 
 tants and residents of Windsor, Harteford, and "Weth- 
 ersfield are now cohabiting and dwelling in and upon 
 the River of Conectecotte and the lands thereunto 
 adjoining ; and well knowing where a people are gath- 
 ered together the word of God requires that to main- 
 tain the peace and union of such a people there should 
 be an orderly and decent Government established ac- 
 cording to God, to order and dispose of the affairs 
 of the people at all seasons as occasion shall require ; 
 do therefore associate and conjoin ourselves to be as 
 one Public State or Commonwealth ; and do, for our- 
 selves and our Successors, and such as shall be adjoined 
 to us at any time hereafter, enter into combination and 
 confederation together, to maintain and preserve the 
 liberty and purity of the gospel of our Lord Jesus 
 which we now profess, as also the discipline of the 
 Churches, which according to the truth of the said 
 gospel is now practiced amongst us ; as also in our 
 Civil Affairs to be guided and governed according to 
 
 51
 
 52 FIRST CONSTITUTION 
 
 such laws, rules, orders, and decrees, as shall lie made 
 ordered and decreed, as followeth : 
 
 1. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that there 
 shall be yearly two General Assemblies or Courts, the 
 one the second Thursday in April, the other the second 
 Thursday in September following ; the first shall be 
 called the Court of Election, wherein shall be yearly 
 chosen from time to time so many magistrates and 
 other public officers as shall be found requisite : where- 
 of one to be chosen Governor for the year ensuing and 
 until another be chosen, and no other magistrate to be 
 chosen for more than one year ; provided always there 
 be six chosen besides the Governor ; which being cho- 
 sen and sworn according to an oath recorded for that 
 purpose, shall have power to administer justice accord- 
 ing to the laws here established, and for want thereof 
 according to the rule of the word of God ; which 
 choice shall be made by all that are admitted freemen 
 and have taken the Oath of Fidelity, and do cohabit 
 within this jurisdiction, (having been admitted inhab- 
 itants by the major part of the town wherein they live,*) 
 or the major part of such as shall be then present. 
 
 2. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that the 
 election of the aforesaid magistrate shall be on this 
 manner : every person present and qualified for choice 
 shall bring in ( to the persons deputed to receive them) 
 one single paper, with the name of him written in it 
 whom he desires to have Governor, and he that hath 
 the greatest number of papers shall be Governor for 
 that year. And the rest of the magistrates or public 
 officers to be chosen in this manner : The secretary for 
 
 * This clause has been interlined, in a different handwriting and 
 at a more recent period.
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 53 
 
 the time being shall first read the names of all that 
 are to be put to choice and then shall severally nomi- 
 nate them distinctly, and every one that would have 
 the person nominated to be chosen shall bring in one 
 single paper written upon, and he that would not have 
 him chosen shall bring in a blank ; and every one that 
 hath more written papers than blanks shall be a magis- 
 trate for that year ; which papers shall be received and 
 told by one or more that shall be then chosen by the 
 court and sworn to be faithful therein ; but in case 
 there should not be six chosen as aforesaid, besides the 
 Governor, out of those which are nominated, then he 
 or they which have the most written papers shall be a 
 magistrate or magistrates for the ensuing year, to 
 make up the foresaid number. 
 
 3. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that the 
 secretary shall not nominate any person, nor shall 
 any person be chosen newly into the magistracy, which 
 was not propounded in some General Court before, to 
 be nominated the next election ; and to that end it 
 shall be lawful for each of the towns aforesaid by their 
 deputies to nominate any two whom they conceive fit to 
 be put to election ; and the court may add so many 
 more as they judge requisite. 
 
 4. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that no per- 
 son be chosen Governor above once in two years, and 
 that the Governor be always a member of some ap- 
 proved congregation, and formerly of the magistracy 
 within this jurisdiction ; and all the magistrates, free- 
 men of this commonwealth : and that no magistrate or 
 other public officer shall execute any part of his or 
 their office before they are severally sworn, which 
 shall be done in the face of the court if they be pre-
 
 54: FIRST CONSTITUTION 
 
 sent, and in case of absence by some deputed for that 
 purpose. 
 
 5. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that to the 
 aforesaid Court of election the several towns shall 
 send their deputies, and when the elections are ended 
 they may proceed in any public service as at other 
 courts. Also the other General Court in September 
 shall be for making of laws, and any other public oc- 
 casion which concerns the good of the commonwealth. 
 
 6. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that the 
 Governor shall, either by himself or by the secretary, 
 send out summons to the constables of every town 
 for the calling of these two standing courts, one 
 month at least before their several times : And also 
 if the Governor and the greatest part of the magis- 
 trates see cause upon any special occasion to call a 
 General Court, they may give order to the secretary 
 so to do within fourteen days warning: and if urgent 
 necessity so require, upon a shorter notice, giving 
 sufficient grounds for it to the deputies when they 
 meet, or else be questioned for the same ; And if the 
 Governor and major part of magistrates shall either 
 neglect or refuse to call the two general standing 
 courts or either of them, as also at other times when 
 the occasions of the commonwealth require, the free- 
 men thereof, or the major part of them, shall petition 
 to them so to do : if then it be either denied or neg- 
 lected, the said freemen or the major part of them 
 shall have power to give order to the constables of 
 the several towns to do the same, and so may meet 
 together, and choose to themselves a moderator, and 
 may proceed to do any act of power which any other 
 General Court may.
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 55 
 
 7. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that after 
 there are warrants given out for any of the said Gen- 
 eral Courts, the constable or constables of each town 
 shall forthwith give notice distinctly to the inhab- 
 itants of the same, in some public assembly or by go- 
 ing or sending from house to house, that at a place 
 and time by him or them limited and set, they meet 
 and assemble themselves together to elect and choose 
 certain deputies to be at the General Court then fol- 
 lowing, to agitate the affairs of the commonwealth ; 
 which said deputies shall be chosen by all that are 
 admitted inhabitants in the several towns and have 
 taken the oath of fidelity;* provided that none be 
 chosen a deputy for any General Court which is not 
 a freeman of this commonwealth. 
 
 The foresaid deputies shall be chosen in manner 
 following: every person that is present and qualified 
 as before expressed, shall bring the names of such, 
 written in several papers, as they desire to have 
 chosen for that employment, and these three or four, 
 more or less, being the number agreed on to be chosen 
 for that time, that have the greatest number of papers 
 written for them, shall be deputies for that court ; whose 
 names shall be endorsed on the back side of the war- 
 rant and returned into the court, with the constable 
 or constables' hand unto the same. 
 
 8. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that "Wind- 
 sor, Hartford, and Wethersfield shall have power, each 
 
 * " Whereas in the Fundamental Order it is said 'that such who 
 have taken the oath of fidelity and are admitted inhabitants' shall 
 be allowed as qualified for choosing of deputies, the Court declares 
 their judgment, that such only shall be counted admitted inhabi- 
 tants, who are admitted by a general vote of the major part of the 
 town that receiveth them." Voted, Nov, 10, 1643,
 
 56 FIRST CONSTITUTION 
 
 town, to send four of their freedmen as their depu- 
 ties to every General Court ; and whatsoever other 
 towns shall be hereafter added to this jurisdiction, 
 they shall send so many deputies as the court shall 
 judge meet, a reasonable proportion to the number of 
 freemen that are in the said towns being to be attended 
 therein ; which deputies shall have the power of the 
 whole town to give their votes and allowance to all 
 such laws and orders as may be for the public good, 
 and unto which the said towns are to be bound. 
 
 9. It is Ordered and decreed, that the deputies 
 thus chosen shall have power and liberty to appoint 
 a time and a place of meeting together before any 
 General Court, to advise and consult of all such things 
 as may concern the good of the public, as also to ex- 
 amine their own elections, whether according to the 
 order, and if they or the greatest part of them find 
 any election to be illegal they may seclude such for 
 present from their meeting, and return the same and 
 their reasons to the court ; and if it prove true, the 
 court may fine the party or parties so intruding and 
 the town, if they see cause, and give out a warrant to 
 go to a new election in a legal way, either in part or 
 in whole. Also the said deputies shall have power to 
 fine any that shall be disorderly at their meetings, or 
 for not coming in due time or place according to ap- 
 pointment ; and they may return the said fines into 
 the court if it be refused to be paid, and the treasurer 
 to take notice of it, and to estreat or levy the same 
 as he doth other fines. 
 
 10. it is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that every 
 General Court, except such as through neglect of the 
 Governor aud the greatest part of magistrates the
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 57 
 
 freemen themselves do call, shall consist of the Gov- 
 ernor, or some one chosen to moderate the court, and 
 four other magistrates at least, with the major part 
 of the deputies of the several towns legally chosen ; 
 and in case the freemen or major part of them, through 
 neglect or refusal of the Governor and major part of 
 the magistrates, shall call a court, it shall consist of 
 the major part of freemen that are present or their 
 deputies, with a moderator chosen by them : In which 
 said General Courts shall consist the supreme power 
 of the Commonwealth, and they only shall have power 
 to make laws or repeal them, to grant levies, to admit 
 of freomsn, dispose of lands undisposed of, to several 
 towns or persons, and also shall have power to call 
 either court or magistrate or any other person whatso- 
 ever into question for any misdemeanor, and may for 
 just causes displace, ordeal otherwise, according to the 
 nature of the offence ; and also may deal in any other 
 matter that concerns the good of this commonwealth, 
 except election of magistrates, which shall be done by 
 the whole body of freemen. 
 
 In which Court the Governor or Moderator shall 
 have power to order the court,to give liberty of speech, 
 and silence unseasonable and disorderly speakings, to 
 put all things to vote, and in case the vote be equal to 
 have the casting voice. But none of these courts shall 
 be adjourned or dissolved without the consent of the 
 major part of the court. 
 
 11. It is ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that when 
 any General Court upon the occasions of the common- 
 wealth have agreed upon any sum or sums of money 
 to be levied upon the several towns within this Juris- 
 diction, that a committee be chosen to set out and ap- 
 point what shall be the proportion of every town to
 
 58 OFFICIAL OATHS- 
 
 pay of the said levy ; provided the committees be made 
 up of an equal number out of each town. 
 
 14th January, 1638-39, the 11 Orders above said 
 are voted. 
 
 THE OATH OF THE GOVERNOR, FOR THE PRESENT. 
 
 I, N. W. being now chosen to be Governor within 
 this Jurisdiction for the year ensuing, arid until a 
 new be chosen, do swear by the great and dreadful 
 name of the everliving God, to promote the public 
 good and peace of the same, according to the best of 
 my skill; as also will maintain all lawful privileges of 
 this commonwealth ; as also that all wholesome laws 
 that are or shall be made by lawful authority here 
 established, be duly executed; and will further the 
 execution of justice according to the rule of God's 
 word ; so help me God, in the name of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 THE OATH OF A MAGISTRATE, FOR THE PRESENT. 
 
 I, K. W. being chosen a Magistrate within this Ju- 
 risdiction for the year ensuing, do swear by the great 
 and dreadful name of the everliving God, to promote 
 the public good and peace of the same, according to 
 the best of my skill, and that I will maintain all the 
 lawful privileges thereof according to my under- 
 standing, as also assist in the execution of all such 
 wholesome laws as are made or shall be made by 
 lawful authority here established, and will further the 
 execution of Justice for the time aforesaid, according 
 to the righteous rule of God's word; so help me 
 God, etc. 
 
 THE OATH OF A CONSTABLE. 
 
 I, A. B., of W, do swear by the great and dreadful
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 59 
 
 name of the overliving God, that for the year ensuing, 
 and until a new be chosen, I will faithfully execute 
 the office and place of a Constable, for and within the 
 said plantation of W. and the limits thereof, and that 
 I will endeavour to preserve the public peace of the 
 said place, and Commonwealth, and will do my best 
 endeavour to see all watches and wards executed, and 
 to obey and execute all lawful commands or warrants 
 that come from any Magistrate or Magistrates or 
 Court; so help me God, in the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 II. 
 
 CAPITAL LAWS. 
 
 CAPITAL LAWS ESTABLISHED BY THE GENERAL COURT, 
 THE FIRST OF DECEMBER, 1642.* 
 
 1. If any man after legal conviction shall have or 
 worship any other God but the Lord God, he shall be 
 put to death. Deut. 13. G, and 17. 2 : Ex. 22. 20. 
 
 2. If any man or woman be a witch ( that is, hath or 
 cbnsulteth with a familiar spirit,) they shall be put to 
 death. Ex. 22. 18: Lev. 20. 27: Deut. 18. 10, 11. 
 
 3. If any person shall blaspheme the name of God, 
 
 *A11 these are copied from the capital laws of Massachusetts, es- 
 tablished (with her Body of Liberties ), Dec. 1641, except the 9th 
 (against rape of a married or betrothed woman ) which was enacted 
 by Massachusetts, in June, 1G42. One of the Massachusetts laws, 
 punishing -manslaughter with death, was not adopted by Connecti- 
 cut, and only the first clause of the Massachusetts law against con- 
 spiracy, rebellion, etc., waa taken.
 
 60 CAPITAL LAWS. 
 
 the Father, Son or Holy Ghost, with direct, express, 
 presumptuous, or highhanded blasphemy, or shall curse 
 God in the like manner, he shall be put to death. 
 Lev. 24. 15, 16. 
 
 4. If any person shall commit any wilful murder, 
 which is manslaughter committed upon malice, hatred, 
 or cruelty, not in a man's necessary and just defence, 
 nor by mere casualty against his will, he shall be put 
 to death. Ex. 21. 12, 13, 14. Numb. 35. 30, 31. 
 
 5. If any person shall slay another through guile, 
 either by poisonings or other such devilish practice, 
 he shall be put to death. Ex. 21. 14. 
 
 6. If any man or woman shall lie with any beast 
 or brute creature, by carnal copulation, they shall 
 surely be put to death, and the beast shall be slain and 
 buried. Lev. 20. 15, 16. 
 
 7. If any man lie with mankind as he lieth with a 
 woman, both of them have committed abomination, 
 they both shall surely be put to death. Lev. 20. 13. 
 
 8. If any person committeth adultery with a mar- 
 ried or espoused wife, the adulterer and the adulteress 
 shall surely be put to death. Lev. 20. 10, and 18. 
 20 : Deut. 22. 23, 24. 
 
 9. If any man shall forcibly and without consent 
 ravish any maid or woman that is lawfully married 
 or contracted, he shall be put to death. Deut. 22. 25. 
 
 10. If aay man stealeth a man or mankind, he shall 
 be put to death. Ex. 21. 16. 
 
 11. If any man rise up by false witness, wittingly 
 and of purpose to take away any man's life, he shall 
 be put to death. Deut. 19. 16, 18, 19. 
 
 12. If any man shall conspire or attempt any inva- 
 sion, insurrection or rebellion against the common- 
 wealth, he shall be put to death.
 
 III. 
 
 THE FIRST CODE OF LAWS, 
 
 ESTABLISHED BY THE GENERAL COURT OF CONNECTICUT, 
 MAY, 1650.* 
 
 Forasmuch f as the free fruition of such liberties, 
 immunities, and privileges, as humanity, civility, and 
 Christianity call for, as due to every man in his place 
 and proportion, without impeachment and infringe- 
 ment, hath ever been and ever will be the tranquillity 
 and stability of churches and commonwealths, and the 
 denial or deprival thereof, the disturbance if not ruin 
 of both :- 
 
 It is therefore ordered by this court and authority 
 thereof, that no man's life shall be taken away, no 
 man's honor or good name shall be stained, no man's 
 person shall be arrested, restrained, banished, dismem- 
 bered, nor any way punished, no man shall be deprived 
 of his wife or children, no man's goods or estate shall 
 be taken away from him, nor any ways endarnaged, 
 under color of law or countenance of authority, unless 
 it be by the virtue or equity of some express law of 
 the country warranting the same, established by a 
 
 * See the introduction, page 38. 
 
 t The preamble and the paragraph which follows are copied 
 from the Massachusetts Body of Liberties ( or from the Massachu- 
 setts Book of Laws printed in 1648 ). 
 
 61
 
 62 FIRST CODE 
 
 General Court and sufficiently published, or, in case of 
 the defect of a law in any particular case, by the word 
 of God. 
 
 ABILITY. 
 
 It is ordered by this court, that all persons of the 
 age of twenty-one years and of right understanding, 
 whether excommunicated, condemned, or other, shall 
 have full power and liberty to make their wills and 
 testaments, and other lawful alienations of their 
 lands and estates and may be plaintiffs in a civil case. 
 
 ACTIONS. 
 
 It is further ordered and decreed, that in all actions 
 brought to any court, the plaintiff shall have liberty 
 to withdraw his action, or to be nonsuited, before the 
 jury have given in their verdict, in which case he shall 
 always pay full costs and charges to the defendant, 
 and may afterward renew his suit at another court, 
 the former nonsuit being first recorded. 
 
 AGE. 
 
 It is ordered by this court and the authority there- 
 of, that the age fpr passing away of lands or such kind 
 of hereditaments, or for giving of votes, verdicts, or 
 sentences in any civil courts or causes, shall be twenty 
 and one years, but in case of choosing of guardians, 
 fourteen years. 
 
 AKKESTS. 
 
 It is ordered and decreed by this court and author- 
 'ity thereof, that no person shall be arrested or im- 
 prisoned for any debt or fine, if law can find any 
 competent means of satisfaction otherwise from his
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 63 
 
 estate ; and if not, liis person may be arrested and im- 
 prisoned, where lie shall be kept at his own charge, 
 not the plaintiff's, till satisfaction be made, unless the 
 court that had cognizance of the cause or some supe- 
 rior court shall otherwise determine ; provided never- 
 theless, that no man's person shall be kept in prison 
 for debt, but when there appears some estate which he 
 will not produce, to which end any court or commis- 
 sioners authorized by the general court may admin- 
 ister an oath to the party or any others suspected to 
 be privy in concealing his estate ; and if no estate 
 appear, he shall satisfy the debt by service, if the credi- 
 itor require it, but shall not be sold to any but of the 
 English nation. 
 
 ATTACHMENTS. 
 
 It is ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that the ordi- 
 nary summons or process for the present within this 
 jurisdiction and until other provision made to the con- 
 trary, be a warrant fairly written, under some magis- 
 trate or magistrates' hand or hands, mentioning the 
 time and place of appearance, and if the said party 
 or parties do not appear according to the said warrant 
 or summons, upon affidavit first made of the serving of 
 the said person or persons, the court shall grant an at- 
 tachment against the person or persons delinquent to 
 arrest or apprehend the said person or persons for his 
 or their wilful contempt ; and in case no sufficient 
 security or bail be tendered, to imprison the party or 
 parties, returnable the next court that is capable to 
 take cognizance of the said business in question ; and 
 upon return of the said attachment, the said court to 
 do therein as according to the laws and orders of this
 
 64: FIRST CODE 
 
 jurisdiction ; and in that case also the party delinquent 
 to bear his own charge. 
 
 It is also ordered, that attachments to seize upon 
 any man's lands or estate be only granted for, or 
 against, such goods as are foreigners' and do not dwell 
 or inhabit within this jurisdiction ; or in any case 
 upon credible information it appear that any inhabit- 
 ant that is indebted, or engaged, go about to convey 
 away his estate to defraud his creditors, or to convey 
 away his person out of this jurisdiction, so as the pro- 
 cess of this jurisdiction may not be served upon his 
 person ; in that or any other just causes there may be 
 attachment or attachments granted upon the limita- 
 tions expressed ; provided that in all cases of attach- 
 ments, all or any of the creditors have liberty to de- 
 clare upon the said attachment, if he come in at the 
 return of the said attachment; provided also, that if 
 any attachment laid upon any man's estate, upon a pre- 
 tence of a great sum, and if it be not proved to be 
 due in some near proportion to the sum challenged 
 and mentioned in the attachment, then the security 
 given shall be liable to such damages as are sustained 
 thereby. 
 
 It is further ordered and decreed by this court,, that 
 whosoever takes out an attachment against any man's 
 person, goods, chattels, lands or hereditaments, suffi- 
 cient security and caution shall be given by him to 
 prosecute his action in Court and to answer the de- 
 fendant such costs as shall be awarded him by the 
 court ; and in all attachments of goods or lands, legal 
 notice shall be given unto the party or left in writ- 
 ing at his house or place of usual abode if he live 
 within this jurisdiction, otherwise his suit shall not
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 65 
 
 proceed. And it is further ordered and declared, that 
 every man shall have liberty to replevy his cattle or 
 goods impounded, distrained, seized or extended, ( un- 
 less it be upon execution after judgment and in pay- 
 ment of fines,) provided in like manner he put in good 
 security to prosecute his replevy and to satisfy such 
 damage, demands or dues as his adversary shall recover 
 against him in law. 
 
 BALLAST. 
 
 It is ordered by this court and authority thereof, 
 that no ballast shall be taken from any shore in any 
 town within this jurisdiction, by any person what- 
 soever, without allowance under the hands of those 
 men that are to order the affairs in each town, upon 
 the penalty of six pence for every shovel full so taken, 
 unless such stones as they had laid there before. It 
 is also ordered by the authority aforesaid, that no 
 ship nor other vessel shall cast out any ballast in the 
 channel or other place inconvenient, in any harbor 
 within this jurisdiction ; upon the penalty of ten 
 pounds. 
 
 BARRATRY. 
 
 It is ordered, decreed, and by this court declared, 
 that if any man be proved and adjudged a common 
 barrater, vexing others with unjust, frequent and 
 needless suits, it shall be in the power of courts both 
 to reject his cause and to punish him for his barratry. 
 
 BILLS. 
 
 It is ordered by the authority of this court, that 
 any debt or debts due upon bill or other specialty 
 assigned to another, shall be as good a debt and estate
 
 66 FIRST CODE 
 
 to the assignee as it was to the assignor, at the time 
 of its assignation, and that it shall be lawful for the 
 said assignee to sue for and recover the said debt due 
 upon bill and so assigned, as fully as the original 
 creditor might have done ; provided the said assign- 
 ment be made upon the backside of the bill or specialty; 
 not excluding any just or clear interest any man may 
 have in any bills or specialties made over to them by 
 letters of attorney or otherwise. 
 
 BOUNDS OF TOWNS AND PARTICULAE LANDS. 
 
 Forasmuch as the bounds of towns and of the lands 
 of particular persons are carefully to be maintained, 
 and not without great danger to be removed by any ; 
 which notwithstanding by deficiency and decay of 
 marks may at unawares be done, whereby great 
 jealousies of persons, trouble in towns and incum- 
 brances in courts do often arise, which by due care 
 and means might be prevented: 
 
 It is therefore ordered by this court and authority 
 thereof, that every town shall set out their bounds 
 within twelve months after the publishing hereof, 
 and after their bounds are granted ; and that when 
 their bounds are once set out, once in the year three 
 or more persons in the town, appointed by the select- 
 men, shall appoint with the adjacent towns to go the 
 bounds betwixt their said towns and renew their 
 marks, which marks shall be a great heap of stones 
 or a trench of six foot long and two foot broad, the 
 most ancient town (which for the river is determined 
 by the court to be Wethersfield,*) to give notice of the 
 
 * This early decision, by the General Court, of the question of 
 priority of settlement of the River towns, seems to have been over- 
 looked by writers on our colonial history. The clause within the
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 6f 
 
 time and place of meeting for this perambnlation, 
 which time shall be in the first or second mouth, upon 
 pain of five pounds for every town that shall neglect 
 the same ; provided, that the three men appointed for 
 perambulation shall go in their several quarters, by 
 order of the selectmen and at the charge of the several 
 towns. And it is further ordered, that if any par- 
 ticular proprietor of lands lying in common with 
 others shall refuse to go, by himself or his assign, the 
 bounds betwixt his land and other men's, once a year, 
 in the first or second month, being requested thereunto 
 upon one week's warning, he shall forfeit for every 
 day so neglecting, ten shillings, half to the party mov- 
 ing thereto, the other half to the town. And the 
 owners of all impropriated grounds shall bound every 
 particular parcel thereof with sufficient mear stones, 
 and shall preserve and keep them BO upon the former 
 penalty. 
 
 BURGLARY AND THEFT. 
 
 Forasmuch as many persons of late years have been 
 and are apt to be injurious to the goods and lives of 
 others, notwithstanding all care and means to prevent 
 and punish the same: 
 
 It is therefore ordered by this court and authority 
 thereof, that if any person shall commit burglary, by 
 breaking up any dwelling house, or shall rob any 
 person in the field or highways, such a person so 
 offending shall for the first oSence be branded on the 
 
 parenthesis is, in the original record, interlined. As, however, 
 it is in the handwriting of Capt. Cullick, who ceased to be Sec- 
 retary in 1658, the interlineation must have been made within a 
 few years after the adoption of the code. The clause is retained 
 in the first printed revision of the Laws, of 1672-3, and in that of 
 1702; but is omitted in subsequent revisions.
 
 68 FIRST CODE 
 
 forehead with the letter (B) : If he shall offend in 
 the same kind the second time, he shall be branded 
 as before, and also be severely whipped ; and if he 
 shall fall into the same offence the third time, he 
 shall be put to death as being incorrigible. And 
 if any person shall commit such burglary or rob 
 in the fields or house on the Lord's day, besides the 
 former punishments, he shall for the first offence have 
 one of his ears cut off ; and for the second offence in 
 the same kind, he shall lose his other ear in the same 
 manner ; and if he fall into the same offence the third 
 time, he shall be put to death. 
 
 2. Secondly, for the prevention of pilfering and 
 theft, it is ordered by this court and authority there- 
 of, that if any person, whether children, servants or 
 others, shall be taken or known to rob any orchards 
 or garden, that shall hurt or steal away any grafts or 
 fruit trees, fruits, linen, woolen, or any other goods 
 left out in orchards, gardens, backsides, or other 
 place in house or fields, or shall steal any wood or 
 or other goods from the waterside, from men's doors 
 or yards, he shall forfeit treble damage to the owners 
 thereof, and such severe punishment as the court 
 shall think meet. 
 
 And forasmuch as many times it so falls out that 
 small thefts and other offences of a criminal nature 
 are committed, both by English and Indians, in towns 
 remote from any prison or other fit place to which 
 such malefactors may be committed till the next court ; 
 It is therefore hereby ordered, that any magistrate, 
 upon complaint made to him, may hear and upon due 
 proof determine any such small offences of the afore- 
 said nature, according to the laws here established, and
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 69 
 
 give warrant to the constable of that town where the 
 offender lives to levy the same, provided the damage 
 or line exceed not forty shillings ; provided also it 
 shall be lawful for either party to appeal to the next 
 court to be holden in that jurisdiction, giving sufficient 
 caution to prosecute the same to effect at the said 
 court. And every magistrate shall make return 
 yearly to the court of the jurisdiction wherein he 
 liveth, of what cases he hath so ended. And also the 
 constable, of all such fines as they have received ; 
 and where the offender hath nothing to satisfy, such 
 magistrate may punish by stocks or whipping, as the 
 cause shall deserve. 
 
 It is also ordered that all servants or workmen em- 
 bezzling the goods of their masters, or such as set 
 them on work, shall make restitution, and be liable to 
 all laws and penalties as other men. 
 
 CAPITAL LAWS. 
 
 [Of the Capital Laws, fourteen in number, the first twelve agree, 
 word for word, with those adopted in Dec. 1G42, printed on pages 
 59, GO. It has not been thought necessary to repeat them here. The 
 others follow : ] 
 
 13. If any child or children about sixteen years 
 old and of sufficient understanding, shall curse or smite 
 their natural father or mother, he or they shall be put 
 to death, unless it can be sufficiently testified that the 
 parents have been very unchristianly negligent in the 
 education of such children, or so provoke them by ex- 
 treme and cruel correction, that they have been 
 forced thereunto to preserve themselves from death 
 or maiming. Exod. 21. IT ; Lev. 20. [9] ; Exod. 21. 
 15. 
 
 14. If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son of
 
 70 FIRST CODE 
 
 sufficient years and understanding, viz : sixteen years 
 of age, which will not obey the voice of his father or 
 the voice of his mother, and that when they have 
 chastened him will not hearken unto them, then may 
 his father and mother, being his natural parents, lay 
 hold on him and bring him to the magistrates assem- 
 bled in court, and testify unto them that their son is 
 stubborn and rebellious and will not obey their voice 
 and chastisement, but lives in sundry notorious crimes, 
 such a son shall be put to death. Deut. 21. 20, 21. 
 
 It is also ordered by this court and authority there- 
 of that whatsoever child or servant, within these lib- 
 erties, shall be convicted of any stubborn or rebellious 
 carriage against their parents or governors, which 
 is a forerunner of the aforementioned evils, the gov- 
 ernor or any two magistrates have liberty and power 
 from this court to commit such person or persons to 
 the house of correction, and there to remain under 
 hard labor and severe punishment so long as the court 
 or the major part of the magistrates shall judge meet.* 
 
 And whereas frequent experience gives in sad evi- 
 dence of several other ways of unclean ness and lasciv- 
 ious carriages practiced among us, whereunto, in re- 
 gard of the variety of circumstances, particular and 
 express laws and orders cannot suddenly be suited ; 
 this court cannot but look upon evils in that kind as 
 very pernicious and destructive to the welfare of the 
 common weal, and do judge that severe and sharp 
 punishment should be inflicted upon such delinquents, 
 and as they do approve of what hath been already done 
 
 *Enacted Dec. 1649 (Col. Rec., i. 78) with this preamble : 
 " Forasmuch as incorrigibleness is also adjudged to be a sin of 
 death, but no la\r yet amongst us established for the execution 
 thereof: For the preventing that great evil, It is ordered, &c."
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 71 
 
 by the particular court, as agreeing with the general 
 power formerly granted, so they do hereby confirm 
 the same power to the particular court, who may pro- 
 ceed either by fine, committing to the house of cor- 
 rection or other corporal punishment, according to 
 their discretion, desiring such seasonable, exemplary 
 executions may be done upon offenders in that kind, 
 that others may hear and fear. 
 
 CASK AND COOPER. 
 
 It is ordered by this court and authority thereof, 
 that all cask used for tar or other commodities to be 
 put to sale, shall be assized as follows, viz: every 
 cask commonly called barrels or half hogsheads shall 
 contain twenty-eight gallons wine measure, and other 
 vessels proportionable ; and that fit persons shall 
 be appointed from time to time, in all places needful, 
 to gauge all such vessels or casks and such as shall be 
 found of due assize shall be marked with the ganger's 
 mark and no other, who shall have for his pains four 
 pence for every tun, and so proportionably. 
 
 And it is also ordered, that every cooper shall have 
 a distinct brandmark on his own cask, upon pain of 
 forfeiture of twenty shillings in either case, and so 
 proportionably for lesser vessels. 
 
 CATTLE, CORNFIELDS, FENCES. 
 
 Forasmuch as complaints have been made of a 
 very evil practice of some disordered persons in the 
 country, who use to take other men's horses, some- 
 times upon the commons, sometimes out of their own 
 grounds, common fields, and inclosures, and ride them 
 at their pleasure, without a leave or privity of their 
 owners :
 
 72 FIRST CODE 
 
 It is therefore ordered and enacted by the authority 
 of this Court, that whosoever shall take any other 
 man's horse, mare, or drawing beast, out of his inclos- 
 ure, upon any common, out of any common field or 
 elsewhere, except such be taken damage faisant and 
 disposed of according to law, without leave of the 
 owners, and shall ride or use the same, he shall pay to 
 the parties wronged treble damages, or if the com- 
 plainant shall desire it, then to pay only ten shillings ; 
 and such as have not to make satisfaction shall be 
 punished by whipping, imprisonment, or otherwise, 
 as by law shall be adjudged, and any one magistrate 
 may hear and determine the same. 
 
 It is also further ordered, that where lands lie com- 
 mon, unfenced, if one shall improve his lands by 
 fencing in several, and another shall not, he who shall 
 so improve shall secure his land against other men's 
 cattle, and shall not compel such as join upon him to 
 make any fence with him, except he shall also im- 
 prove in several, as the other doth ; and \vhere one 
 man shall improve before his neighbor, and so malce 
 the whole fence, if after his said neighbor shall im- 
 prove also, he shall then satisfy for half the other's 
 fence against him, according to the present value, and 
 shall maintain the same. And if either of them shall 
 after lay open his said fields (which none shall doe 
 without three months' warning,) he shall have liberty 
 to bay the dividend fence, paying according to the 
 present valuation to be set by two men, chosen by 
 either party one. The like order shall be [attended] 
 where any man shall improve land against any town 
 common, provided this order shall not extend to house 
 lots not exceeding ten acres : but if in such, one shall
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 73 
 
 improve, his neighbor shall be compellable to make 
 and maintain one half of the fence between them, 
 whether he improve or not. 
 
 Provided also, that no man shall be liable to sat- 
 isfy for damage done in any ground not sufficiently 
 fenced, except it shall be for damage done by swine 
 under a year old, or unruly cattle which will not be 
 restrained by ordinary fences, or where any man shall 
 put his cattle, or otherwise voluntarily trespass, upon 
 his neighbor's ground. And if the party damnified 
 find the cattle damage faisant, he may impound or 
 otherwise dispose of them. th October, 1652. The 
 Court declares and explains, this order doth not reach 
 the lands on ye east side of the Great JRiver. 
 
 CATTLE TO BE MARKED. 
 
 For the preventing of differences that may arise in 
 the owning of cattle that be lost or stray away, 
 
 It is ordered by this Court, that the owners of any 
 cattle within this jurisdiction shall ear-mark or brand 
 all their cattle and swine that are above half a year 
 old, (except horses,) and that they cause their several 
 marks to be registered in the town book, and whatso- 
 ever cattle shall be found unmarked after the first of 
 July next shall forfeit five shillings a head, whereof 
 two shillings sixpence to him that discovers it, and 
 the other to the country. 
 
 COMMON FIELDS. 
 
 Whereas the condition of these several plantations 
 in these beginnings wherein we are, is such that ne- 
 cessity constrains to improve much of the ground 
 belonging to the several towns, in a common way, and 
 it is observed that the public and general good, (which 
 4
 
 74 FIRST CODE 
 
 ought to be attended in all such improvements as aro 
 most proper to them, and may best advance the same,) 
 receives much prejudice through want of a prudent 
 ordering and disposing of those several common lands 
 so as may best effect the same ; 
 
 It is ordered by this Court and authority thereof, 
 that each town shall choose from among themselves 
 five able and discreet men, who by this order have 
 power given them, and are required, to take the com- 
 mon lands belonging to each of the several towns 
 respectively into serious and sad consideration, and 
 after a through digesting of their own thoughts, set 
 down under their hands in what way the said lands 
 may, in their judgments, be best improved for the 
 common good. And whatsoever is so decreed and 
 determined by the said five men in each town, or any 
 three of them, concerning the way of improvement 
 of any sucli lands, shall be attended by all such per- 
 sons that have any propriety or interest in any such 
 lands so judged [by the said committee]. 
 
 And whereas also, much damage hath risen not 
 only from the unruliness of some kind of cattle but 
 also from the weakness and insufficiency of many 
 fences, whence much variance and difference hath fol- 
 lowed, which if not prevented for the future may be 
 very prejudicial to the public peace ; 
 
 It is likewise therefore ordered, that the said five 
 men so chosen or at least three of them shall set down 
 what fences shall be made in any common grounds, 
 and after they are made to cause the same to be viewed, 
 and to eet such fines as they judge meet upon any as 
 shall neglect or not duly attend their order therein ; 
 and where fences are made and judged sufficient by
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 75 
 
 them, whatsoever damage is done by hogs or any other 
 cattle, shall be paid by the owners of the said cattle. 
 And the several towns shall have liberty once every 
 year to alter any three of the former five, and to make 
 choice of others in their room. It being provided, 
 that any particular man or men shall have liberty to 
 inclose any of their particular grounds and improve 
 them according to their own discretion, by mutual 
 agreement, notwithstanding this order.* This service 
 is committed to the townsmen, as appears by an order 
 of court, 5th of February, 1650, on the other side of 
 this book.f 
 
 CAVEATS ENTERED. 
 
 Whereas it appears that divers to defeat and de- 
 fraud their creditors may secretly and underhand 
 make bargains and contract of their lands, lots, and 
 accommodations, by means whereof, when the creditor 
 thinks he hath a means in due order of law to 
 declare against the said lands, lots, and accommoda- 
 tions, and so recover satisfaction for his debt, he is 
 wholly deluded and frustrated, which is contrary to a 
 righteous rule that every man should pay his debt with 
 his estate, be it in what it will be, either real or per- 
 sonal, this court taking it into consideration, do order 
 sentence and decree, That tf any creditor for the fu- 
 ture do suspect any debtor, that he may prove non- 
 solvent in his personal estate, he may repair to the 
 register or recorder of the plantation where the lands, 
 lots, or accommodations lies, and enter a caveat against 
 the lands, lots, and accommodations of the said debtor, 
 
 * Enacted Feb. 14th. 1643-4 ; with an amendment authorizing the 
 appointment of five men in place of seven, Feb. 5th, 1644-5. 
 t Conn. Col. Rec., i. 2U.
 
 76 FIRST CODE 
 
 and shall give to the said register or recorder four 
 pence for the entry thereof: And the said creditor or 
 creditors shall take out summons against the said debt- 
 or and, in due form of law, the next particular court 
 either for the whole colony or for the particular plan- 
 tation where the said lands, lots, or accommodations 
 lies, or the next court ensuing, declare against the said 
 -debtor's lands, lots, or accommodations. And so if 
 the creditor recover, he may enter a judgment upon 
 the said lots, lands, and accommodations, and take out 
 an extent against the said land, directed to a known 
 officer, who may take two honest and sufficient men 
 of the neighbors, to apprise the said lands, lots, and 
 accommodations, either to be sold outright if the debt 
 so require, or set a reasonable rent upon the same un- 
 til the debt be paid, and deliver the possession thereof 
 either to the creditor or creditors, his or their assign 
 or assigns, or any other ; and what sale or sales, lease 
 or leases, the said officer makes, being orderly record- 
 ed, according to former order of recording of lands, 
 shall be as legal and binding to all intents and purposes 
 as though the debtor himself had done the same ; 
 provided that if the said debtor can then presently 
 procure a chapman or tenant that can give to the 
 creditor or creditors satisfaction to his or their con- 
 tent, he shall have the first refusing thereof. Also it 
 is declared, that he which first enters caveats as above- 
 said, and his debt being due at his entering the said 
 caveat, shall be first paid ; and so every creditor as he 
 enters his caveat and his debt becomes due shall be 
 orderly satisfied, unless it appear at the next court, 
 the debtor's lands, lots, and accommodations prove 
 insufficient to pay all his creditors, then every man
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 77 
 
 to have a suitable proportion to his debt out of the 
 same, and yet notwithstanding every man to receive 
 his part according to the entry of his caveat. Yet this 
 is not to seclude any creditor to recover other satisfac- 
 tion, either upon the person or estate of the debtor 
 according to law and custom of the colony. As also 
 it is further decreed, that what sale or bargain soever 
 the debtor shall make concerning the said lots, lands, 
 and accommodations, after the entering of the said 
 caveat, shall be void, as to defraud the said creditors. 
 
 It is also further explained and declared, that if the 
 said debtor be known to be a non-solvent man before 
 the first caveat entered against the said lots, lands, and 
 accommodations, and the same appear at the next par- 
 ticular court, then the court shall have power to call 
 in all the creditors in a short time, and set an equal 
 and indifferent way how the creditors shall be paid 
 out of the said lots, lands, and accommodations ; other- 
 wise, if the said debtor prove insolvent after the first 
 caveat entered, then this order to be duly observed, 
 according to the premises and true intent and mean- 
 ing thereof. 
 
 It is also further declared and explained, that the said 
 recorder or register of the said caveats, shall, the next 
 particular court as aforesaid, return the said caveats 
 that are with him ; at which time and court the en- 
 terers of the said caveats shall be called forth to pros- 
 ecute the same the next particular court following ; 
 and if the enterers of the said caveats fail to prose- 
 cute according to this order, the register or recorder 
 of the said caveat or caveats shall put a vacat upon 
 the said caveat or caveats which shall be invalid or 
 or void to charge the said lots, lands, and accommo- 
 dations aforesaid.
 
 78 FIRST CODE 
 
 DISORDER IN COURT. 
 
 It is ordered by this court that whosoever doth dis- 
 orderly speak privately during the sitting of the 
 court, with his neighbor, or two or three together, 
 shall presently pay twelve pence, if the court so think 
 meet. 
 
 SECRETS IN COURT. 
 
 It is ordered and decreed, that whatsoever member 
 of the General Court shall reveal any secret which 
 the court enjoins to be kept secret, or shall make 
 known to any person what any one member of the 
 court speaks concerning any person or businesses that 
 may come into agitation in the court, shall forfeit for 
 every such fault ten pounds, and be otherwise dealt 
 withal at the discretion of the court. And the sec- 
 retary is to read this order at the beginning of every 
 General Court. 
 
 CHILDREN. 
 
 Forasmuch as the good education of children is of 
 singular behoof and benefit to any commonwealth, 
 and whereas many parents and masters are too indul- 
 gent and negligent of their duty in that kind : 
 
 It is therefore ordered by this court and authority 
 thereof, that the selectmen of every town, in the sev- 
 eral precincts and quarters where they dwell, shall have 
 a vigilant eye over their brethren and neighbors, to 
 see first, that none of them shall suffer so much bar- 
 barism in any of their families as not to endeavor to 
 teach by themselves or others their children and ap- 
 prentices so much learning as may enable them per- 
 fectly to read the English tongue, and knowledge of 
 the capital laws, upon penalty of twenty shillings for 
 each neglect therein r also, that all masters of families
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 79 
 
 do once a week at least, catechise their children and 
 servants in the grounds and principles of religion; 
 and if any be unable to do BO much, that then at the 
 least they procure such children and apprentices to 
 learn some short orthodox catechism, without book, 
 that they may be able to answer to the questions that 
 shall be propounded to them out of such catechisms 
 by their parents or masters or any of the selectmen, 
 when they shall call them to a trial of what they have 
 learned in this kind. 
 
 And further, that all parents and masters do breed 
 and bring up their children and apprentices in some 
 some honest lawful calling, labor, or employment, 
 either in husbandry, or some other trade profitable 
 for themselves and the commonwealth, if they will 
 not nor cannot train them up in learning to fit 
 them for higher employments. And if any of the 
 selectmen, after admonition by them given to such 
 masters of families, shall find them still negligent of 
 their duty in the particulars aforementioned, whereby 
 children and servants become rude, stubborn, and un- 
 ruly, the said selectmen, with the help of two magis- 
 trates, shall take such children or apprentices from 
 them and place them with some masters for years, 
 boys till'they come to twenty-one and girls to eighteen 
 years of age complete, which will more strictly look 
 unto, and force them to submit unto government, ac- 
 cording to the rules of this order, if by fair means 
 and former instructions they will not be drawn unto 
 it. 
 
 CONSTABLES. 
 
 It is further ordered by the authority aforesaid, that 
 any person tendered to any constable of this jurisdic- 
 tion by any constable or other officer belonging to
 
 80 FIRST CODE 
 
 any foreign jurisdiction in this country, or by warrant 
 from any such authority, such shall presently be re- 
 ceived and conveyed forthwith from constable to con- 
 stable, till they shall be brought unto the place to 
 which they are sent, or before some magistrate of this 
 jurisdiction, who shall dispose of them as the justice 
 of the cause shall require ; and that all hue and cries 
 shall be duly received and diligently pursued to full 
 effect. 
 
 It is ordered by the authority of this court, that 
 every constable within our jurisdiction shall hence- 
 forth have full power to make, sign and put forth 
 pursuits, or hue and cries, after murderers, malefactors, 
 peacebreakers, thieves, robbers, burglarers and other 
 capital offenders, where no magistrate is near hand. 
 Also to apprehend without warrant such as are over- 
 taken with drink, swearing, Sabbath breaking, slight- 
 ing of the ordinances, lying, vagrant persons, night 
 walkers, or any other that shall offend in any of these, 
 provided they be taken in the manner, either by sight 
 of the constable or by present information from oth- 
 ers : as also to make search for all such persons 
 either on the Sabbath day or other, when there shall 
 be occasion, in all houses licensed to sell either beer 
 or wine, or in any other suspected or disordered places, 
 and those to apprehend and keep in safe custody, till 
 opportunity serves to bring them before one of the 
 next magistrates for further examination; provided 
 that when any constable is employed by any of the 
 magistrates for apprehending of any person, he snail 
 not do it without warrant in writing; and if any 
 person shall refuse to assist any constable in the exe- 
 cution of his office in any of the things aforemen- 
 tioned, being by him required thereto, they shall pay
 
 OF CONNECT:CUT. 81 
 
 for neglect thereof ten shillings to the use of the conn- 
 try, to be levied by warrant from any magistrate before 
 whom any such offender shall be brought ; and if it 
 appear by good testimony that any shall wilfully, 
 obstinately, or contemptuously refuse or neglect to as- 
 sist any constable, as is before expressed, he shall pay 
 to the use of the country forty shillings ; and if any 
 magistrate or constable, or any other upon urgent oc- 
 casions shall refuse to do their best endeavor in rais- 
 ing and prosecuting hue and cries, by foot, and if 
 need be by horse, after such as have committed capi- 
 tal crimes, they shall forfeit to the use aforesaid for 
 every such offence, forty shillings. 
 
 And it is also ordered, that the constables in each 
 town shall be chosen from year to year before the first 
 of March, and sworri to that office, the next court fol- 
 lowing, or by some magistrate or magistrates. 
 
 CONVEYANCES FRAUDULENT, 
 
 It is ordered by this court and authority thereof, 
 that all covenous or fraudulent alienations or convey- 
 ances of land, tenements or any hereditaments, shall 
 be of no validity to defeat any man from due debts 
 or legacies, or from any just title, claim or possession 
 of that which is so fraudulently conveyed, and that 
 no conveyance, deed or promise whatsoever shall be 
 of validity, if it be gotten by illegal violence, imprison- 
 ment, threatening, or any kind of forcible compulsion 
 called duress. 
 
 CRUELTY. 
 
 It is ordered by this court and authority thereof, 
 that no man shall exercise any tyranny or cruelty 
 towards any brute creatures which are usually kept 
 for the use of man. 
 4*
 
 g2 FIRST CODE 
 
 DAMAGES PRETENDED. 
 
 It is ordered by this court, that no man in any suit 
 or action against another shall falsely pretend great 
 damages or debts, to vex his adversary ; and if it shall 
 appear any doth so, the court shall have the power to 
 set a reasonable fine on his head. 
 
 DEATH UNTIMELY. 
 
 It is ordered by this court and authority thereof, that 
 whensoever any person shall come to any very sudden, 
 untimely, or unnatural death, some magistrate or the 
 constable of that town shall forthwith summon a jury 
 of six or twelve discreet men to inquire of the cause 
 and manner of their death, who shall present a true 
 verdict thereof unto some near magistrate upon their 
 oath. 
 
 DELINQUENTS. 
 
 It is ordered, that all persons hereafter committed 
 upon delinquency, shall bear the charges the country 
 shall be at in the prosecution of them ; and shall pay 
 to the master of the prison or house of correction, 
 two shillings six pence, before he be freed therefrom. 
 Yide Execution upon Delinquents. 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL. 
 
 Forasmuch as the open contempt of God's word, 
 and messengers thereof, is the desolating sin of civil 
 states and churches, and that the preaching of the 
 word by those whom God doth send is the chief 
 ordinary means ordained by God for the converting, 
 edifying, and saving the souls of the elect, through the 
 presence and power of the Holy Ghost thereunto 
 promised; and that the ministry of the word is set
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 83 
 
 up by God in liis churches for those holy ends, and 
 according to the respect or contempt of the same and 
 of those whom God hath set apart for his own work 
 and employment, the weal or woe of all Christian states 
 is much furthered and promoted ; 
 
 It is therefore ordered and decreed, that if any 
 Christian (so called) within this jurisdiction shall 
 contemptuously behave himself towards the word 
 preached or the messenger thereof called to dispense 
 the same in any congregation, when he faithfully 
 execute his service and office therein according to the 
 will and word of God, either by interrupting him in 
 hia preaching, or by charging him falsely with an error 
 which he hath not taught in the open face of the 
 church, or like a son of Korah cast upon his true 
 doctrine or hirqself any reproach, to the dishonor of 
 the Lord Jesus who hath sent him, and to the dispar- 
 agement of that his holy ordinance, and making God's 
 ways contemptible or ridiculous, that every such per- 
 son or persons (whatsoever censure the church may 
 pass,) shall for the first scandal, be convented and 
 reproved openly by the magistrate, at some lecture, 
 and bound to their good behavior : and if a second 
 time they break forth into the like contemptuous 
 carriages, they shall either pay five pounds to the pub- 
 lic treasure, or stand two hours openly upon a block or 
 stool four foot high, upon a lecture day, with a paper 
 fixed on his breast written with capital letters, AN 
 
 OPEN AND OBSTINATE CONTEMNER OF GOD'S HOLY ORDI- 
 NANCES, that others may fear and be ashamed of 
 breaking out into the like wickedness.* 
 
 * Copied (with the preamble) from the Massachusetts law of 
 Nov. 1646, with the substitution of "AN OPEN AND OBSTINATE CON- 
 TEMNER" &c., for "A WANTON GOSPELLER." (Mass. Rfec., ii. 179.)
 
 84: FIRST CODE 
 
 It is ordered and decreed by this court and authority 
 thereof, that wheresoever the ministry of the word is es- 
 tablished according to the order of the Gospel, through- 
 out this jurisdiction, every person shall duly resort and 
 attend thereunto respectively upon the Lord's day 
 and upon such public fast days and days of Thanks- 
 giving as are to be generally kept by the appointment 
 of authority. And if any person within this juris- 
 diction shall without just and necessary cause withdraw 
 himself from hearing the public ministry of the word, 
 after due means of conviction used, he shall forfeit 
 for his absence from every such public meeeting, five 
 shillings : all such offences to be heard and determined 
 by any one magistrate or more, from time to time. 
 
 Forasmuch as the peace and prosperity of churches 
 and members thereof, as well as civil rights and lib- 
 erties, are carefuly to be maintained, It is ordered 
 by this court and decreed, that the civil authority here 
 established hath power and liberty to see the peace, 
 ordinances and rules of Christ be observed in every 
 church according to his word ; as also to deal with 
 any church member in a way of civil justice, not- 
 withstanding any church relation, office, or interest, 
 so it be done in a civil and not in an ecclesiastical 
 way: nor shall any church censure degrade or depose 
 any man from any civil dignity, office, or authority he 
 shall have in the commonwealth. 
 
 ESCHEATS. 
 
 It is ordered by this court and authority thereof, 
 that where no heir or owner of houses, lands, tene- 
 ments, goods or chattels can be found, they shall be 
 seized to the public treasury till such heirs or owners
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 85 
 
 shall make due claim thereunto, unto whom they shall 
 be restored upon just and reasonable terms. 
 
 EXECUTIONS. 
 
 Whereas by reason of the great scarcity of money, 
 execution being taken of several persons' goods that 
 have been sold at very cheap rates, to the extreme 
 damage of the debtor ; 
 
 It is therefore ordered, that whatsoever execution 
 shall be granted upon any debts made after the pub- 
 lishing of this order, the creditor shall make choice of 
 one party, the debtor of a second, and the court of a 
 third, who shall prize the goods so taken upon execu- 
 tion aforesaid, and deliver them to the creditor. 
 
 EXECUTION UPON DELINQUENTS. 
 
 It is ordered, that the Governor or any other magis- 
 trate in this jurisdiction shall have liberty and power 
 to call forth any person that has been publicly cor- 
 rected for any misbehavior, to do execution upon any 
 person or persons, by whipping or otherwise, and that 
 at any time hereafter as occasion doth require ; and in 
 case of defect or want of such, any other person, as he 
 or they shall think meet. 
 
 FENCES. 
 
 For the preventing of differences that may arise in 
 making or setting down of fences as well in meadows 
 as upland, 
 
 It is ordered, that in the setting of posts and rails 
 or hedges in the meadow and homelots, there shall be 
 a liberty for either party of twelve inches from the 
 divident line, for breaking of the ground to set the 
 posts on [or] for the laying on the hedge ; but the
 
 86 FIRST CODE 
 
 stakes and posts are to be set in the divident line; 
 and in upland there is allowed a liberty of four foot 
 for a ditch from the divident line for either of the bor- 
 dering parties where the proportion of fences belong 
 unto them.* 
 
 FINES. 
 
 It is ordered by this court, that the estreats for the 
 levying of fines shall go forth once every year, both in 
 the towns on the River and by the seaside, and that 
 some officer in each place shall be appointed to levy 
 and receive the same, and the accounts to be given 
 in by the several plantations of their general charge, 
 at the court in September, for the perfecting of the 
 accounts betwixt them. Mr. Ludlow is desired to 
 grant out warrants for the fines by the seaside. 
 
 FIKE. 
 
 It is ordered by this court and the authority there- 
 of, that whosoever shall kindle any fire, in woods [or] 
 grounds lying in common or inclosed, so as the same 
 shall run into such common grounds or inclosures, 
 before the tenth of the first month,f or after the last of 
 the second month, or on the last day of the week, or on 
 the Lord's day, shall pay all damages, and half so much 
 for a fine ; or if not able to pay, then to be corporally 
 punished, by a warrant from one magistrate or more, 
 as the offence shall deserve, not exceeding twenty 
 stripes for one offence ; provided, that any man may 
 kindle fire upon his own ground at any time, so as no 
 damage come thereby, either to the country or to any 
 
 * Enacted, June 3d, 1644. The accidental substitution of on 
 for or, made in transcribing this order from the original record, was 
 followed in the printed revision of 1673. 
 
 t The first month was March. The new year began, March 25th.
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 8T 
 
 particular person. And whosoever shall wittingly 
 and willingly burn or destroy any frame, timber hewn, 
 sawn, or riven, heaps of wood, charcoal, corn, hay, 
 straw, hemp, flax, pitch or tar, he shall pay double 
 damages. 
 
 FORGERY. 
 
 It is ordered by this court and authority thereof, 
 that if any person shall forge any debt * or convey- 
 ance, testament, bond, bill, release, acquittance, letter 
 of attorney, or any writing to prevent equity and jus- 
 tice, he shall stand in the pillory three several lecture 
 days, and render double damages to the party wrong- 
 ed, and also be disabled to give any evidence or ver- 
 dict to any court or magistrate. 
 
 FORNICATION. 
 
 It is ordered by this court and authority thereof, that 
 if any man shall commit fornication with any single 
 woman, they shall be punished either by enjoining to 
 marriage, or fine, or corporal punishment, or all or any 
 of these, as the court or magistrates shall appoint, 
 most agreeable to the word of God. 
 
 GAMING. 
 
 Upon complaint of great disorder by the use of the 
 game called Shuffle-board, in houses of common enter- 
 tainment, whereby much precious time is spent un- 
 fruitfully, and much waste of wine and beer occa- 
 sioned, 
 
 It is therefore ordered and enacted by the authority 
 of this court, that no person shall henceforth use the 
 
 *"Debt" for "deed." See Massachusetts Act of 1648 (ii. 181), 
 from which this is copied.
 
 gg 
 
 FIRST CODE 
 
 said game of shuffle-board, in any such house, nor in 
 any other house used as common for such purpose, 
 upon pain for every keeper 1 of such house to forfeit 
 for every such offence twenty shillings ; and for every 
 person playing at the said game in any such house to 
 forfeit for every such offence, five shillings. The like 
 penalty shall be for playing in any place at any unlaw- 
 ful game. 
 
 GUARDS AT MEETING. 
 
 It is ordered by this court, that there shall be a 
 guard of twenty men, every Sabbath and lecture day, 
 complete in their arms, in each several town upon 
 the river; and at Seabrooke and Farmington, eight 
 apiece ; each town upon the seaside in this jurisdic- 
 tion, ten ; and as the number of men increase in the 
 towns, their guards are to increase. 
 
 And it is further ordered, that each man in the guards 
 aforesaid shall be allowed half a pound of powder year- 
 ly, by their several towns. 
 
 HIGHWAYS. 
 
 Whereas the maintaining of highways in a fit pos- 
 ture for passage according to the several occasions that 
 occur, is not only necessary for the comfort and safety 
 of man and beast, but tends to the profit and advan- 
 tage of any people in the issue, 
 
 It is thought fit and ordered, that each town within 
 this jurisdiction shall every year choose one or two of 
 their inhabitants as surveyors, to take care of, and 
 oversee the mending and repairing of the highways 
 within their several towns respectively, who have 
 hereby power allowed them to call out the several 
 carts or persons fit for labor in each town, two days 
 at least in each year, and so many more as in his or
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 89 
 
 their judgments shall be found necessary for the attain- 
 ing of the aforementioned end, to be directed in their 
 work by the said surveyor or surveyors, and it is left 
 to his or their liberties either to require the labor of 
 the several persons in any family, or of a team and 
 one person, where such are, as he finds most advanta- 
 geous to the public occasions, he or they giving at 
 least three days' notice or warning beforehand of such 
 employment ; and if any refuse or neglect to attend 
 the service in any manner aforesaid, he shall forfeit 
 for every day's neglect of a man's work, two shillings 
 sixpence, and of a team, six shillings, which said fines 
 shall be employed by the surveyors to hire others to 
 work in the said ways ; And the surveyors shall, with- 
 in four days after the several days appointed for work, 
 deliver in to some magistrate a true presentment of all 
 such as have been defective, with their several neg- 
 lects, who are immediately to grant a distress to the 
 marshal or constable, for the levying of the incurred 
 forfeiture, by them to be delivered to the surveyors 
 for the use aforesaid. And if the surveyor neglect to 
 perform the service hereby committed to him, either 
 in not calling out all the inhabitants in their sev- 
 eral proportions as before, or shall not return the 
 names of those that are deficient, he shall incur the 
 same penalty as those whom he so passes by are liable 
 to by virtue of this order, which shall be employed to 
 the use aforesaid, and to be levied also by distress 
 upon information and proof before any one magis- 
 trate. 
 
 IDLENESS. 
 
 It is ordered by this court and authority thereof, that 
 no person, householder or other, shall spend his time 
 idly or unprofitably, under pain of such punishment
 
 90 
 
 FIRST CODE 
 
 as the court shall think meet to inflict : and for this 
 end, It is ordered, that the constable of every place 
 shall use special care and diligence to take knowledge 
 of offenders in this kind, especially of common coast- 
 ers, unprofitable fowlers, and tobacco takers, and pre- 
 sent the same unto any magistrate, who shall have 
 power to hear and determine the case or transfer it 
 
 to the next court. 
 
 INDIANS. 
 
 It is ordered and decreed, that where any company 
 of Indians do sit down near any English plantations, 
 that they shall declare who is their sachem or chief, 
 and that the said chief or sachem shall pay to the said 
 English such trespasses as shall be committed by any 
 Indian in the said plantation adjoining, either by spoil- 
 ing or killing any cattle or swine, either with traps, 
 dogs, or arrows : and they are not to plead that it was 
 done by strangers, unless they can produce the party 
 and deliver him or his goods into the custody of the 
 English : and they shall pay the double damage if it 
 were done voluntarily. The like engagement this 
 court also makes to them in case of wrong or injury 
 done to them by the English, which shall be paid by 
 the party by whom it was done, if he can be made to 
 appear, or otherwise by the town in whose limits such 
 facts are committed. 
 
 Forasmuch as our lenity and gentleness towards 
 Indians hath made them grow bold and insolent, to 
 enter into Englishmen's houses, and unadvisedly handle 
 swords and pieces and other instruments, many times 
 to the hazard of limbs or lives of English or Indians, 
 and also oft steal divers goods out of such houses 
 where they resort ; for the preventing whereof, It is 
 ordered, that whatsoever Indian shall hereafter meddle
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 91 
 
 with or handle any Englishman's weapons, of any sort, 
 either in their houses or in the fields, they shall forfeit 
 for every such default half a fathom of wampum ; and 
 if any hurt or injury shall thereupon follow to any 
 person's life or limb, (though accidental,) they shall 
 pay life for life, limb for limb, wound for wound, and 
 shall pay for the healing such wounds and other 
 damages. And for anything they steal, they shall pay 
 double, and suffer such further punishment as tho 
 magistrates shall adjudge them. The constable of any 
 town may attach and arrest any Indian that shall 
 transgress in any such kind beforementioned ; and 
 bring them before some magistrate, who may execute 
 the penalty of this order upon offenders in any kind 
 except life or limb ; and any person that doth see 
 such defaults may prosecute, and shall have half the 
 forfeiture. 
 
 It is ordered by this court and authority thereof, 
 that no man within this jurisdiction shall, directly or 
 indirectly, amend, repair, or cause to be amended or 
 repaired, any gun, small or great, belonging to any 
 Indian, nor shall endeavor the same ; nor shall sell nor 
 give to any Indian, directly or indirectly, any such 
 gun, nor any gunpowder, or shot, or lead, or shot 
 mould, or any military weapon or weapons, armor, or 
 arrow heads; nor sell, nor barter, nor give, any dog 
 or dogs, small or great; upon pain of ten pounds fine 
 for every offence, at least, in any one of the aforemen- 
 tioned particulars ; and the court shall have power to 
 increase the fine, or to impose corporal punishment 
 where a fine cannot be had, at their discretion. 
 
 And it is also ordered, that no person nor persons 
 shall trade with them at or about their wigwams, but 
 in their vessels or pinnaces, or at their own houses,
 
 92 
 
 FIRST CODE 
 
 under penalty of twenty shillings for each default. 
 Whereas, it doth appear that notwithstanding the 
 former laws made against selling guns and powder 
 to Indians, they are yet supplied by indirect means, 
 it is therefore ordered and declared, that if any per- 
 son after publishing of this order shall sell, barter or 
 transport any guns, powder, bullets or lead, to any 
 person inhabiting out of this jurisdiction, without 
 license of this court or from some two magistrates, 
 he shall forfeit for every gun ten pounds, for every 
 pound of gunpowder five pounds, for every pound of 
 bullets or lead forty shillings, and so proportion ably 
 for any greater or lesser quantity ; provided notwith- 
 standing, that it is left to the judgment of the court, 
 that where any offence is committed against the said 
 order, either to aggravate or lessen the penalty, accord- 
 ing as the nature "of the offence shall require. 
 
 Whereas divers persons depart from amongst us, 
 and take up their abode with the Indians, in a profane 
 course of life ; for the preventing whereof, 
 
 It is ordered that whatsoever person or persons that 
 now inhabiteth, or shall inhabit within this juris- 
 diction, and shall depart from us and settle or join 
 with the Indians, that they shall suffer three years' 
 imprisonment at least, in the house of correction, 
 and undergo such further censure, by fine or corporal 
 punishment, as the particular court shall judge meet 
 to inflict in such cases. 
 
 Whereas the French, Dutch, and other foreign 
 nations do ordinarily trade guns, powder, shot, etc. 
 with the Indians, to our great prejudice, and the 
 strengthening and animating of the Indians against 
 us, as by daily experience we find ; and whereas the
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 93 
 
 aforesaid French, Dutch, etc. do prohibit all trade with 
 the Indians within their respective jurisdictions under 
 penalty of confiscation ; 
 
 It is therefore hereby ordered by this court and 
 authority thereof, that after due publication hereof, 
 it shall not be lawful for any Frenchmen, Dutchmen, or 
 person of any other foreign nation, or any English liv- 
 ing amongst them or under the government of them, or 
 any of them, to trade with any Indian or Indians 
 within the limits of this jurisdiction, either directly 
 or indirectly, by themselves or others, under penalty 
 of confiscation of all such goods and vessels as shall 
 be found so trading, or the due value thereof, upon 
 just proof made of any goods or any vessels so trading 
 or traded : and it shall be lawful for any person or 
 persons inhabiting within this jurisdiction, to make 
 seizure of any such goods or vessels trading with the 
 Indians as by this law is prohibited, the one half 
 whereof shall be to the proper use and benefit of the 
 party seizing, and the other to the public.* 
 
 This court, judging it necessary that some means 
 should be used to convey the light and knowledge 
 of God and of his word to the Indians and Natives 
 amongst us, do order that one of the teaching Elders 
 of the churches in this jurisdiction, with the help 
 of Thomas Stanton, shall be desired, twice at least 
 in every year, to go amongst the neighboring Indians 
 and endeavour to make known to them the counsels 
 of the Lord, and thereby to draw and stir them up 
 to direct and order all their ways and conversations 
 according to the rule of his word : and Mr. Governor 
 
 *Passed, Sept. 18th, 1649, upon the recommendation of the Com- 
 missioners of the U. Colonies of New England. Col. Ret 1 ., i. 197.
 
 94: FIRST CODE 
 
 and Mr. Deputy and the other magistrates are desired 
 to take care to see the thing attended, and with their 
 own presence, so far as may be convenient, encour- 
 age the same. 
 
 This court having duly weighed the joint determin- 
 ation and argument of the Commissioners of the 
 United English Colonies at New Haven, in Anno 1G4G, 
 in reference to the Indians, and judging it to be both 
 according to rules of prudence and righteousness, 
 do fully assent thereunto, and order that it be recorded 
 amongst the acts of this court, and attended in future 
 practice as occasions may present and require. The 
 said conclusion is as followeth : 
 
 The Commissioners seriously considering the many 
 wilful wrongs and hostile practices of the Indians 
 against the English, together with their entertaining, 
 protecting, and rescuing of offenders, as late our expe- 
 rience sheweth, (which if suffered, the peace of the 
 Colonies cannot be secured,) it is therefore concluded, 
 that in such cases the magistrates of any of the juris- 
 dictions may, at the charge of the plaintiff, send some 
 convenient strength of English, and according to the 
 nature and value of the offence and damage, seize and 
 bring away any of that plantation of Indians that 
 shall entertain, protect, or rescue the offender, though 
 it should be in another jurisdiction, when through 
 distance of place, commission or direction cannot 
 be had, after notice and due warning given them, 
 as aetors, or at least accessory to the injury and 
 damage done to the English : only women and chil- 
 dren to be sparingly seized, unless known to be some 
 way guilty. And because it will be chargeable keep- 
 ing Indians in prison, and if they should escape they
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 95 
 
 are like to prove more insolent and dangerous after, 
 it was thought tit that upon such seizure, the delin- 
 quent or satisfaction be again demanded of the Saga- 
 more or plantation of Indians guilty or accessory as 
 before ; and if it be denied, that then the magistrates 
 of the jurisdiction deliver up the Indian seized to the 
 party or parties endamaged, either to serve or to be 
 shipped out and exchanged for negroes, as the case will 
 justly bear. And though the Commissioners foresee 
 that such severe though just proceeding may provoke 
 the Indians to an unjust seizing of some of ours, yet 
 they could not at present find no better means to pre- 
 serve the peace of the colonies, all the aforemen- 
 tioned outrages and insolences tending to an open 
 war : only they thought fit that before any such seiz- 
 ure be made in any plantation of Indians, the ensuing 
 declaration be published, and a copy given to the par- 
 ticular Sagamores : 
 
 The Commissioners for the United Colonies, consid- 
 ering how peace with righteousness may be preserved 
 betwixt all the English and the several plantations of 
 the Indians, thought fit to declare and publish, as they 
 will do no injury to them, so if any Indian or Indians, 
 of what plantation soever, do any wilful damage to 
 any of the English Colonies, upon proof, they will 
 in a peaceable way require just satisfaction, according 
 to the nature of the offence and damage. But if any 
 Sagamore or plantation of Indians, after notice and 
 due warnings, entertain, hide, protect, keep, convey 
 away or further the escape of any such offender or 
 offenders, the English will require satisfaction of such 
 Indian and Sagamore, or Indian plantation ; and if 
 they deny it, they will right themselves as they may 
 upon such as so maintain them that do wrong, keeping
 
 96 FIRST CODE 
 
 peace and all terms of amity and agreement with all 
 other Indians. 
 
 INNKEEPERS. 
 
 Forasmuch as there is a necessary use of houses of 
 common entertainment in every commonwealth, and 
 of such as retail wine, beer and victuals, yet because 
 there are so many abuses of that lawful liberty, both 
 by persons entertaining and persons entertained, there 
 is also need of strict laws and rules to regulate such an 
 employment ; 
 
 It is therefore ordered by this court and authority 
 thereof, that no person or persons licensed for common 
 entertainment shall suffer any to be drunken or drink 
 excessively, viz : above half a pint of wine for one 
 person at one time, or to continue tippling above the 
 space of half an hour, or at unseasonable times, or 
 after nine of the clock at night, in or about any of 
 their houses, on penalty of five shillings for every 
 such offence. And every person found drunken, viz : so 
 that he be thereby bereaved or disabled in the use of 
 his understanding, appearing in his speech or gesture, 
 in any of the said houses or elsewhere, shall forfeit ten 
 shillings ; and for excessive drinking, three shillings 
 four pence ; and for continuing above half an hour 
 tippling, two shillings six pence ; and for tippling at 
 unseasonable times or after nine a clock at night, live 
 shillings, for every offence in these particulars, being 
 lawfully convicted thereof; and for want of payment, 
 such shall be imprisoned until they pay, or be set in 
 the stocks, one hour or more, in some open place, as 
 the weather will permit, not exceeding three hours at 
 one time: provided notwithstanding, such licensed 
 persons may entertain seafaring men or land travellers 
 in the night-season when they come first on shore, or
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 97 
 
 from their journey, for their necessary refreshment, 
 or when they prepare for their voyage or journey 
 the next day early, if there be no disorder amongst 
 them ; and also strangers and other persons in an or- 
 derly way may continue in such houses of common 
 entertainment during meal times or upon lawful busi- 
 ness, what time their occasions shall require.* 
 
 And it is also ordered that if any person offend in 
 drunkenness, excessive or long drinking, the second 
 time, they shall pay double fines : and if they fall into 
 the same offence the third time, they shall pay treble 
 fines : and if the parties be not able to pay their fines, 
 then he that is found drunk shall be punished by 
 whipping to the number of ten stripes, and he that 
 offends by excessive or long drinking, shall be put 
 into the stocks for three hours, when the weather may 
 not hazard his life or limbs ; and if they offend the 
 fourth time they shall be imprisoned until they put in 
 two sufficient sureties for their good behavior. 
 
 And it is further ordered, that the several towns 
 upon the River within this jurisdiction, shall provide 
 amongst themselves in each town, one sufficient inhab- 
 itant to keep an Ordinary, for provision and lodg- 
 ing in some comfortable manner, that passengers or 
 strangers may know where to resort. And such inhab- 
 itants as by the several towns shall be chosen for the 
 said service shall be presented to two magistrates, that 
 they may be judged meet for that employment. And 
 this to be effected by the several towns within one 
 
 * Some of the provisions of this section were included, in sub- 
 stance, in an Order of May 25th, 1647. Compare Mass, law of Nov. 
 1646 (ii. 172). The English statute of 4 James I. (chap. 5, 4.) 
 imposed a penalty on every person continuing drinking or tippling 
 in inns, victualling-houses or ale-houses. 
 5
 
 93 FIRST CODE 
 
 month, under the penalty of forty shillings a month 
 for each month that either town shall neglect the 
 same.* 
 
 And it is also further ordered, that every inn- 
 keeper or victualler shall provide for entertainment of 
 strangers' horses, viz : one or more inclosures for sum- 
 mer, and hay or provender for winter, with convenient 
 stable room and attendance, under penalty of two 
 shillings sixpence for every day's default and double 
 damage to the party thereby wronged, except it be by 
 inevitable accident. 
 
 Lastly, it is ordered by the authority aforesaid, that 
 all constables may and shall, from time to time, duly 
 makes search throughout the limits of their towns, upon 
 Lord's days and Lecture days, in times of exercise, 
 and also at other times so oft as they shall see cause, 
 for all offences and offenders against this law in any 
 the particulars thereof : and if upon due information 
 or complaint of any of their inhabitants or other cred- 
 ible persons, whether taverner, victualler, tabler, or 
 other, they shall refuse to make search as aforesaid, or 
 shall not to their power perform all other things be- 
 longing to their place or office of constableship, then 
 upon complaint and due proof before any one magis- 
 trate, within three months after such refusal or neg- 
 lect, they shall be fined for every such offence ten 
 shillings, to be levied by the marshal as in other cases, 
 by warrant from such magistrate before whom they 
 are convicted, or warrant from the treasurer upon 
 notice from such magistrate. 
 
 It is ordered by this court and authority thereof, 
 that no innkeeper, victualler, wine-drawer, or other, 
 
 * Ordered, June 3d, 1644. Col. Eec., i. 103.
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 99 
 
 shall deliver any wine, nor suffer any to be delivered 
 out of his house, to any which come for it, unless they 
 bring a note under the hand of some one master of 
 some familv and allowed inhabitant of that town : 
 
 / 
 
 neither shall any of them sell or draw any hot water 
 to any but in case of necessity, and in such moderation 
 for quantity a.s they may have good grounds to conceive 
 it may not be abused ; and shall be ready to give an 
 account of their doings herein, when they are called 
 thereto, under censure of the court in case of delin- 
 quency. 
 
 INDICTMENTS. 
 
 If any person shall be indicted of any capital crime 
 ( who is not then in durance,) and shall refuse to ren- 
 der his person to some magistrate within one month 
 after three proclamations publicly made in the town 
 where he usually abides, there being a month betwixt 
 proclamation and proclamation, his lands and goods 
 shall be seized to the use of the common treasury, till 
 he make his lawful appearance, and such withdrawing 
 of himself shall stand instead of one witness to prove 
 his crime, unless he can make it appear to the court 
 that he was necessarily hindered. 
 
 JURIES AND JURORS. 
 
 It is ordered by the authority of this court, that in 
 all cases which are entered under forty shillings, the 
 suit shall be left to be tried by the court of magis- 
 trates as they shall judge most agreeable to equity and 
 righteousness. And in all cases that are tried by 
 juries, it is left to the magistrates to impanel a jury of 
 six or twelve, as they shall judge the nature of the 
 case shall require ; and if four of six, or eight of twelve, 
 agree, the verdict shall be deemed to all intents and
 
 100 FIRST CODE 
 
 and purposes sufficient and full ; upon which judg- 
 ment may be entered and execution granted, as if they 
 had all concurred ; but if it fall out that there be not 
 such a concurrence as is before mentioned, the jurors 
 shall return the case to the court with their reasons, 
 and a special verdict is to be drawn thereupon, and the 
 vote of the greater number of magistrates shall carry 
 the same ; and the judgment to be entered and other 
 proceedings as in case of a verdict by a jury. 
 
 And it is further ordered, that the court of magis- 
 trates shall have liberty ( if they do not find in their 
 judgments, the jury to have attended the evidence 
 given in, and true issue of the case, in their verdict,) 
 to cause them to return to a second consideration 
 thereof ; and if they still persist in their former opin- 
 ion, to the dissatisfaction of the court, it shall be in 
 the power of the court to impanel another jury, and 
 commit the consideration of the case to them. And 
 it is also left in the power of the court to vary and 
 alter the damages given in by any jury, as they shall 
 judge most equal and righteous, provided, that what 
 alteration shall at any time be made in that kind, be 
 done in open court, before plaintiff and defendant, or 
 affidavit made that they have been required to be 
 present, and that alteration which is made be done 
 either the same court, or provision made to secure the 
 verdict of the jury until the case be fully issued. And 
 whereas many persons, after their several causes in 
 court have been tried and issued, have slipped away or 
 otherwise neglected, if not refused, to pay the charges 
 of the court, according to order ; for preventing there- 
 of for the future, It is ordered, that whosoever shall 
 have any action or suit in court, after the publishing 
 hereof, shall, as soon as his cause is issued pay the
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 101 
 
 whole charges of the court, that concerns either jury 
 or secretary, before he departs the same. And the 
 like also sJiall be done by all those whose actions are 
 not taken up, and withdrawn before the sitting of the 
 court wherein they were to be tried ; or otherwise, for 
 neglect or non-performance of either, be committed to 
 prison, there to remain till he or they have satisfied 
 the same. 
 
 GRAND JURY. 
 
 It is ordered and decreed, that there shall be a grand 
 jury of twelve or fourteen able men warned to appear 
 every court yearly, in September, or as many and oft 
 as the governor or court shall think meet, to make 
 presentment of the breaches of any laws or orders or 
 any other misdemeanors they shall know of in this 
 jurisdiction.* 
 
 LANDS ; FREE LANDS. 
 
 It is ordered, and by this court declared, that our 
 lands and heritages shall be free from all fines and 
 licenses upon alienations, and from all harriots, 
 wardships, liveries, primer seisins, year, day, and 
 waste, escheats and forfeitures upon the death of 
 parents or ancestors, be they natural, unnatural, casual 
 or judicial, and that for ever.f 
 
 LEVIES. 
 
 Forasmuch as the marshals and other officers have 
 complained to this court that they are oftentimes in 
 great doubt how to demean themselves in the execu- 
 tion of their offices ; 
 
 It is ordered by the authority of this court, that in 
 case of fines and assessments to be levied, and upon 
 
 * July 5th, 1G43. Col. Kec., i. 91. 
 
 f Massachusetts Body of Liberties, 10.
 
 102 
 
 FIRST CODE 
 
 execution in civil actions, the officer shall demand the 
 same of the party or at his house and place of usual 
 abode ; and upon refusal or non-payment, he shall have 
 power (calling the constable, if he see cause for his 
 assistance ) to break open the door of any house, chest, 
 or place where he shall have notice that any goods lia- 
 ble to such levy or execution shall be ; and if he be to 
 take the person, he may do the like, if upon demand 
 he shall refuse to render himself; and whatsoever 
 charges the officer shall necessarily be put unto, upon 
 any such occasion, he shall have power to levy the 
 same as he doth the debt, fine, or execution ; and if 
 the officer shall levy any such goods upon execution 
 as cannot be conveyed to the place where the party 
 dwells for whom such execution shall be levied, with- 
 out considerable charge, he shall levy the said charge, 
 also with the execution. The like order shall be ob- 
 served in levying of fines ; provided, it shall not be 
 lawful for such officer to levy any man's necessary 
 bedding, apparel, tools, or arms, neither implements 
 of household which are for the necessary upholding 
 of his life ; but in such cases he shall levy his land or 
 person, according to law ; and in no case shall the of- 
 ficer be put to seek out any man's estate further than 
 his place of abode ; but if the party will not discover 
 his goods or land, the officer may take his person. 
 And it is also ordered and declared, that if any officer 
 shall do injury to any, by color of his office, in these 
 or any other cases, he shall be liable upon complaint 
 of the party wronged, by action or information, to 
 make full restitution." See MARSHAL. 
 
 LYING. 
 
 Whereas truth in words as well as in actions is
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 103 
 
 required of all men, especially of Christians who are 
 the professed servants of the God of Truth ; and 
 whereas all lying is contrary to truth, and some sorts 
 of lies are not only sinful (as all lies are), but also 
 pernicious to the public weal and injurious to particu- 
 lar persons ; 
 
 It is therefore ordered by this court and authority 
 thereof, that every person of the age of discretion, 
 which is accounted fourteen years, who shall wittingly 
 and willingly make or publish any lie which may be 
 pernicious to the public weal, or tending to the dam- 
 age or injury of any particular person, [or with intent] 
 to deceive and abuse the people with false news 
 or reports, and the same duly proved in any court 
 or before any one magistrate, who hath hereby power 
 granted to hear and determine all offences against this 
 law, such persons shall be fined for the first offence 
 ten shillings, or if the party be unable to pay the 
 same, then to be set in the stocks, so long as the said 
 court or magistrate shall appoint, in some open place, 
 not exceeding three hours ; for the second offence in 
 that kind, whereof any shall be legally convicted, the 
 sum of twenty shillings, or be whipped upon the 
 naked body not exceeding twenty stripes ; and for the 
 third offence that way, forty shillings, or if the party 
 be unable to pay, then to be whipped with more 
 stripes not exceeding thirty, And if yet any shall 
 offend in like kind and be legally convicted thereof, 
 such person, male or female, shall be fined ten shil- 
 lings at a time more than formerly, or if the party so 
 offending be unable to pay, then to be whipped with 
 five or six stripes more than formerly, not exceeding 
 forty at any time. And for all such as being under 
 age of discretion, that shall offend in lying, contrary
 
 104: FIRST CODE 
 
 to this order, their parents or masters shall give them 
 due correction, and that in the presence of some of- 
 ficer, if any magistrate shall so appoint. Provided 
 also, that no person shall be barred of his just action 
 of slander or otherwise, by any proceeding upon this 
 order.* 
 
 MASTEKS, SERVANTS, SOJOUKNER8. 
 
 It is ordered by this court and authority thereof, 
 that no master of a family shall give entertainment or 
 habitation to any young man to sojourn in his fam- 
 ily, but by the allowance of the inhabitants of the 
 town where he dwells, under the penalty <of twenty 
 shillings per week. And it is also ordered, that no 
 young man that is neither married nor hath any ser- 
 vant, nor is a public officer, shall keep house of him- 
 self without the consent of the town for and under 
 pain or penalty of twenty shillings a week.f 
 
 It is also ordered by the authority aforesaid, that no 
 servant, either man or maid, shall either give, sell or 
 truck, any commodity whatsoever, without license 
 from their master, during the time of their service, 
 under pain of fine or corporal punishment at the dis- 
 cretion of the court, as the offence shall deserve. 
 And that all workmen shall work the whole day-, al- 
 lowing convenient time for food and rest. 
 
 It is also ordered, that when any servants shall run 
 from their masters, or any other inhabitants shall pri- 
 vately go away with suspicion of ill intentions, it 
 shall be lawful for the next magistrate, or the con- 
 
 * Copied (with the preamble) from the Massachusetts law of 
 1645. (Mass. Rec., ii. 104.) 
 
 t Feb. 21st 1637. Col. Records, i. 8. The words ' for and,' in the 
 line before the last, were probably substituted for ' first had,' by an 
 error of the compiler, or recorder, of the code of 1650.
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 105 
 
 stable and two of the chiefest inhabitants, where no 
 magistrate is, to press men and boats or pinnaces, at 
 the public charge, to pursue such persons by sea or 
 land, and bring them back by force of arms. 
 
 And whereas many stubborn, refractory and dis- 
 contented servants and apprentices, withdraw them- 
 selves from their masters' services to improve their 
 time to their own advantage ; for the preventing 
 whereof, It is ordered, that whatsoever servant or ap- 
 prentice shall hereafter offend in that kind, before 
 their covenants or term of service are expired, shall 
 serve their said masters, as they shall be apprehended 
 or retained, the treble term or threefold time of their 
 absence in such kind.* 
 
 MANSLAUGHTER. 
 
 It is ordered by this court and authority thereof, 
 that if any person in the just and necessary defence 
 of his life, or the life of any other, shall kill any per- 
 son attempting to rob or murder in the field or high- 
 way, or to break into any dwelling house, if he con- 
 ceive he cannot with safety of his own person other- 
 wise take the felon or assailant, or bring him to trial, 
 he shall be holden blameless.f 
 
 MAGISTRATES. 
 
 This court being sensible of the great disorder 
 growing in this commonwealth, through the con- 
 tempts cast upon the civil authority, which willing to 
 prevent, doth order and decree : 
 
 That whosoever shall henceforth openly or willingly 
 defame any court of justice, or the sentences and pro- 
 
 * June, 1644. Col. Rec., i. 105. 
 f Mass. Records, ii. 212 (1647). 
 5*
 
 06 FIRST CODE 
 
 ceedings of the same, or any of the magistrates or 
 judges of any such court, in respect of any act or sen- 
 tence therein passed, and being thereof lawfully con- 
 victed in any general court, or court of magistrates, 
 shall be punished for the same by fine, imprisonment, 
 disfranchisement or banishment, as the quality and 
 measure of the offence shall deserve. 
 
 MARRIAGE. 
 
 Forasmuch as many persons intangle themselves by 
 rash and inconsiderate contracts for their future join- 
 ing in marriage covenant, to the great trouble and 
 grief of themselves and their friends ; for the pre- 
 venting thereof, 
 
 It is ordered by the authority of this court, that 
 whosoever intends to join themselves in marriage 
 covenant shall cause their purpose of contract to be 
 published in some public place and at some public 
 meeting, in the several towns where such persons 
 dwell, at the least eight days before they enter into 
 such contract whereby they engage themselves each to 
 other, and that they shall forbear to join in marriage 
 covenant at least eight days after the said contract.* 
 
 And it is also ordered and declared, that no person 
 whatsoever, male or female, not being at his or her 
 own dispose, or that remaineth under the govern- 
 ment of parents, masters or guardians, or such like, 
 shall either make, or give entertainment to, any motion 
 or suit in way of marriage, without the knowledge 
 and consent of those they stand in such relation to, 
 under the severe censure of the court in case of delin- 
 quency, not attending this order; nor shall any third 
 
 * Enacted April, 10th, 1640. Col. Rec., i. 47, 48.
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 107 
 
 person or persons intermeddle in making any motion 
 to any such, without the knowledge and consent of 
 those under whose government they are, under the 
 same penalty.* 
 
 MARRIAGES AND BIRTHS J See RECORDS. 
 MARSHAL. 
 
 It is ordered by this court, that the marshal shall 
 be allowed for every execution he serves which is 
 under the sum of five pounds, two shillings six pence, 
 and four pence for every mile he goes to serve the 
 said execution out of the town where he liveth : And 
 for every execution he serves of or above five pounds 
 and under the sum of ten pounds, he shall be allowed 
 three shillings four pence, and four pence for every 
 mile, as before : And for every execution he serves of 
 or above the sum of ten pounds, he shall be allowed 
 five shillings, and four pence for every mile as before. 
 Also he is to be allowed his other just and necessary 
 charges; only it is provided that if he be excessive 
 therein, upon due complaint and proof made, it shall 
 be redressed. And it is also further ordered that the 
 marshal shall be allowed for every attachment he 
 serves half so much as is before allowed him for exe- 
 cutions, only he is is to have four pence for every 
 mile he goes to serve the attachment as before. 
 
 It is further ordered by the court and authority 
 thereof, that every officer f that shall at any time be 
 fined for the breach of any penal law or other just 
 cause, such person or persons so offending shall 
 forthwith pay his or their fine or penalty or give in 
 
 * July 5th, 1643. Ibid, 92. 
 
 f In the printed revision of 1672-3, the word 'person' is substi- 
 tuted for ' officer.'
 
 108 FIRST CODE 
 
 security speedily to do it, or else shall be imprisoned 
 or kept to work till it be paid, that no loss may come 
 to the commonwealth ; and what other fines or debts 
 already due or shall be due to the country, the mar- 
 shal for the time being, upon warrant from the treas- 
 urer, and according to his oath, shall be faithful in 
 doing the duty of his place in levying and returning 
 the same, upon pain of forfeiting two shillings of his 
 own estate for every pound, or else such fine as any 
 court of justice shall impose on him for neglect. 
 
 MEASURES AND WEIGHTS. 
 
 Forasmuch as it is observed that there are divers of 
 weights, yards, and measures amongst us, whereby 
 damages many times ensueth by commerce with sev- 
 eral persons ; for the preventing whereof, 
 
 It is now ordered, that no man within these liber- 
 ties, shall, after the publishing of this order, sell any 
 commodities but by sealed weight or measure, under 
 the penalty of twelve pence each default. The clerk 
 is to have a penny for sealing a weight or measure 
 each time ; and no weight or measure is to be ac- 
 counted authentic that is not sealed or approved by 
 the clerk, once every year. The said clerk is to break 
 or demolish such weights, yards, or measures as are 
 defective. 
 
 MILITARY AFFAIRS. 
 
 It is ordered and by this court declared, that all 
 persons that are above the age of sixteen years, ex- 
 cept magistrates and church officers, shall bear arms, 
 unless they have, upon just occasion, exemption 
 granted by the court ; and every male person within 
 this jurisdiction above the said age, shall have in con- 
 tinual readiness, a good musket or other gun, fit for
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 109 
 
 service and allowed by the clerk of the band, with a 
 sword, rest, and bandaleers, or other serviceable pro- 
 vision in the room thereof where such cannot be had ; 
 as also such other military provision of powder, 
 match, and bullets as the law requires; and if any 
 person who is to provide arms or ammunition cannot 
 purchase them by such means as he hath, he shall 
 bring to the clerk so much corn or other merchantable 
 goods as, by apprizement of the said clerk and two 
 others of the company (whereof one to be chosen by 
 the party) as shall be judged of a greater value by a 
 fifth part than such arms or ammunition is of, he 
 shall be excused of the penalty for want of arms (but 
 not for want of appearance) until he be provided. 
 And the clerk shall endeavor to furnish him so soon 
 as may be by sale of such goods so deposited, render- 
 ing the overplus to the party. But if any person 
 shall not be able to provide himself arms or ammuni- 
 tion through mere poverty, if he be single he shall -be 
 put to service by some magistrate, and the constable 
 shall appoint him arms and ammunition, and shall 
 appoint him when and with whom to earn it out. 
 
 And it is ordered that all the soldiers within this 
 jurisdiction shall be trained at least six times yearly, 
 in the months of March, April, May, September, Oc- 
 tober, or November, by the appointment of the captain 
 or chief officer in the several towns. And the times 
 of their meeting together shall be at eight of the clock 
 in the morning. And the clerk of each band shall, 
 twice every year at least, view the arms and ammuni- 
 tion of the band, to see if they all be according to 
 law; And shall upon every training day give his 
 attendance in the field, every day, (except he hath 
 special leave from his captain or chief officer,) to call
 
 FIRST CODE 
 
 over the roll of the soldiers and take notice of any 
 defect by their absence or otherwise : And he shall 
 duly present to the governor or some of the magis- 
 trates, all defects in arms or ammunition, at least once 
 in each year, and oftener if it be required. And it is 
 left to the judgment of the magistrates to punish all 
 detects in that kind according to the nature of the 
 offence, wherein due regard is to be had of wilful 
 neglects in any, that such may not pass without a 
 severe censure. And whosoever shall be absent any 
 of the days appointed for training, after the hour 
 appointed, or shall not continue the whole time, shall 
 forfeit the sum of two shillings six pence for every 
 default, except such as are licensed under the hand of 
 two magistrates. The clerks of the several bands are 
 to distrain the delinquents, within fourteen days after 
 the forfeiture; whereof six pence shall be to himself 
 and the remainder for the maintenance of drums, 
 colors, etc. And if any of the said clerks shall omit 
 to distrain any delinquents, above the said term of 
 fourteen days, he shall forfeit and pay to the use of 
 the public, double the fine so neglected by him. 
 
 It is ordered, that the soldiers shall only make choice 
 of their military officers, and present them to the par- 
 ticular court ; but such only shall be deemed officers, 
 as the court shall confirm.* 
 
 The state and condition of the place where we 
 live, by reason of the Indians, and otherwise, requir- 
 ing all due means to be used for the preservation of 
 the safety and peace of the same, this court judgeth 
 necessary that there should be a magazine of powder 
 
 * Enacted, May 25, 1647. The Massachusetts law of May, 1647, 
 gave all freemen of the town the right of voting in the choice of 
 military officers. (Mass. Bee., ii. 191.)
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. HI 
 
 and shot provided and maintained in the country, in 
 each town within this jurisdiction ; and do therefore 
 order and decree, that there shall be two barrels of 
 powder and six hundred weight of lead provided by 
 this commonwealth, before the general court in Sep- 
 tember next, which shall be maintained and continued, 
 and accounted as the country stock. And it is also 
 further ordered, that the several towns within this ju- 
 risdiction shall provide and maintain as followeth, viz : 
 
 Windsor, one barrel and half of powder, four hun- 
 dred and fifty pound of lead, one hundred fathom of 
 match, nine cotton coats or corselets, and sufficient 
 serviceable pikes to either of them. 
 
 Hartford, two barrels of powder, six hundred weight 
 of lead, and six score fathom of match, and twelve cot- 
 ton coats or corselets, with serviceable pikes to either 
 of them. 
 
 Wethersfeild, one barrel of powder, three hundred 
 weight of lead, eighty fathom of match, and eight cot- 
 ton coats or corselets, with serviceable pikes to either 
 of them. 
 
 Seabrooke, half a barrel of powder, one hundred and 
 fifty pound of lead, forty fathom of match, and three 
 cotton coats or corselets, with serviceable pikes to either 
 of them. 
 
 Farmington, the same in each particular with Sea- 
 brooke. 
 
 . Fairefeild, and Stratford, in each town, one barrel 
 of powder, three hundred weight of lead, one hundred 
 fathom of match, and six coats or corselets, with ser- 
 viceable pikes to either of them. 
 
 Southampton, and Pequett, in each town, half a 
 barrel of powder, one hundred and fifty pounds of
 
 FIRST CODE 
 
 lead, forty fathom of match, with three coats or corse- 
 lets with serviceable pikes to either of them. 
 
 Each town .also shall provide so many good firelock 
 muskets and good backswords or cutlasses, as the corse- 
 lets are they are charged with by this order. All which 
 shall be provided by the several towns by the court in 
 September next, and maintained constantly for the 
 future, upon the penalty of ten shillings per month for 
 each town's defect or neglect herein. 
 
 Also it is further ordered, That every male person 
 within this jurisdiction, that is above the age of sixteen 
 years, whether magistrates, ministers, or any other, 
 ( though exempted from training, watching, and ward- 
 ing,) shall be always provided with, and have in read- 
 ness by them, half a pound of powder, two pounds of 
 serviceable bullets or shot, and two fathom of match 
 to every matchlock, upon the penalty of five shillings 
 a month for each person's default herein : provided 
 notwithstanding, that if the proportions of powder 
 laid upon each town and person either doth not at 
 present or shall not (by reason of the increase of their 
 numbers,) for the future, amount in all to three pound 
 of powder for every soldier, then each town shall, up- 
 on the former penalty, provide so much more as shall 
 be three pounds of powder for a soldier, and other 
 provision of lead, &c., increase in each town according 
 to the same proportion. 
 
 "Whereas many inconveniences do appear, by reason 
 that the several soldiers of the trained bands in each 
 town within this jurisdiction have not been allowed 
 some powder upon their training days, for their prac- 
 tice and exercise in their several firings : 
 
 It is ordered by the authority of this court, that 
 there shall be allowed to every soldier iu tlie several
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 113 
 
 trained bands in each town as aforesaid, half a pound 
 of powder a piece for a year, and so from year to year 
 for the future, to be provided by and at the proper 
 costs and charges of the masters and governors of each 
 family unto which the said soldiers do belong, to be 
 called forth, improved, and disposed of. at the discre- 
 tion of the captain or other principal leaders in each 
 trained band.* 
 
 It is also ordered, that the captains, lieutenants, and 
 ensigns shall be freed from watching and warding, 
 and the sergeants from warding and half their watch. 
 
 MINISTERS' MAINTENANCE. 
 
 Whereas the most considerable persons in these 
 colonies came into these parts of America that they 
 might enjoy Christ in his ordinances, without distur- 
 bance; And whereas amongst many other precious 
 mercies the ordinances have been and are dispensed 
 amongst us with much purity and power ; this court 
 took it into their serious consideration how due main- 
 tenance, according to God, might be provided and 
 settled, both for the present and future, for the en- 
 couragement of the ministers who labor therein ; And 
 do order, that those who are taught in the word, in 
 the several plantations be called together, that every 
 man voluntarily set down what he is willing to allow 
 to that end and use : And if any man refuse to pay a 
 meet proportion, that then he be rated by Authority 
 in some just and equal way ; and if after this any man 
 withhold or delay due payment, the civil power to be 
 exercised, as in other just debts.f 
 
 * Enacted, July 12, 1648. 
 
 t Ordered, Oct. 25th, 1644, upon the recommendation of the Com- 
 missioners of the U. Colonies. Col. Rec., i. 112.
 
 FIRST CODE 
 
 OATHS. 
 
 [The oaths for the Governor, Magistrates, and Constables, are 
 the same as those printed at the end of the Fundamental Orders, 
 pages 58, 69.] 
 
 The Oath of a Freeman. 
 
 I, A. B. being by the providence of God an inhabi- 
 tant within the jurisdiction of Connecticut, do ac- 
 knowledge myself to be subject to the government 
 thereof, and do swear by the great and fearful name 
 of the everliving God, to be true and faithful unto 
 the same, and do submit both my person and estate 
 thereunto, according to all the wholesome laws and 
 orders that there are or hereafter shall be there made 
 and established by lawful authority, and that I will 
 neither plot nor practice any evil against the same, 
 nor consent to any that shall so do, but will timely dis- 
 cover the same to lawful authority there established ; 
 and that I will, as I am in duty bound, maintain the 
 honor of the same and of the lawful magistrates there- 
 of, promoting the public good of it, whilst I shall 
 so continue an inhabitant there ; and whensoever I 
 shall give my vote or suffrage touching any matter 
 which concerns this commonwealth, being called there- 
 unto, will give it as in my conscience I shall judge 
 may conduce to the best good of the same, without 
 respect of persons or favor of any man. So help me 
 God in our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 Oath for the 
 
 You shall swear that you A. B., shall duly try the 
 cause or causes now given you in charge, between the 
 plaintiff and defendant, (or plaintiffs and defendants,) 
 according to your evidence given in court, and accord- 
 ingly a true verdict give ; your own counsel and your
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 115 
 
 fellows' you shall duly keep ; you shall speak nothing 
 to any one, of the business and matters in hand, but 
 amongst yourselves, nor shall you suffer any to speak 
 unto you about the same, but in court : when you are 
 agreed of any verdict you shall keep it secret till 
 you deliver it up in court : So help you God. 
 
 [The three following were inserted after the adoption of the code, 
 and are in the handwriting of Secretary Clark.] 
 
 Commissioner's Oath. 
 
 You do swear by the great and dreadful name of 
 the everlasting God, that for this year ensuing and 
 until new be chosen, you shall faithfully execute the 
 place and office you are chosen unto, according to the 
 extent of your commission : So help you God, in the 
 name of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 Secretary's Oath. 
 
 A. B. You being chosen Secretary for this jurisdic- 
 tion, during this year, do swear by the great name of 
 God, that you shall keep the secrets of the court and 
 shall carefully execute the place of a Secretary, and 
 shall truly and faithfully record all orders of the 
 court ; and (fix the seal unto the orders sent forth to 
 the respective towns, and*) shall deliver true copies and 
 certificates when they shall be necessarily required. 
 So help you God, in our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 Grand Jury's Oath. 
 
 You do swear, by the great and dreadful name of 
 God, that you will with all due care and faithfulness 
 make presentment according to order, at the Quarter 
 Court in September next, such misdemeanors and 
 
 * The words in the parenthesis are interlined in the record.
 
 116 FIRST CODE 
 
 transgressions of the laws and orders of this common- 
 wealth as shall come to your cognizance ; as also to do 
 your endeavor to find out such things as are contrary 
 to religion and peace : so help you God, in our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 PEAG. 
 
 It is ordered by this Court and decreed, that no 
 peag, white or black, be paid or received, but what 
 is strung and in some measure strung suitably, and 
 not small and great, uncomely and disorderly mixed, 
 as formerly it hath been.* 
 
 POOK. 
 
 It is ordered by this Court and authority thereof, 
 that the court of magistrates shall have power to 
 determine all differences about lawful settling and 
 providing for poor persons, and shall have power to 
 dispose of all unsettled persons, into such towns as 
 they shall judge to be most fit for the maintenance 
 and employment of such persons and families for the 
 ease of the country. 
 
 POUND; POUND BREACH. 
 
 For prevention and due recompense of damage in 
 cornfields and other inclosures done by swine and 
 cattle, It is ordered by this Court and authority thereof, 
 that there shall be one sufficient pound or more made 
 and maintained in every town and village within this 
 
 * Recommended by the Commissioners of the U. Colonies, and 
 approved by the Gen. Court, March, 1649 ; Col. Rec., i. 179. "Peag" 
 was a general name for the shell money made by the Indians. The 
 "white" or cheaper sort was called wampum, or sometimes viam- 
 pum-peag.
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 117 
 
 jurisdiction, for the impounding of all such swine and 
 cattle as shall be found in any cornfield or other in- 
 closure : and whosoever impounds any swine or cattle 
 shall give present notice to the owners, if he be known, 
 or otherwise they shall be cried at the two next lectures 
 or markets. And if swine or cattle escape out of 
 the pound, the owner, if known, shall pay all damages, 
 according to law. 
 
 And whereas impounding of cattle in case of tres- 
 passes hath been always found both needful and 
 profitable, and all the breaches about the same very 
 offensive and injurious : *-It is therefore ordered by 
 this Court and authority thereof, that if any person 
 shall resist or rescue any cattle going to the pound, 
 or shall by any way or means convey them out of 
 pound or custody of the law, whereby the party 
 wronged may lose his damage and the law be deluded, 
 that in case of mere rescues, the party ofiending shall 
 forfeit to the treasury, forty shillings; and in case of 
 pound breach, five pounds ; and shall also pay all 
 damages to the party wronged : and if in the rescue 
 any bodily harms be done to the person of any man 
 or other, they shall have remedy against the rescuers : 
 and if either be done by any not of ability to answer 
 the damage and forfeit aforesaid, they shall be [ ] 
 whipped, by warrant from any magistrate before 
 whom the offender is convicted, in the town or plan- 
 tation where the offence was committed, not exceeding 
 twenty stripes, for the mere rescue or pound breach; 
 and for all damages to the party they shall satisfy by 
 service, as in case of theft : and if it appear there were 
 any procurement of the owners of the cattle there- 
 unto (and that they were abettors,) they shall all pay 
 forfeitures and damages as if themselves had done it.
 
 FIRST CODE 
 
 PROFANE SWEARING. 
 
 It is ordered and by this court decreed, that if any 
 person within this jurisdiction shall swear rashly and 
 vainly, either by the holy name of God, or any other 
 oath ; [or] shall sinfully and wickedly curse any ; he 
 shall forfeit to the common treasure, for every such 
 several offence, ten shillings : and it shall be in the 
 power of any magistrate, by warrant to the constable, 
 to call such persons before him, and upon just proof 
 to pass a sentence, and levy the said penalty accord- 
 ing to the usual order of justice : And if such persons 
 be not able, or shall utterly refuse to pay the afore- 
 said fine, he shall be committed to the stocks, there 
 to continue not exceeding three hours and not less 
 than one hour.* 
 
 RATES. 
 
 It is ordered by this court and authority thereof, 
 that every inhabitant shall henceforth contribute to all 
 charges both in church and commonwealth, whereof 
 he doth or may receive benefit, and every such inhab- 
 itant who doth not voluntarily contribute proportion- 
 ably to his ability with the rest of the same town to all 
 common charges, both civil and ecclesiastical, shall be 
 compelled thereunto by assessments and distress, to 
 be levied by the constable or other officer of the town 
 as in other cases ; And that the lands and estates of 
 all men, wherever they dwell, shall be rated for all 
 town charges, both civil and ecclesiastical as aforesaid, 
 where the lands and estates shall lie, and their persons, 
 where they dwell. 
 
 For a more equal and ready way of raising means 
 for defraying of public charges in time to come, and 
 for preventing such inconveniences as have fallen out 
 
 * Copied from Massachusetts law of Nov., 1C46. (Eec. ii. 178.)
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 
 
 upon former assessments, It is ordered and acted 
 by the authority of this court, that the treasurer for 
 the time being shall, from year to year, in the first 
 month, without expecting any other order, send forth 
 his warrants to the constables of every town within 
 this jurisdiction, requiring the constable to call together 
 the inhabitants of the town, who being so assembled 
 shall choose three or four of their able inhabitants, 
 whereof one to be a commissioner for the town, who 
 shall, some time or times in the sixth month then next 
 ensuing, make a list of all the male persons in the 
 same town from sixteen years old and upwards, and 
 a true estimation of all personal and real estates being 
 (or reputed to be) the estate of all and every the 
 persons in the same town, or otherwise under their 
 custody or managing, according to just valuation, and 
 to what persons the same belong, whether in their 
 own town or other where, so near as they can by all 
 lawful ways and means which they may use, viz : of 
 houses, lands of all sorts, as well unbroken up as other 
 (except such as doth or shall lie common, for free feed 
 of cattle, to the use of the inhabitants in general, 
 whether belonging to the towns or particular persons, 
 but not to be kept or herded upon it to the damage 
 of the proprietors), mills, ships and all small vessels, 
 merchantable goods, cranes, wharves, and all sorts of 
 cattle, and all other known estate whatsoever, as also 
 all visible estate either at sea or on shore ; all which 
 persons and estates are by the said commissioners 
 and selectmen to be assessed and rated as here fol- 
 loweth, viz : Every person aforesaid (except magis- 
 trates and elders of churches), two shillings six pence 
 by the head, and all estates both real and personal, at 
 one penny for every twenty shillings, according to the
 
 120 FIRST CODE 
 
 rates of cattle hereafter mentioned. And for a more 
 certain rule in rating of cattle, every cow of four year 
 old and upward shall be valued at five pounds ; every 
 heifer and steer, between three and four year old, four 
 pounds, and between two and three year old, fifty 
 shillings, and between one and two year old, thirty 
 shillings ; every ox and bull of four year old and 
 upwards, six pounds ; every horse and mare of four 
 year old and upwards, twelve pounds ; of three year 
 old, eight pounds ; between two and three years old, 
 five pounds ; of one year old, three pounds ; every 
 sheep of one year old, thirty shillings ; every goat 
 above one year old, eight shillings ; every swine above 
 one year old, twenty shillings; and all cattle of all 
 sorts under a year old, are hereby exempted, as also 
 all hay and corn in the husbandman's hand, because 
 all meadow, earable ground and cattle are rateable as 
 aforesaid. And for all such persons as by the advan- 
 tage of their arts and trades are more able to help 
 bear the public charge then e'ommon laborers and 
 workmen, as butchers, bakers, brewers, victualers, 
 smiths, carpenters, tailors, shoemakers, joiners, bar- 
 bers, millers, and masons, with all other manual persons 
 and artists, such are to be rated for their returns and 
 gains proportionably unto other men for the produce 
 of their estates. Provided that in the rate by the 
 poll, such persons as are disabled by sickness, lameness 
 or other infirmities shall be exempted ; and for such 
 servants and children as take not wages, their parents 
 and masters shall pay for them, but such as take 
 wages shall pay for themselves. 
 
 And it is further ordered, that the commissioners 
 for the several towns upon this River shall yearly 
 meet upon the third Thursday in the sixth month at
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 121 
 
 Hartford, and the commissioners for the towns of 
 Fairefeild and Stratford shall meet the same day in 
 one of those towns, (and two days before the General 
 Court in September they shall meet the commissioners 
 upon the River, in Hartford,*) and bring with them, 
 fairly written, the just number of males listed as 
 aforesaid, and the assessment of estates made in their 
 several towns according to the rules and directions in 
 this present order expressed ; And the said commis- 
 sioners being so assembled shall duly and carefully 
 examine all the said lists and assessments of the several 
 towns, and shall correct and perfect the same, accord- 
 ing to the true intent of this order, and the same BO 
 perfected they shall transmit under their hands to the 
 General Court, the second Thursday in September, 
 and then, directions shall be given to the treasurer for 
 gathering of the said rate, and every one shall pay 
 their rate to the constable of the town where it shall 
 be assessed ; nor shall any land or estate be rated in 
 any other town but where the same shall lie, is or was 
 improved to the owner's, reputed owner's, or other 
 proprietor's use or behoof, if it be within this juris- 
 diction. And for all peculiars, viz : such places as are 
 not yet laid within the bounds of any town, the same 
 lands, with the persons and estates thereupon, shall be 
 assessed by the rates of the town next unto it ; the 
 measure or estimation shall be by the distance of the 
 meeting houses. 
 
 And if any of the said commissioners or of the 
 select men shall willingly fail or neglect to perform 
 the trust committed to them by this order, in not 
 making, correcting, perfecting, or transmitting any 
 
 * The clause in parenthesis is interlined. 
 6
 
 122 FIRST CODE 
 
 of the said lists or assessments, according to the in- 
 tent of this order, every such offender shall be fined 
 forty shillings for every such offence, or so much as 
 the country shall be damnified thereby, so as it exceeds 
 not forty shillings for one offence ; provided that such 
 offence or offences be complained of and prosecuted, 
 in due course of law, within six months. 
 
 And it is further ordered, that upon all distresses 
 to be taken for any of the rates and assessments 
 aforesaid, the officer shall distrain goods or cattle, if 
 they may be had ; and if 110 goods, then lands or 
 houses ; if neither goods nor lands can be had within 
 the town where such distresses are to be taken, then 
 upon such returns to the treasurer he shall give war- 
 rants to attach the body of such persons, to be carried 
 to prison, there to be kept till the next court, except 
 they put in security for their appearance there, or that 
 payment be made in the mean time. 
 
 And it is further ordered, that the prices of all sorts 
 of corn to be received upon any rate by virtue of this 
 order, shall be such as the court shall set from year to 
 year, and in default thereof they shall be accepted at 
 the price current, to be judged by the said commis- 
 sioners. 
 
 And it is further ordered, that all estates of land in 
 England shall not be rated in a public assessment. 
 
 It is also provided and ordered, that all town rates 
 shall be made after the same manner and by the same 
 rule as the country rate. 
 
 "Whereas much wrong hath been done to the coun- 
 try by the negligence of constables, in not gathering 
 such levies as they have received warrants from the 
 treasurer, during their office : It is therefore ordered, 
 that if any constable shall not have gathered the levies
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 123 
 
 committed to his charge by the treasurer then being, 
 during the time of his office, that he shall, notwith- 
 standing the expiration of his office, have power to levy 
 by distress all such rates and levies ; and if he bring 
 them .not in to the old treasurer, according to his 
 warrants, the treasurer shall distrain such constable's 
 goods for the same; and if the treasurer shall not so 
 distrain the constable, he shall be answerable to the 
 country for the same. And if the constable be not 
 able to make payment, it shall be lawful for the treas- 
 urer, old or new respectively, to distrain any man or 
 men of that town where the constables are unable, 
 for all arrearages of levies; and that man or men, 
 Tipon petition to the General Court, shall have order 
 to collect the same again, equally, of the town, with 
 his just damages for the same. 
 
 It is further ordered by this court, that all collectors 
 and gatherers of rates shall appoint a day and place 
 and give reasonable warning to the inhabitants to 
 bring in their proportions, upon which every man so 
 warned shall duly attend to bring in his rate, or upon 
 neglect thereof shall forfeit two pence in the shilling 
 for what he falls short ; and the said collector shall 
 have authority hereby to distrain the delinquents, or 
 be accountable themselves for the rates and penalties 
 BO neglected by them. 
 
 RECORDS. 
 
 It is ordered by this court and authority thereof, 
 that the town clerk or register, in the several towns of 
 this jurisdiction, shall record all births and deaths of 
 persons in their town : And that all parents, masters 
 of servants, executors and administrators, respectively, 
 shall bring in to the register of their several towns,
 
 FIRST CODE 
 
 the names of such persons belonging to them or any 
 of them, as shall either be born or die ; and also that 
 every new married man shall likewise bring in a cer- 
 tificate of his marriage, under the hand of the magis- 
 trate which married him, to the said register ; And 
 for each neglect the person to whom it doth belong 
 shall forfeit as followeth, viz : If any person shall 
 neglect to bring in a note or certificate as aforesaid, 
 together with three pence a name, to the said regis- 
 ters, for all births and deaths, and six pence for each 
 marriage, to be recorded, more than one month after 
 such birth, death, or marriage, shall forfeit for every 
 default five shillings, and the penalty further increased 
 upon longer neglect, according to the judgment of the 
 court. And the register of each town shall yearly 
 convey to the secretary of the court a true transcript 
 of the births, deaths, and marriages, given under their 
 hands, with a third part of the aforementioned fees, 
 under the penalty of forty shillings for every such 
 neglect, all which forfeits shall be returned in to the 
 treasury ; Also the grand jurors may present all 
 neglects of this order. 
 
 It is ordered by the authority aforesaid, that the 
 several towns within this jurisdiction shall each of 
 them provide a ledger book, with an index or alpha- 
 bet unto the same ; also shall choose one who shall 
 be a town clerk or register, who shall, before the Gen- 
 eral Court in September next, record every man's 
 house and lands already granted and measured out to 
 him, with the bounds and quantity of the same. And 
 whosoever shall neglect three months after notice 
 given, to bring in to the said town clerk or register a 
 note of his house and land, with the bounds and quan- 
 tity of the same by the nearest estimation, shall
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 125 
 
 forfeit ten shillings ; and so ten shillings a month for 
 every month he shall so neglect ; the like to be done 
 for all lands hereafter granted and measured to any. 
 And if any such grantor, being required by the gran- 
 tee, his heirs or assigns, to make an acknowledgment 
 of any grant, sale, bargain, or mortgage by him made, 
 shall refuse so to do, it shall be in the power of any 
 magistrate to send for the party so refusing and com- 
 mit him to prison without bail or mainprise, until he 
 shall acknowledge the same : And the grantee is to 
 enter his caution with the recorder, and shall save 
 his interest in the meantime. And all bargains or 
 mortgages of lands whatsoever shall be accounted of 
 no value until they be recorded, for which entry the 
 register shall receive six pence for every parcel, deliv- 
 ering every owner a copy of the same under his hand, 
 whereof four pence shall be for himself, and two pence 
 for the secretary of the court. And the said register 
 shall, every general court in May and September, de- 
 liver into the same a transcript fairly written of all 
 such grants, bargains, or engagements recorded by him 
 in the town book ; and the secretary of the court 
 shall record it in a book fairly written, provided for 
 that purpose, and shall preserve the copy brought in 
 under the hand of the town clerk. Also the said town 
 clerk shall have for every search of a parcel, one 
 penny, and for every copy of a parcel, two pence ; and 
 a copy of the same under the hand of the said regis- 
 ter or town clerk and two of the men chosen to govern 
 the town, shall be a sufficient evidence to all that have 
 the same.* 
 
 For the better keeping in mind those passages of 
 God's Providence which have been remarkable since 
 
 * Oct. 10th, 1639. Col. Rec., i. 37.
 
 126 FIRST CODE 
 
 our first undertaking of these plantations, Mr. Deputy, 
 Capt. Mason, Mr. Stone, with Mr. Goodwin, are de- 
 sired to take the pains severally in their several towns, 
 and then jointly together, to gather up the same and 
 deliver them into the general court in September next, 
 and if it be judged then fit, they may be recorded, and 
 for future times, whatsoever remarkable passages 
 shall be, and if they be public, the said parties are 
 desired to deliver in the same to the general court : 
 But if any particular person do bring in anything, he 
 shall bring it under the hands of two of the aforemen- 
 tioned parties, that it is true, then present it to the 
 general court, that if it be there judged requisite it may 
 be recorded : -provided that any general court for the 
 future may alter any of the parties before mentioned 
 or add to them, as they shall judge meet.* 
 
 It is also ordered by this court and decreed, that after 
 the death and decease of any person possessed of any 
 estate, be it more or less, and who maketh a will in 
 writing or by word of mouth, those men which are ap- 
 pointed to order the affairs of the town where any such 
 person deceaseth, shall within one month after the same 
 at furthest, cause a true inventory to be taken of 
 the said estate in writing ; as also take a copy of the 
 said will or testament and enter it into a book or keep 
 the copy in safe custody ; as also enter the names up- 
 on record of the children and legatees of the testator 
 or deceased person. And the said orderers of the affairs 
 of the town are to see every such will and inventory 
 to be exhibited into the public court, within one quar- 
 ter of a year, where the same is to be registered. And 
 the said orderers of the affairs of the town shall do their 
 
 * Oct. 10th, 1639. Col. Rec., i. 39, 40.
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 127 
 
 endeavors in seeing that the estate of the testator be 
 not wasted nor spoiled, but improved for the best ad- 
 vantage of the children or legatees of the testator, 
 according to the mind of the testator, for their and 
 every of their use, and by their and every of their al- 
 lowance and approbation. But when any person dieth 
 intestate, the said orderers of the affairs of the town 
 shall cause an inventory to be taken, and then the pub- 
 lic court may grant the administration of the goods 
 and chattels to the next of kin, jointly or severally, 
 and divide the estate to wife (if any be), children or 
 kindred, as in equity they shall see meet. And if 
 no kindred be found, the court to administer for the 
 public good of the common : provided there be an in- 
 ventory registered, that if any of the kindred in future 
 time appear, they may have justice and equity done 
 unto them. And all charges that the public court or 
 the orderers of the affairs of the town are at, about the 
 trust committed to them, either for writing or other- 
 wise, is to be paid out of the estate.* 
 
 Whereas also, It was recommended by the Commis- 
 sioners, that for the more free and speedy passage of 
 justice in each jurisdiction, to all the confederates, if 
 the last will and testament of any person be duly 
 proved in, and duly certified from any one of the col- 
 onies, it be without delay accepted and allowed in the 
 rest of the colonies, unless some just exception be 
 made against such will or the proving of it, which ex- 
 ception to be forthwith duly certified back to the col- 
 ony where the said will was proved, that some just 
 course may be taken to gather in and dispose the 
 estate without delay or damage. And also that if any 
 
 * Oct. 10th, 1C39. Col. Eec., i. 38, 39.
 
 128 FIRST CODE 
 
 known planters or settled inhabitants die intestate, 
 administration be granted by that colony unto which 
 the deceased belong, though dying in another colony. 
 And the administration being duly certified, to be of 
 force for the gathering in of the estate in the rest of 
 the colonies, as in the case of wills proved, where no 
 just exception is returned. But if any person pos- 
 sessed of an estate, who is neither planter nor settled 
 inhabitant in any of the colonies, die intestate, the 
 administration (if just cause be found to give adminis- 
 tration,) be granted by that colony where the person 
 shall die and depart this life, and that care be taken by 
 that government to gather in and secure the estate, 
 until it be demanded and may be delivered according 
 to rules of justice : Which upon due consideration 
 was confirmed by this court, and in behalf of this col- 
 ony, and ordered to be attended in all such occasions 
 for the future : provided the general courts of the 
 other colonies yield the like assent thereunto.* 
 
 SCHOOLS. 
 
 It being one chief project of that old deluder Satan, 
 to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures, as 
 in former times [by] keeping them in an unknown 
 tongue, so in these latter times by persuading them 
 from the use of tongues, so that at least the true sense 
 and meaning of the original might be clouded with 
 false glosses of saint-seeming deceivers ; and that learn- 
 ing may not be buried in the grave of our forefathers 
 in church and commonwealth, the Lord assisting our 
 endeavors, It is therefore ordered by this court and 
 
 * Recommended by Commissioners of the U. Colonies, Sept. 
 1648, and confirmed by the General Court, Mar. 14th, 1648-9.
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 129 
 
 authority thereof, that every township within this ju- 
 risdiction, after the Lord hath increased them to the 
 number of fifty householders, shall then forthwith 
 appoint one within their town to teach all such chil- 
 dren as shall resort to him, to write and read, whose 
 wages shall be paid either by the parents or masters of 
 such children, or by the inhabitants in general, by way 
 of supply, as the major part of those who order the 
 prudentials of the town shall appoint ; provided that 
 those who send their children be not oppressed by [pay- 
 ing] more then they can have them taught for in other 
 towns. And it is further ordered, that where any 
 town shall increase to the number of one hundred fam- 
 ilies or householders, they shall set up a grammar 
 school, the masters thereof being able to instruct 
 youths so far as they may be fitted for the University. 
 And if any town neglect the performance hereof above 
 one year, then every such town shall pay five pounds 
 per annum, to the next such school, till they shall per- 
 form this order.* 
 
 The proposition concerning the maintenance of 
 scholars at Cambridge, made by the Commissioners, 
 is confirmed. And it is ordered, that two men shall 
 be appointed in every town, within this jurisdiction, 
 who shall demand what every family will give, and 
 the same to be gathered and brought into some room, 
 in March, and this to continue yearly as it shall be con- 
 sidered by the Coinmissioners.f 
 
 * From Massachusetts order of Nov. 1647. (Mass. Rec., ii. 203.) 
 + Confirmed by the general court, Oct. 25th, 1644. Col. Rcc., i. 112. 
 This " proposition of a general contribution for (he maintenance 
 of poor scholars at the college at Cambridge," was presented to the 
 commissioners of the N. E. Colonies, at their meeting in September, 
 1644, by the Rev. Thomas Shepard, "and fully approved by them, 
 
 6*
 
 130 FIRST CODE 
 
 SECRETARY. 
 
 It is ordered and decreed, that within twenty days 
 after the session of every general court, the secretary 
 thereof shall send forth copies of such laws and orders 
 as are or shall be made at either of them, which are 
 of general concernment for the government of this 
 commonwealth, to the constables of each town within 
 this jurisdiction, for them to publish within fourteen 
 days more, at some public meeting in their several 
 towns, and cause to be written into a book and kept 
 for the use of the town. And once every year the 
 constables in each town shall read or cause to be read in 
 some public meeting all the capital laws, and give no- 
 tice to all the inhabitants where they may at any time 
 see the rest of the laws and orders and acquaint them- 
 selves therewith : And the secretary of the court shall 
 have twelve pence for the copy of the orders of each 
 session aforesaid, from each of the towns.* 
 
 and agreed to be commended to the several general courts as a matter 
 worthy of due consideration and entertainment for the advancement 
 of learning, which we hope will be 'cheerfully embraced." Mr. Shep- 
 ard, after requesting the commissioners to consider "some way of 
 comfortable maintenance for that school of the prophets which now 
 is," suggests that " If therefore it were commended by you, and 
 left to the freedom of every family which is able and willing to give, 
 throughout the plantations, to give yearly but the fourth part of a 
 bushel of corn or something equivalent thereunto, and for this 
 end, if every minister were desired to stir up the hearts of the peo- 
 ple once in the fittest season of the year, to be freely enlarged 
 therein, and one or two faithful men appointed in each town, to re- 
 ceive and seasonably to send in what shall be thus given by them, 
 it is conceived that as no man could feel any grievance hereby, so 
 it would be a blessed means of comfortable provision for the diet of 
 divers such students as may stand in need of some support, and be 
 thought meet and worthy to be continued a fit season therein." 
 Eecords of U. Colonies, Sept., 1644. 
 
 * Altered from an order made, Oct. 1639. (Col. Kec., i. 39.^
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 131 
 
 And it is f urtlier ordered that the secretary of the 
 court shall record such wills and inventories as are 
 exhibited into the said court, and shall file the orig- 
 inal of them, and give a copy thereof to such as 
 desire it, for which he shall have for every record of 
 any will or inventory, or both, which is above the sum 
 of forty pounds, three shillings four pence ; and for 
 every copy of them 6r either of them, one shilling 
 eight pence ; and for every search or supervising of 
 them, six pence : also for recording of every will or 
 inventory, or both, which is above the sum of thirty 
 pounds and under the sum of forty pounds, two shil- 
 lings six pence; and for every copy of them, or either 
 of them, fifteen pence; and for every search or super- 
 vising of them, four pence : Also for every attachment, 
 twelve pence, and for every bond or recognizance in 
 or about the same, six pence : Also for every execution 
 above five pounds, the secretary shall have twelve 
 pence, and for every execution under five pounds, six 
 pence : Also for the entry of every or any recogni- 
 zance in court, six pence, and for the withdrawing of 
 it, twelve pence, which shall be paid before the bounden 
 be freed from his said recognizance. 
 
 It is also ordered, that whosoever shall take out any 
 warrant from the secretary of the court, that concerns 
 an action, shall, before he hath a warrant, enter his 
 action with the secretary, and then take out his war- 
 rant for summons to answer the same ; for which they 
 shall pay for every entry twelve pence, and for every 
 warrant, four pence, though they agree with their 
 defendants before the court. Also if any other mag- 
 istrate shall grant a warrant which concerns an action, 
 they shall enter the action in a small book for that 
 purpose, before they grant the warrant, and shall
 
 132 FIRST CODE 
 
 make a due return at every court to the secretary 
 thereof, what such warrants and to whom they have 
 granted ; and all such persons shall be as liable to pay 
 twelve pence for every such action to the secretary of 
 the court as if they should have had their warrants 
 of him. 
 
 STRAYS. 
 
 It is ordered by this court and authority thereof, 
 that whosoever shall take up any stray beast or find 
 any goods lost, whereof the owner is not known, he 
 shall give notice thereof to the constable of the same 
 town, within six days, who shall enter the same in a 
 book, and take order that it be cryed at their next 
 lecture day or general meeting, upon three several 
 days, and if it be above twenty shillings value, at the 
 next market, or two next towns' public meetings, where 
 no market is within ten miles, upon pain that the 
 party so finding and the said constable having such 
 notice and failing to do as is here appointed, to for- 
 feit, either of them, for such default one third part 
 of the value of such stray or lost goods. 
 
 And if the finder shall not give notice as aforesaid, 
 within one month, or if he keep it more than three 
 months, and shall not apprize it by sufficient men and 
 also record it with the register of the town where it 
 is found, he shall then forfeit the full value thereof. 
 And if the owner appear within one year after such 
 publication he shall have restitution of the same or 
 the value thereof, he paying all necessary charges, and 
 to the constable for his care and pains, as one of the 
 next magistrates or one of the townsmen shall adjudge ; 
 and if no owner appear within the time prefixed, the 
 said stray or lost goods shall be thus divided, one 
 fourth part thereof with his reasonable charge shall
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 133 
 
 be to the finder, one fifth part thereof or ten shillings 
 to the constable, at the choice of the court, and the 
 rest to the commonwealth ; provided there be three 
 streaks clipped in the hair of the near buttock, six 
 inches long, that they may be known. 
 
 SWINE. 
 
 It is ordered by this court, that all the swine, either 
 hogs or shoats, in the several plantations, that are kept 
 at home within the town, shall by September next 
 be ringed or yoked, or kept up in their yards, under 
 the penalty of four pence for every such swine, to be 
 paid by the owner to the party that shall take the 
 swine so defective and impound them ; also all such as 
 are kept by herds in the woods, shall not be suffered 
 to abide above one night in the town, but that it shall 
 be lawful to impound them, in case they come at any 
 time home from the middle of March to the middle 
 of November. Fairfield and Stratford desire to be 
 included in this order.* 
 
 For the better preserving corn and meadow on the 
 east side of the Great River, It is ordered by this 
 court, that there shall no hogs nor swine of any sort 
 be put over thither or kept there at any time, after 
 the publishing of this order, except they be kept 
 out of the bounds of the several towns, or in their 
 yards, under the penalty of two shillings a head for 
 every hog or swine, for every time they shall be found 
 there contrary to this order. 
 
 TIMBER. 
 
 It is ordered by this court, that no timber shall be 
 felled within three miles of the mouth of Mattabeseck 
 
 * Ordered, Sept. 1645. (Col. Rec., i. 131.)
 
 134: FIRST CODE 
 
 River, nor at unseasonable times, viz: from the begin- 
 ning of April to the end of September, and that it 
 be improved into pipestaves or some other merchant- 
 able commodity, within one month after the felling 
 thereof, or carted together: and that the timber so 
 improved shall not be transported from the River but 
 for discharge of debts or fetching in some necessary 
 provision.* 
 
 TOBACCO. 
 
 Forasmuch as it is observed that many abuses are 
 crept in and committed by frequent taking of tobacco, 
 It is ordered by the authority of this court, that no 
 person under the age of twenty years, nor any other 
 that hath not already accustomed himself to the use 
 thereof, shall take any tobacco, until he hath brought 
 a certificate under the hands of some who are approv- 
 ed for knowledge and skill in physic, that it is useful 
 for him, and also that he hath received a license from 
 the court for the same. And for the regulating of 
 those who either by their former taking it have to 
 their own apprehensions made it necessary to them, 
 or upon due advice are persuaded to the use thereof, 
 It is ordered, that no man within this colony, after the 
 publication hereof, shall 'take any tobacco publicly in 
 the street, highways, or any barn yards, or upon train- 
 ing days in any open places, under the penalty of 
 six pence for each offence against this order in any 
 the particulars thereof, to be paid without gainsaying, 
 upon conviction by the testimony of one witness that 
 is without just exception, before any one magistrate. 
 And the constables in the several towns are required 
 to make presentment to each particular court of such 
 
 * Ordered, Sept. 1641. (Col. Eec., i. 67.)
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 135 
 
 as they do understand and evict to be transgressors of 
 this order.* 
 
 TRESPASSES. 
 
 It is ordered by this court and authority thereof, 
 that if any horse, or other beast, trespass in corn or 
 other inclosure, being fenced in such sort as secures 
 against cows, oxen, small calves, and such like orderly 
 cattle, the party or parties trespassed shall procure 
 two able men of good report and credit to view and 
 adjudge the harms, which the owner of the beast .shall 
 satisfy (when known) upon reasonable demand, whether 
 the beast were impounded or not ; but if the owner 
 be known and near residing, as in the same town or 
 the like, notice shall be left at the usual place of his 
 abode, of the trespass, before an estimation be made 
 thereof, to the end he, or any others appointed by him, 
 may be present when the judgment is made ; the like 
 notice also shall be left for him of the damage charged 
 upon him, that if he approve not thereof he may 
 repair to the select townsmen, or some of them, who 
 shall in such case nominate and appoint two able and 
 indifferent men, to review and adjudge the said harms, 
 which being discharged, together with the charge of 
 the notice, former and latter view, and determination 
 of damages, the first judgment to be void, or else to 
 stand in law. 
 
 TREASURER. 
 
 It is ordered, that the treasurer shall deliver no 
 money out of his hands to any person, without the 
 hands of two magistrates, if the sum be above twenty 
 
 * Enacted May, 1047. (Col. Rec., i. 153.) A law against the pub- 
 lic use of tobacco was passed by Massachusetts the year previous. 
 To "take"' tobacco meant, at this period, to smoke it. The viler 
 habit of chewing was not yet introduced.
 
 136 FIRST CODE 
 
 shillings ; if it be under, then the treasurer is to ac- 
 cept of the hand of one ; but if it be for the payment 
 of some bills to be allowed, which are referred to some 
 committees to consider of, whether allowed or not, 
 that such bills as they allow and set their hands unto, 
 the treasurer shall accept and give satisfaction. 
 
 VOTES. 
 
 It is ordered by this court and decreed, that if any 
 person within these liberties have been or shall be 
 fined or whipped for any scandalous offence, he shall 
 not be admitted after such time to have any vote in 
 town or commonwealth, nor to serve on the jury, until 
 the court shall manifest their satisfaction. 
 
 VEKDICTS. 
 
 That love and peace, with truth and righteousness 
 may continue and flourish in these conf oederated colo- 
 nies, It was, upon the recommendation of the Commis- 
 sioners, ordered, that any verdict or sentence of any 
 court within the colonies, presented under authentic 
 testimony, shall have a due respect in the several 
 courts of this jurisdiction, where there may be occasion 
 to make use thereof, and shall be accounted good evi- 
 dence for the party, until better evidence or other just 
 cause appear to alter or make the same void : and that 
 in such case, the issuing of the cause in question be 
 respited for some convenient time, that the court may 
 be advised with where the verdict or sentence first 
 passed. Provided notwithstanding, that this order 
 shall be accounted valid and improved only for the ad- 
 vantage of such as live within some of the conf oederated 
 colonies, and where the verdicts in the courts of this 
 colony may receive reciprocal respect by a like order
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 137 
 
 established by the General Court cf that colony.* 
 
 WINE AND STRONG WATER. 
 
 "Whereas many complaints are brought into the court, 
 by reason of divers abuses that fall out by several 
 persons that sell wine and strong water, as well in 
 vessels on the river as also in several houses ; for the 
 preventing hereof, It is now ordered by the authority 
 of this court, that no person or persons, after the pub- 
 lishing of this order, shall neither sell wine nor strong 
 water by retail, in any place within these liberties, 
 without license from the particular court or any two 
 magistrates^ or where there is but one magistrate, by 
 a magistrate and one of those appointed to order the 
 affairs of the town. 
 
 WATCHES. 
 
 It is ordered by this court and decreed, that there 
 shall be a sufficient watch maintained in every town, 
 and that the constable of each town shall duly warn 
 the same and see that the inhabitants or residents do 
 severally in their turns observe the same, according 
 as the inhabitants do agree.:}: And this court doth ex- 
 plain themselves and order that whosoever within this 
 jurisdiction, that is liable to watch, shall take a jour- 
 ney out of the town wherein he liveth after he hath 
 had timely notice and warning to watch, he shall pro- 
 vide a watchman for that turn, though himself be ab- 
 sent ; and if any man that takes a journey, or goes out 
 of the town wherein he liveth, if he return home 
 within a week after the watch is past his house, he 
 
 * Approved by the General Court, Oct. 25th, 1G44. Col. Rec. i. 
 113. 
 
 t Feb. 14th, 1643-4. Rid. 100. The last clause was subsequently 
 added. 
 
 J June, 163G. Col. Rec., i. 2.
 
 FIRST CODE 
 
 shall be called back to watch that turn past a week 
 before.* 
 
 And for the better keeping watches and wards by 
 the constables in time of peace, It is ordered by this 
 court and authority thereof, that every constable shall 
 present to one of the next magistrates the name of 
 every person who shall upon lawful warning refuse or 
 neglect to watch or ward, either in person or by some 
 other fit for that service : And if, being conveiited, he 
 cannot give a just excuse, such magistrate shall grant 
 warrant to levy five shillings on every such offen- 
 der, for every such default : the same to be employed 
 for the use of the watch of the same town. And it is 
 the intent of the law that every person of able body 
 ( not exempted by law), or of estate to hire another, 
 shall be liable to watch and ward, or to supply it by 
 some other, when they shall be thereunto required. 
 And if there be in the same house divers such per- 
 sons, whether sons, servants, or sojourners, they shall 
 all be compellable to watch as aforesaid. f Provided 
 that all such as keep families at their farms, being re- 
 mote from any town, shall not be compellable to send 
 their servants or sons from their farms to watch and 
 ward in the towns. 
 
 WOLVES. 
 
 "Whereas great loss and damage doth befall the com- 
 monwealth by reason of wolves, which destroy great 
 numbers of our cattle, notwithstanding provision for- 
 merly made by this court for suppressing of them ; 
 therefore, for the better encouragement of any to set 
 about a work of so great concernment, It is ordered 
 by this court and authority thereof, that any person, 
 
 *Sept. 1649. Col. Rec., i. 196. 
 
 \ From Massachusetts order of 1646. (Mass. Rec., ii. 151.)
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 139 
 
 either English or Indian, that shall kill any wolf or 
 wolves, within ten miles of any plantation within this 
 jurisdiction, shall have for every wolf by him or them 
 so killed, ten shillings paid out of the treasury of the 
 country : provided, that due proof be made thereof 
 unto the plantation next adjoining where such wolf or 
 wolves were killed, and also bring a certificate under 
 some magistrate's hand, or the constable of that place, 
 unto the treasurer. 
 
 WRECKS OF THE SEA. 
 
 It is ordered and decreed and by this court declared, 
 that if any ships, or other vessels, be it friend or en- 
 emy, shall suffer shipwreck upon our coasts, there 
 shall be no violence or wrong offered to their persons 
 or goods, but their persons shall be harbored and re- 
 lieved, and their goods preserved in safety, till author- 
 ity may be certified and shall take further order 
 therein. 
 
 VESSELS. 
 
 It is ordered by this court and authority thereof, 
 that no vessel nor boat shall have liberty to go from 
 any port in any town within this jurisdiction, before 
 they have entered with the register or recorder in each 
 town what quantity of powder and shot they carry 
 forth with them in their said vessels, and shall take a 
 certificate, under the said register's or recorder's hand, 
 of the same, paying to him for every certificate, four 
 pence : And if any vessel shall attempt to go from the 
 said town or port, or towns and ports, before he hath 
 entered as aforesaid, or shall be found with any more 
 or greater quantity of powder and shot aboard the 
 vessel or vessels than they had a certificate to show 
 they had entered, shall forfeit and pay for each default
 
 140 FIRST CODE 
 
 the true value of all such powder and shot as they 
 should have entered as aforesaid. And alt such per- 
 sons or masters of such vessels shall give atrue account, 
 upon their return, to the said recorder where they 
 have entered the premises, how they have disposed 
 thereof, upon the former penalty : And if the said 
 town register or recorder shall have just cause to con- 
 ceive that he or they carry forth more of the premises 
 than in an ordinary way is requisite for their neces- 
 sary defence and safety in their intended voyage, then 
 the said persons or masters of vessels shall give in se- 
 curity unto the said recorder (if by him required 
 thereunto), that he shall give a due account to this 
 commonwealth of the same, upon his return. 
 
 FOREIGNERS. 
 
 It is ordered by this court, that no foreigners, after 
 the twenty-ninth day of September next shall retail 
 any goods, by themselves, in any place within this ju- 
 risdiction, nor shall any inhabitant retail any goods 
 which belong to any foreigner, for the space of one 
 whole year after the said twenty -ninth of September 
 next, upon penalty of confiscation of the value of one 
 half of the goods so retailed, to be paid by the seller 
 of them.* 
 
 HOME LOTS. 
 
 Whereas there is creeping in, in several towns and 
 plantations within this jurisdiction, a great abuse of 
 buying and purchasing home lots and laying them 
 together, by means whereof great depopulations are 
 like to follow, It is ordered that all dwelling or man- 
 sion houses that are or shall be allowed in any plan- 
 tation or town within this jurisdiction, shall be upheld^ 
 
 * Enacted, May 16, 1650. (Col. Rec., i. 207.)
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 141 
 
 repaired and maintained sufficiently in a comely way : 
 As also, whosoever shall possess and enjoy any home 
 lots within any such plantation or town, that is not 
 yet built upon, shall, within twelve months after the 
 making of this order, erect and build a house there, 
 fit for an inhabitant to dwell in, unless the court, upon 
 knowledge of the case, find cause to abate, or give 
 longer time for building. 
 
 It is ordered, that the prices of corn for the year 
 ensuing [1650-51], for all country rates (except where 
 engagements to the contrary are expressed), shall be 
 as f olloweth : 
 
 "Wheat, four shillings six pence per bushel ; pease 
 three shillings six pence per bushel ; rye, three shil- 
 lings six pence per bushel ; Indian, three shillings per 
 bushel ; and that there shall be liberty for all men to 
 pay one third part of such rates, in good wampum.
 
 IV. 
 
 SOME ORDERS OF THE GENERAL COURT AND 
 COURT OF MAGISTRATES, 1636-1665. 
 
 [From the first volume of the Colony Records.] 
 A COKTE HOLDEN ATT N~EWTON, 26 APR. 1636.* 
 
 Roger Ludlowe Esqr., Mr. "Westwoodj 
 Mr. Steele, . Mr. "Warde. 
 
 Mr. Phelpes, 
 
 It was now complayned that Henry Stiles or some 
 of the ser[vants] had traded a peece with the Indians 
 for Corne. It is ordered that [the] said Henry Stiles 
 shall, betweene & the next Cort, regaine [the] saide 
 peece from the saide Indians in a faire & legall waye, 
 or els this Corte will take it into further consideracon. 
 
 It is ordered that from henceforth none that are 
 within the Jurisdiction of this Cort, shall trade with 
 the natiues or Indians any peece or pistoll or gunn or 
 powder or shott, vnder such heavie penalty as vppon 
 such misdemeanor the Corte shall thinke meete. 
 
 Constables sworne, for Dorchester, Newtowne & 
 Watertowne, for this next yeere and vntill newe be 
 
 * Newton, or New Town, now Hartford. The record of the 
 first three sessions is given entire, preserving the original spelling, 
 but not the abbreviations. A few words and parts of words lost by 
 mutilations of the record, or illegible, are restored in brackets. 
 
 142
 
 GENERAL COURT, 1636. 143 
 
 chosen, are Henry "Walcott for Dorchester, Samuell 
 Wakeman for Newtowne, & Daniell Finch for Water- 
 towne. 
 
 Whereas there be divers strange Swine in the 
 seuerall plantacons that their owners are not knowen 
 & yet doe & are likelie to Comitt many trespasses. 
 It is therefore ordered that the saide plantacons shall 
 forthwith take notice of them & their markes, & giue 
 speedy notice amonge the plantacons both of them & 
 their markes & if in a fortenight noe owners come 
 forth then the saide plantacons or plantacon where 
 such Swine are, may appraise them att a value & sell 
 them & take the money to some publicke vse of the 
 eaide plantacon, vnlesse their doe within one whole 
 yeere after appear a true owner & then the money it 
 was sould for is to be restored, prouided alwaies that 
 when the owner appear before the money or Swine be 
 redeliuered, there be deducted such Somes & Chardges 
 & trespasses as haue beene comitted & expended in 
 & aboute him or them. 
 
 It is likewise ordered if any Swine stray from oute 
 their owne Plantacon into another they shalbe sub- 
 iect [to] the orders that are there made concerninge 
 Swine. 
 
 "Whereas there was a dismission granted by the 
 C[hurch] of Waterton in the Masachusetts, dated 
 29th of May last, to Andrewe Warde, Jo: Sherman, 
 Jo: Stickland, Eob'te Coo, Rob'te Reynold & Jonas 
 Weede, with intent to forme a newe in a Ch: Cov- 
 enant, in this River of Conectecott, the saide parties 
 haue soe accordingly done with the publicke allow- 
 ance of the rest of the members of the saide Churches, 
 as by certificate nowe produced appears. It is there- 
 fore in this present Cort ratified & confirmed, they
 
 144: ORDERS OF THE 
 
 promissing shortlie publicquely to renewe the [said] 
 Covenante vppon notice to the rest of the Churches. 
 
 (pp. 1, 2.*) 
 
 A CORTE HELD ATT DoRCHESTERf JUNE fall, 1636. 
 
 Mr. Ludlowe, Mr. "Westwood, 
 
 Mr. Steele, Mr. "Warde. 
 
 Mr. Phelpes, 
 
 "Whereas, the last Corte Henry Stiles was ordered 
 to regaine [a] peece he had traded with the Indians 
 which doth not appear that he hath done, It is order- 
 ed that a warrant shalbe directed to him to performe 
 the same by the next Oort and then personally to 
 appear [&] answere his neglect. 
 
 It is ordered that there shalbe a sufficient Watch 
 maynte[ined] in every towne & that the Constable of 
 each Towne shall d[uly] warne the same & see that 
 the inhabitants or residents doe seuerally in their 
 Turne observe the same accordinge as [the] Inhab- 
 itants doe agree, which said watch shall begin & end 
 when the Courte or magistrates shall thinke meete. 
 
 It is ordered that Samuell Wakeman & Geo : Ilub- 
 berd shall [survey] the breadth of the plantacon of 
 Dorchester howe f arre [it] shall extend aboue Mr. 
 Stiles & shall eertifie vnto the [next] Corte their pro- 
 ceedinges herein to the end it may be then confirmed, 
 and that they shall haue from the saide Towne satis- 
 faccon for their paines. And the saide Samuell 
 ~Wake[man] shall doe the like for "Watertowne in their 
 bredth toward [the] mouth of the Eiver & have the 
 
 * The references are to the pages of the first printed volume of 
 Colonial Records, 163G-1G65. 
 t Now Windsor.
 
 GENERAL COURT, 1636. 145 
 
 like satisfaccon. And this done without faile before 
 the next Corte vppon peine [of] 40 shillinges of each 
 heade that shall faile therein. 
 
 It is ordered that every souldier in each plantacon 
 shall haue in his howse in a readines before the end of 
 August next, twoe pounde of powder, and that they 
 shall shew it to the Constable whenever he shall call 
 them vnto it vppon the penalty of X s. for every fail- 
 ure, which is presentlie to bele[vied] by the saide Con- 
 stable without [resistance] as alsoe 20 bul[letts of leade 
 in the like readines vppon the same penalty and in the 
 same manner to be levied.] 
 
 A CORTE HELD ATT WATERTOWNE* 1 7 br , 1636. 
 Roger Ludlowe Esq., Mr. Wm. Phelps, 
 Mr. Jo: Steele, Mr. "Wm. Westwoode, 
 
 Mr. Wm. Swaine, Mr. Andr: Warde. 
 
 It is ordered that the order concerninge Powder and 
 Bulletts, of the Tth. of June last be no we presentlie 
 published in the seueral plantacons and that there be 
 respite given vntill th'end of this instant moneth. and 
 then to be putt in execucon without faile. 
 
 Whereas there was tendered to vs an Inventory of 
 the estate of Mr. Jo : Oldam which seemed to bee some- 
 what vncerteinely valued, wee therefore thinke meete 
 to, and soe it is ordered, that Mr. Jo: Plum and 
 Rich: Gildersleeue togeather with the Constable shall 
 survey the saide Inventory and perfect the same 
 before the next Corte and then to deliuer it into the 
 Corte. 
 
 It is ordered that Thurston Rayner as he hath 
 
 * Now Wethersfield. 
 
 7
 
 146 ORDERS OF THE 
 
 hitherto done soe shall continue to looke to and pre- 
 serue the Corne of Mr. Oldam and shall inn* the same 
 in a seasonable tjme and shall bringe an Accompt the 
 next Cort what quantitie there is of it as alsoe of his 
 labor and then the Cort will out of the same alott 
 vnto him soe many bushells as shalbe reasonable for 
 his paines and labor. And in the meaneif he hathvse 
 of some for his owne spendinge to take some which 
 shalbe then deducted out of what wilbe due to him. 
 And then the Cort will give finall order concerninge 
 the same. 
 
 It is ordered that every plantacon shall traine once 
 in every moneth, and if vppon complaiute of their 
 military officer it appear that there bee divers very 
 vnskilfull, the sayde plantacon may appointe the offi- 
 cer to traine oftener the saide vnskillfull. And that 
 the saide military officer take veiwe of their seueral 
 Armes whether they be seruiceable or noe. And for 
 default of every souldiers absent the absent to paye 6s. 
 for every tyme without lawfull excuse within 2 dayes 
 after, tendered to the Commissioners or one of them 
 in the .saide plantacon. And for any default in Armes 
 vppon warnings to them by the saide officer to amend 
 the same and a tyme sett and if not then amended by 
 the tyme appointed, Is. every tyme. And where Armes 
 are wholly wantinge to be bounde over to answere it 
 at the next Corte. 
 
 Whereas it appeared by a wrytinge vnder hand of 
 Mr. Oldam that twoe of the mares that are nowe seized 
 vppon by Daniell Finch Constable of "Watertowne, as 
 Mr. Oldames goodes, are the goodes of Mr. Tho: Al- 
 len. And therefore it is ordered that the said mares 
 
 * Inn ; to house, to put under cover.
 
 GENERAL COURT, 1C36. 147 
 
 shalbe deliuered to the saide Mr. Allen into his owne 
 possession or his assignes. 
 
 It is ordered by consent of Serieant Seely plaintiffe 
 against the inhabitants of the Towne of Watertowne de- 
 fendants, that a Jurer shalbe withdrawen, and that 
 the defendants doe vndertake to produce an order 
 wherein they will make it appear that it was ordered 
 that if the inhabitants of the saide Towne did not re- 
 mone with their Families to Conectecott by the end 
 of this instant moneth or els there was noe propriety 
 due to them in the devident of the lands of the saide 
 Towne and that the hand or the consent of the saide 
 Willm. Bassum is herevnto. And if the saide order be 
 not produced here to the Corte by the 2d Cort after 
 this the Inhabitants are to pay the plaintifle damages. 
 
 (pp. 2-4.) 
 
 21 FEBR. 1636.* 
 Mr. Ludlowe, Mr. Phelps, 
 Mr. Steele, Mr. Westwoode. 
 
 Mr. Swaine, 
 
 "Whereas it was ordered that Samuel Wakeman, 
 Geo: Hubbert, & Anncient Stoughton were to con- 
 sider of the boundes of Dorchester towarde the Falls 
 & of Watertowne towards the mouth of the River ; 
 The saide Samuell "Wakeman & [Geo:] Hubberd 
 thinkes meete that the plantacon of Dorchester shall 
 extend towards the Falls, on the same side the plan- 
 tacon standes, to a Brooke called Kittle Brooke & soe 
 over the greate River vppon the same line that Newe 
 Towne & Dorchester doth betweene them. And soe 
 it is ordered by the Corte. 
 
 * 1637, by our present mode of dating.
 
 ORDERS OF THE 
 
 It is ordered that the plantacon nowe called New- 
 towne shal be called & named by the name of Harte- 
 ford Towne, likewise the plantacon now called Wa- 
 tertowne shalbe called and named Wythersfeild. 
 
 Samuell Wakeman & Ancient Stoughton doethinke 
 meete that the boundes of Wythersfeild shalbe ex- 
 tended toward the Rivers mouth, in the same side it 
 standes in, to a Tree sixe miles downeward from the 
 boundes between them & Harteford [marked with] 
 K: F: & to [runn in an east] & west line, [& over] 
 the great Eiver, the saide "Wythersfeild to begin att 
 the mouth of Pewter pott Brooke & there to runn due 
 east into the Countrey 3 miles & downeward sixe miles 
 in breadth, which is ordered accordingly.* 
 
 It is ordered that the plantacon called Dorchester 
 shalbee called Windsor. 
 
 The boundes betweene Weathersfeild & Harteford 
 are agreed on the side wherein they stand to be att a 
 Tree marked N: F: & to which the Pale of the saide 
 Harteford is fixed, to goe into the Countrey due east, 
 and on the other side of the greate River from Pew- 
 ter pott Brook att the lower side of Hocannom due east 
 into the Countrey, which is nowe ordered accordingly. 
 
 The boundes betweene Harteford & Windsor is 
 agreed to be att the vpper end of the greate meadowe 
 of the said Harteford toward Windsor att the Pale 
 that is nowe there sett vpp by the saide Harteford, 
 which is abuttinge vppon the great River, vppon a due 
 east line, & into the Countrey from the saide Pale 
 vppon a due west line asparalell to the saide east line 
 as farr as they have now paled & afterward the 
 
 * The words in brackets (now illegible in the original Record ) 
 are here supplied from a certified copy of this and the next pre- 
 ceding order, made in 1708.
 
 GENERAL COURT, 1637. 149 
 
 boundes to goe into the Countrey vppon the same 
 west line. But it is to be soe much shorter towards 
 Windsor as the place where the Girte that comes 
 alonge att the end of the saide meadowe & falls into 
 the saide greate River is shorter then their Pale, 
 <fe over the saide greate Riuer the saide Plantacon of 
 "Windsor is to come to the * Riveretts mouth that falls 
 into the saide greate River of Conectecott, and there 
 the said Harteford is to runn due east into the Coun- 
 trey, which is ordered accordingly. 
 
 It is ordered that noe yonge man that is neither 
 maried nor hath any servaunte, & be noe publicke of- 
 ficer, shall keepe howse by himself, without consent 
 of the Towne where he liues first had, vnder paine 
 of 20& per week. 
 
 It is ordered that noe Master of a Family shall giue 
 habitacon or interteinment to any yonge man to so- 
 iourne in his family, but by the allowance of the in- 
 habitants of the saide Towne where he dwelles, vnder 
 the like penalty of 20s. per weeke. These 2 last or- 
 ders to take effect the first of Aprill next. 
 
 (pp. 7, 8.) 
 
 1637. It is ordered that Mr. Frances Stiles shall 
 teach Geo. Chappie, Thos. Cooper and Thos. Barber, 
 his servants, in the trade of a carpenter, according to 
 his promise for the service of their term behind, four 
 days in a week only, to saw and slit their own work 
 that they are to frame themselves with their own 
 hands, together with himself or some other master 
 
 *[/n margin] " The Riuerett on the other side by the Indians 
 is called Podanke."
 
 150 ORDERS OF THE 
 
 workmen, the time to begin for the performance of 
 this order fourteen days hence without fail.* 
 
 1638, Mar. 9 die. It is ordered that whosoever 
 doth disorderly speak privately during the sitting of 
 court, with his neighbor, or two or three together, 
 shall presently pay one shilling, if the court BO think 
 meet. 
 
 1638. It is thought meet that the corselets that 
 were in the last service shall be made good to the 
 commonwealth and made as serviceable as before, 
 and that Richard Lord shall take such corselets into 
 his custody as are in the meeting house of Harteford 
 and make them up, and when they be fitted up the 
 said Lord is to bring in his note and the court to 
 appoint one to view the same, and when they are 
 certified to be in good condition there must be speedy 
 course taken by the court for the speedy payment of 
 the said Lord. 
 
 1639. Jno. E , A. S , and Jno. W , 
 
 were censured for unclean practices as follows : Jno. 
 
 E to be whipped at a cart's tail upon a lecture day 
 
 at Harteford. Jno. W to stand upon the pillory 
 
 from the ringing of the first bell to the end of the 
 lecture, then to be whipped at a cart's [tail,] and to be 
 whipped in like manner at Windsore within eight days 
 
 following. A. S to stand upon the pillory and 
 
 be whipped as "W , and to have the letter R burnt 
 
 upon his cheek, and in regard of the wrong done- to 
 
 Mary H to pay her parents ten pounds, and in 
 
 defect of such to the commonwealth, and when both 
 are fit for that condition, to marry her. 
 
 * In this extract, and in most of those which follow, the spelling 
 is modernized, except proper names.
 
 GENERAL COURT, 1G39-41. 151 
 
 It is the mind of the court that Mr. Ludlow and 
 Mr. Phelps see some public punishment inflicted upon 
 the girl for concealing it so long. 
 
 1639. Jno. B and Mary H were both 
 
 censured to be whipped for unclean practices, and the 
 girl's master is enjoined to send her out of this 
 Jurisdiction before the last of the next month. 
 
 1639-40. Win. C , servant to Jno. Crow, was 
 
 fined forty shillings for misdemeanor in drinking, 
 and corporal punishment was remitted upon his 
 promise of his care for the future to avoid such 
 occasions. 
 
 1640. Ed. Yeare of Wethersfyeld is fined ten 
 shillings for cursing and swearing, and also he is to 
 sit in the stocks at Wethersfyeld, two hours the next 
 training day. 
 
 N. O , for his lascivious carriage and foul misde- 
 meanors at sundry times with Mary B , is adjudged 
 
 to pay twenty pound fine to the country, and to stand 
 upon the pillory at Hartford the next lecture day dur- 
 ing the time of the lecture. He is to be set on, a little 
 before the beginning and to stay thereon a little 
 after the end. 
 
 1640. It is ordered, that what person or persons 
 within this jurisdiction shall, after September, 1641, 
 drink [i. e. smoke] any other tobacco but such as is 
 or shall be planted within these liberties, shall forfeit 
 for every pound so spent five shillings, except they 
 have license from the court. 
 
 1641. Notwithstanding the late order concerning 
 the restraint of excess in apparel, yet divers persons 
 of several ranks are observed still to exceed therein : 
 It is therefore ordered that the constables of every
 
 152 ORDERS OF THE 
 
 town within these liberties, shall observe and take 
 notice of any particular person or persons within their 
 several limits, and all such as they judge to exceed 
 their condition and ranks therein, they shall present 
 and warn to appear at the particular court ; as also the 
 said constables are to present to the said court all such 
 persons who sell their commodities at excessive rates; 
 And the said court hath power to censure any dis- 
 order in the particulars before mentioned. 
 
 1641. "Whereas it was ordered that every family 
 should plant a spoonful of hempseed, at a foot dis- 
 tant every seed : upon complaint that the said hemp- 
 seed cannot be procured, It is ordered, that such 
 persons who have above the quantity of a spoonful, 
 and deny to sell to others that are unprovided, they 
 shall plant so many spoonfuls themselves, according 
 to the said order, as they deny to sell to others that 
 want and desire to buy it of them at a reasonable 
 rate. 
 
 1641. For the preventing and avoiding that foul 
 and gross sin of lying, it is ordered, that when any 
 person or persons shall be accused and proved guilty 
 of that vice, it shall be lawful for the particular 
 court to adjudge and censure any such party, either 
 by fine or bodily correction according as they shall 
 judge the nature of the fault to require ; this to hold 
 to the next court. 
 
 1641. Forasmuch as the court having lately de- 
 clared their apprehensions to the country concerning 
 the excess in wages amongst all sorts of artificers and 
 workmen, hoping thereby men would have been a law 
 unto themselves, but finding little reformation therein, 
 The said court hath therefore ordered, that sufficient
 
 GENERAL COURT, 1640-43. 153 
 
 able carpenters, plow-wrights, wheelwrights, masons, 
 joiners, smiths, and coopers, shall not take above 
 twenty pence for a day's work from the tenth of March 
 to the eleventh of October, nor above eighteen pence 
 a day for the other part of the year, and to work 
 eleven hours in the day the summer time, besides that 
 which is spent in eating or sleeping, and nine hours in 
 the winter : also, mowers, for the time of mowing 
 shall not take above twenty pence for a day's work. 
 
 It is ordered, also, that all other artificers, or handi- 
 crafts-men and chief laborers shall not take above 
 eighteen pence a day for the first half year as afore- 
 said, and not above fourteen pence a day for the other 
 part of the year ; and whatsoever work is let or taken 
 by the great or parcel, by any workmen, laborers or 
 artificers whatsoever, shall be valued by the propor- 
 tion aforesaid. 
 
 1642. For the better furnishing the Eiver with 
 cordage towards the rigging of ships, It is ordered, 
 that what hempseed any person hath within these 
 liberties, that they shall either sow it themselves, 
 or sell it to some others within the River that may 
 sow the same. 
 
 1642. It is ordered, that there shall be a guard of 
 forty men to come complete in their arms to the meet- 
 ing every Sabbath and lecture day, in every town 
 within these liberties upon the River. 
 
 1643. To prevent or withstand such sudden assaults 
 as may be made by Indians upon the Sabbath or 
 lecture days, It is ordered, that one person in every 
 several house wherein is any soldier or soldiers, shall 
 bring a musket, pistol or some piece, with powder 
 and shot to each meeting, except some one magistrate 
 7*
 
 154: ORDERS OF THE 
 
 dispense with any one, and appoint some other to 
 supply his room. 
 
 1643. "Whereas that is observed that the late order 
 for one in a family to bring his arms to the meeting 
 house every Sabbath and lecture day, hath not been 
 attended by divers persons; It is now ordered, that 
 whosoever hereafter shall at any time neglect the 
 same, shall forfeit twelve pence for every neglect, 
 whereof, six pence to the party that shall inform and 
 six pence to the country. 
 
 1643. Whereas, the prosperity and well-being of 
 common weals doth much depend upon the well gov- 
 ernment and ordering of particular families, which in 
 an ordinary way cannot be expected where the rules 
 of God are neglected in laying the foundation of a 
 family state : For the prevention therefore of such 
 evils and inconveniences, which by experience are 
 found not only to be creeping in but practiced by some 
 in that kind, It is ordered, that no person whatsoever, 
 male or female, not being at his or her own dispose, or 
 that remaineth under the government of parents, mas- 
 ters or guardians or such like, shall either make, or give 
 entertainment to any motion or suit in way of mar- 
 riage, without the knowledge and consent of those 
 they stand in such relation to, under the severe cen- 
 sure of the Court, in case of delinquency not attending 
 this order ; nor shall any third person or persons inter- 
 meddle in making any motion to any such without 
 the knowledge and consent of those under whose 
 government they are, under the same penalty. 
 
 1647. It is the mind of the court that there should 
 be provision made for entertaining the magistrates 
 during the sitting of the court, and the deputies of 
 Hartford are desired to find out a fit man.
 
 GENERAL COURT, 1643-47. 155 
 
 1647. For the preventing that great abuse which is 
 creeping in by excess in wine and strong waters, It is 
 ordered, that no inhabitant in any town of this juris- 
 diction shall continue in any common victualing house 
 in the same town where he liveth, above half an hour 
 at a time in drinking wine, beer, or hot waters, 
 neither shall any who draweth and selleth wine 
 suffer any to drink any more wine at one time than 
 after the proportion of three to a pint of sack. And 
 it is further ordered, that no such wine drawer deliv- 
 er any wine, or suffer any to be delivered out of his 
 house, to any who come for it, unless they bring a 
 note under the hand of some one master of some fam- 
 ily and allowed inhabitant of that town, neither shall 
 any such Ordinary keep, sell or draw any hot waters 
 to any but in case of necessity, and in such moderation 
 for quantity as they may have good grounds to con- 
 ceive it may not be abused ; and shall be ready to 
 give an account of their doings herein when they are 
 called thereto, under censure of the Court, in case of 
 delinquency. 
 
 1645. Susan C., for her rebellious carriage toward 
 her mistress, is to be sent to the house of correction 
 and be kept to hard labor and coarse diet, to be brought 
 forth the next lecture day to be publicly corrected, and 
 so to be corrected weekly, until order be given to the 
 contrary. 
 
 Robert B , for his loathsome and beastly de- 
 meanor, is adjudged to be brought forth the next 
 lecture day, to be severely scourged, and to be kept in 
 the house of correction a fortnight longer, and then 
 brought forth again to be publicly whipped, and then 
 to be bound to appear at every quarter court to be
 
 156 ORDERS OF THE 
 
 whipped, until the court see some reformation in him, 
 and shall see cause to release him. 
 
 Walter G , for his misdemeanor in laboring to 
 
 inveigle the affections of Mr. Hoocker's maid, is to be 
 publicly corrected the next lecture day. 
 
 1646. Robert B., for his gross misdemeanor in 
 slandering Mrs. Mary Fenwicke, is to stand on the 
 pillory, Wednesday, during the lecture, then to be 
 whipped, and fined five pound, and half year's impris- 
 onment. 
 
 1648. John Drake complains against John Bennett 
 for saying he had enticed and drawn away the affec- 
 tions of his daughter. 
 
 1648. The court adjudgeth Peter Bussaker, for his 
 filthy and profane expressions ( viz., that he hoped to 
 meet some of the members of the church in hell ere 
 long, and he did not question but he should,) to be com- 
 mitted to prison, there to be kept in safe custody till 
 the sermon, and then to stand in the time thereof in 
 the pillory, and after sermon to be severely whipped. 
 
 1649. J. J., for his filthy and profane speeches and 
 carriages, is adjudged to lie in prison till next Thurs- 
 day morning after the catechising, and then to be 
 publicly whipped, and so return to prison again for a 
 month after that, except he find bail to appear when 
 he is called for again to receive second correction, 
 which the court appoints and thinks meet to be next 
 Thursday come month, except the Governor judges 
 the weather unseasonable. 
 
 1652. Thomas Lord, having engaged to this court 
 to continue his abode in Hartford for the next ensuing 
 year, and to improve his best skill amongst the 
 inhabitants of the towns upon the River within this
 
 GENERAL COURT, 1G54 56. 157 
 
 Jurisdiction, both for setting of bones and otherwise, 
 as at all times occasions and necessities may or shall 
 require ; This court doth grant that he shall be paid 
 by the country the sum of fifteen pounds for the said 
 ensuing year, and they do declare that for every visit 
 or journey that he shall take or make, being sent for 
 to any house in Hartford, twelve pence is reasonable ; 
 to any house in Wyndsor, five shillings ; to any house 
 in Wethersfeild, three shillings; to any house in 
 Farmington, six shillings ; to any house in Mattabe- 
 seck, eight shillings ; (he having promised that he will 
 require no more ;) and that he shall be freed for the 
 time aforesaid from watching, warding and training ; 
 but not from finding arms, according to law. 
 
 1654. This court grants Mr. Cullick liberty to 
 draw and sell one hogshead of claret and a quarter 
 cask of red wine to his friends and neighbors, free 
 from the country's excise. And this court doth also 
 futher grant unto the said Mr. Cullick, free license 
 and liberty for the future to draw out or sell to his 
 friends and neighbors what wine and liquors he shall 
 see cause, free from the country's excise. 
 
 1656. That no butcher, by himself or any other 
 person, gash or cut any hide of ox, bull, steer or cow, 
 in flaying thereof, whereby the same shall be impaired, 
 nnder the penalty of twelve [pence] for every such 
 gash in hide or skin. 
 
 Nor shall any person or persons using or which 
 shall use the mystery of tanning, at any time or times 
 hereafter, offer or put to sale any kind of leather 
 which shall be insufficiently or not thoroughly tanned, 
 or which shall not then have been after the tanning 
 thereof well and thoroughly dried, upon pain of
 
 158 ORDERS OF THE 
 
 forfeiture BO much of his or their said leather as by 
 any searcher or sealer of leather lawfully appointed 
 shall bo found insufficiently tanned or not thoroughly 
 dried as aforesaid. 
 
 1658. This court orders that there shall be no 
 ministry or church administration entertained or at- 
 tended by the inhabitants of any plantation in this 
 colony, distinct and separate from and in opposition 
 to that which is openly and publicly observer! and dis- 
 pensed by the settled and approved minister of the 
 place, except it be by approbation of the general 
 court, and neighbor churches : provided always that 
 this order shall not hinder any private meetings of 
 godly persons to attend any duties that Christianity 
 or religion call for, as fasts or conference, nor take 
 place upon such as are hindered by any just impedi- 
 ments on the Sabbath day, from the public assem- 
 blies, by weather or water and the like. 
 
 1659. It is ordered by this court, that if any person 
 be found drunk, and convicted so to be, in any private 
 house, he shall pay twenty shillings for every trans- 
 gression of this nature, unto the public treasury, and 
 the owner of the house where the person is found and 
 proved to be made drunk, shall pay ten shillings. 
 
 It is ordered and required by the authority of this 
 court, that the constables in each town shall make 
 diligent search upon all occasions when there is suspi- 
 cion of miscarriages by disordered meetings of per- 
 sons in private houses to tipple together ; and having 
 discovered they are to make presentment thereof to 
 public authority, and such as are convicted to be guilty 
 of the breach of this order shall pay five shillings, one 
 half to the public treasury, the other half to the per- 
 son discovering.
 
 GENERAL COURT, 1660. 159 
 
 1660. This court doth order, that no man or wo- 
 man within this colony who hath a wife or husband in 
 foreign parts, shall live here above two years, upon 
 penalty of forty shillings per month upon every such 
 offender ; and any that have been above three years 
 already, not to remain within this colony above one 
 year longer, upon the same penalty, except they have 
 liberty from the general court. 
 
 1662. This court orders, that the Bible that was 
 sent to goodwife Williams be by Sergt. John Not de- 
 livered to goodwife Harrison, who engageth to this 
 court to give unto the children of the said Williams, 
 a bushel of wheat apiece, as they shall come out of 
 their time. And John Not doth engage to give each 
 of the children two shillings apiece as they come out 
 of their time, to buy them Bibles ; and John Not hath 
 hereby power granted him as is ordered, to dispose of 
 the rest of the books, to the children of the said Wil- 
 liams. 
 
 1662, Oct. 9. The PATENT or CHARTER was this day 
 publicly read in audience of the Freemen, and declared 
 to belong to them and their successors, and the freemen 
 made choice of Mr. Willys, Capt. John Talcot and 
 Lieut. John Allyn to take the Charter into their custody, 
 in behalf of the freemen, who are to have an oath ad- 
 ministered to them by the General Assembly, for the 
 due discharge of the trust committed to them. 
 
 It is enacted and decreed by the Freemen, that the 
 town of Hartford for future shall be the settled place 
 for the convocation of the General Assembly, at all 
 times, unless it be upon occasion of epidemical dis- 
 eases, sickness, or the like.
 
 160 GENERAL COURT, 1662-63. 
 
 This court appoints that Wednesday come fortnight 
 be set apart, throughout this colony, for a solemn day 
 of Thanksgiving for the mercies that God hath ex- 
 tended to this colony the year past, and particularly 
 for the good success God hath given to the endeavors 
 of our Honored Governor in obtaining our charter of 
 his Majesty our Sovereign ; as also for his gracious an- 
 swer of our prayer in the late drought, in sending rain ; 
 and for abatement of the sickness ; and for the hopes 
 we have of settlement in the ways of peace and right- 
 eousness. 
 
 This court doth order and declare, that the seal 
 that formerly was used by the general court shall still 
 remain and be used as the seal of this colony until the 
 court see cause to the contrary, and the secretary is to 
 keep the seal, and to use it on necessary occasions, for 
 the colony. 
 
 Aug., 1663. This court doth desire that those friends 
 appointed to keep the Charter do also receive the du- 
 plicate into their custody, and keep it in behalf of the 
 freemen of this corporation ; and the worshipful Gov- 
 ernor is desired to deliver the said duplicate to the 
 said friends, or either of them.
 
 V. 
 
 THE FUNDAMENTAL AGREEMENT AT 
 NEW HAVEN, JUNE 4th, 1639. 
 
 [From New Haven Colony Kecords, i. 11-17.] 
 
 The fourth day of the fourth month called June 
 1639, all the free planters assembled together in a 
 general meeting* to consult about settling civil govern- 
 ment according to God, and about the nomination of 
 persons that might be found by consent of all fittest 
 in all respects for the foundation work of a church 
 which was intended to be gathered in Quinipieck. After 
 solemn invocation of the name of God in prayer for 
 the presence and help of his spirit, and grace in those 
 weighty businesses, they were reminded of the busi- 
 ness whereabout they met, viz., for the establishment 
 of such civil order as might be most pleasing unto 
 God, and for the choosing the fittest men for the 
 foundation work of a church to be gathered. For 
 the better enabling them to discern the mind of God, 
 and to agree accordingly concerning the establishment 
 of civil order, Mr. John Davenport propounded 
 
 * "This meeting took place according to tradition, in a largo 
 barn belonging to Mr. Newman. Dr. Bacon, Hist. Disc. 20, has 
 Ehown that it was most probably Robert Newman's, and pointed 
 out its location as being near Temple St., between Elm and GroTe 
 Btreets." Hoadly's N. H. Col. Records, i. 11, note. 
 
 1G1
 
 162 FUNDAMENTAL AGREEMENT, 
 
 divers queries to them, publicly praying them to con- 
 sider seriously in the presence and fear of God the 
 weight of the business they met about, and not to be 
 rash or slight in giving their votes to things they 
 understood not, but to digest fully and thoroughly 
 what should be propounded to them, and without 
 respect to men, as they should be satisfied and per- 
 suaded in their own minds, to give their answers in 
 such sort as they would be willing they should stand 
 upon record for posterity. 
 
 This being earnestly pressed by Mr. Davenport, 
 Mr. Kobt. Newman was entreated to write in charac- 
 ters and to read distinctly and audibly in the hearing 
 of all the people what was propounded and accorded 
 on, that it might appear that all consented to matters 
 propounded according to words written by him. 
 
 Queer. 1. "Whether the Scriptures do hold forth a 
 perfect rule for the direction and government of all 
 men, in all duties which they are to perform to God 
 and men, as well in the government of families and 
 commonwealths as in matters of the church. 
 
 This was assented unto by all, no man dissenting, 
 as was expressed by holding up of hands. Afterward 
 it was read over to them that they might see in what 
 words their vote was expressed : They again expressed 
 their consent thereto by holding up their hands, no 
 man dissenting. 
 
 Queer. 2. Whereas there was a covenant solemnly 
 made by the whole assembly of freeplanters of this 
 plantation the first day of extraordinary humiliation 
 which we had after we came together, that as in matters 
 that concern the gathering and ordering of a church, 
 so likewise in all public offices which concern civil
 
 NEW HAVEN, 1639. 163 
 
 order, as choice of magistrates and officers, making 
 and repealing of laws, dividing allotments of inher- 
 itance, and all things of like nature, we would all of us 
 be ordered by those rules which the Scripture holds 
 forth to us. This covenant was called a plantation 
 covenant to distinguish it from a church covenant 
 which could not at that time be made, a church not 
 being then gathered, but was deferred till a church 
 might be gathered according to God : It was demand- 
 ed whether all the free planters do hold themselves 
 bound by that covenant in all businesses of that nature 
 which are expressed in the covenant, to submit them- 
 selves to be ordered by the rules held forth in the 
 Scripture. 
 
 This also was assented unto by all, and no man 
 gainsaid it, and they did testify the same by holding 
 up their hands both when it was first propounded, and 
 confirmed the same by holding up their hands when 
 it was read unto them in public. John Clarke being 
 absent when the covenant was made, doth now man- 
 ifest his consent to it : also Richard Beach, Andrew 
 Low, Goodman Banister, Arthur Ilalbidge, John 
 Potter, Robert Hill, JolmBrockett and John Johnson, 
 these persons being not admitted planters when the 
 covenant was made, do now express their consent 
 to it. 
 
 Queer. 3. Those who have desired to be received as 
 free planters, and are settled in the plantation with a 
 purpose, resolution and desire that they may be admit- 
 ted into church fellowship according to Christ as soon 
 as God shall fit them thereunto, were desired to ex- 
 press it by holding up of hands : Accordingly all did 
 express this to be their desire and purpose by holding 
 up their hands twice, viz., both at the proposal of it,
 
 1(54: FUNDAMENTAL AGREEMENT, 
 
 and after when these written words were read unto 
 them. 
 
 Queer. 4. All the free planters were called upon to 
 express whether they held themselves bound to estab- 
 lish such civil order as might best conduce to the 
 securing of the purity and peace of the ordinances to 
 themselves and their posterity according to God. In 
 answer hereunto they expressed, by holding up their 
 hands twice as before, that they held themselves 
 bound to establish such civil order as might best con- 
 duce to the ends aforesaid. 
 
 Then Mr. Davenport declared unto them by the 
 Scripture what kind of persons might best be trusted 
 with matters of government, and by sundry argu- 
 ments from Scripture proved that such men as were 
 described in Exodus, xviii. 2, Deuteronomy, i. 13, with 
 Deuteronomy, xvii. 15, and 1 Corinthians, vi. 1 to 7, 
 ought to be intrusted by them, seeing they were free 
 to cast themselves into that mould and form of 
 commonwealth which appeareth best for them, in 
 reference to the securing of the pure and peaceable 
 enjoyment of all Christ his ordinances in the church 
 according to God, whereunto they have bound them- 
 selves as hath been acknowledged. Having thus said, 
 he sat down, praying the company freely to consider, 
 whether they would have it voted at this time or not. 
 After some space of silence Mr. Theophilus Eaton 
 answered it might be voted, and some others also 
 spoke to the same purpose, none at all opposing it. 
 Then it was propounded to vote. 
 
 Queer. 5. "Whether free burgesses shall be chosen 
 out of church members, they that are in the founda- 
 tion work of the church being actually free burgesses, 
 and to choose to themselves out of the like estate of
 
 NEW HAVEN, 1G39. 165 
 
 church fellowship ; and the power of choosing magis- 
 trates and officers from among themselves, and the 
 power of making and repealing laws according to the 
 word, and the dividing of inheritances and deciding 
 of differences that may arise, and all the businesses of 
 like nature are to be transacted by those free burgesses. 
 This was put to vote and agreed unto by the lifting 
 up of hands twice as in the former it was done. 
 Then one man stood up after the vote was past, and 
 expressing his dissenting from the rest in part, yet 
 granting, First, that magistrates should be men fear- 
 ing God ; Second, that the church is the company 
 whence ordinarily such men may be expected ; Third, 
 that they that choose them ought to be men fearing 
 God : only at this he stuck, that free planters ought 
 not to give this power out of their hands. Another 
 stood up and answered that in this case nothing was 
 done but with their consent. The former answered 
 that all the free planters ought to resume this power 
 into their own hands again if things were not orderly 
 carried. Mr. Theophilus Eaton answered that in all 
 places they choose committees ; in like manner the 
 companies of London choose the liveries by whom 
 the public magistrates are chosen. In this the rest 
 are not wronged, because they expect in time to be of 
 the livery themselves, and to have the same power. 
 Some others entreated the former to give his argu- 
 ments and reasons whereupon he dissented. He 
 refused to do it and said they might not rationally 
 demand it, seeing he let the vote pass on freely and 
 did not speak till after it was past, because he would 
 not hinder what they agreed upon. Then Mr. Dav- 
 enport, after a short relation of some former passages 
 between them two about this question, prayed the
 
 166 FUNDAMENTAL AGREEMENT, 
 
 company that nothing might be concluded by them 
 in this weighty question but what themselves were 
 persuaded to be agreeing with the mind of God ; and 
 they had heard what had been said since the voting ; 
 entreated them again to consider of it, and put it 
 again to vote as before. Again all of them by hold- 
 ing up their hands did shew their consent as before, 
 and some of them professed that whereas they did 
 waver before they came to the assembly, they were 
 now fully convinced that it is the mind of God. One 
 of them said that in the morning, before he came, 
 reading Deuteronomy, xvii. 15, he was convinced at 
 home ; another said that he came doubting to the assem- 
 bly, but he blessed God by what had been said he was 
 now fully satisfied that the choice of burgesses out of 
 church members, and to intrust those with the power 
 before spoken of, is according to the mind of God 
 revealed in the Scriptures. All having spoken their ' 
 apprehensions, it was agreed upon, and Mr. Robert 
 Newman was desired to write it as an order whereunto 
 every one that hereafter should be admitted here as 
 planters should submit and testify the same by sub- 
 scribing their names to the order, namely, that church 
 members only shall be free burgesses, and that they 
 only shall choose magistrates and officers among them- 
 selves, to have the power of transacting all the public 
 civil affairs of this plantation, of making and repeal- 
 ing laws, dividing of inheritances, deciding of differ- 
 ences that may arise, and doing all things or businesses 
 of like nature. 
 
 This being thus settled as a fundamental agreement 
 concerning civil government, Mr. Davenport pro- 
 ceeded to propound some things to consideration 
 about the gathering of a church. And to prevent the
 
 NEW IIAVEN, 1639. 167 
 
 blemishing of the first beginnings of the church work, 
 Mr. Davenport advised that the names of such as were 
 to be admitted might be publicly propounded, to the 
 end that they who were most approved might be cho- 
 sen, for the town being cast into several private meet- 
 ings wherein they that dwelt nearest together gave 
 their accounts one to another of God's gracious work 
 upon them, and prayed together and conferred to their 
 mutual edification, sundry of them had knowledge one 
 of another, and in every meeting some one was more 
 approved of all than any other; for this reason, and to 
 prevent scandals, the whole company was entreated to 
 consider whom they found fittest to nominate for this 
 work. 
 
 Qumr. 6. Whether are you all willing and do agree 
 in this, that twelve men be chosen that their fitness for 
 the foundation work may be tried, however there may 
 be more named, yet it may be in their power who are 
 chosen to reduce them to twelve, and it be in the pow- 
 er of those twelve to choose out of themselves seven 
 that shall be most approved of the major part to begin 
 the church. 
 
 This was agreed upon by consent of all, as was ex- 
 pressed by holding up of hands, and that so many as 
 should be thought fit for the foundation work of the 
 church shall be propounded by the plantation, and writ- 
 ten down and pass without exception unless they had 
 given public scandal or offence, yet so as in case of 
 public scandal or offence, every one should have lib- 
 erty to propound their exception at that time publicly 
 against any man that should be nominated, when all 
 their names should be writ down, but if the offence 
 were private, that men's names might be tendered, so 
 many as were offended were entreated to deal with the
 
 168 FUNDAMENTAL AGREEMENT, 
 
 offender privately, and if lie gave not satisfaction, to 
 bring the matter to the twelve that they might con- 
 sider of it impartially and in the fear of God. The 
 names of the persons nominated and agreed upon were 
 Mr. Theophilus Eaton, Mr. John Davenport, Mr. 
 Kobert Newman, Mr. Matthew Gilbert, Mr. Richard 
 Malbon, Mr. Nathaniel Turner, Ezekiel Chevers, 
 Thomas Fugill, John Ponderson, "William Andrewes, 
 and Jeremiah Dixon. No exception was brought 
 against any of those in public, except one about taking 
 an excessive rate for meal which he sold to one of Pe- 
 quanack in his need, which he confessed with grief and 
 declared that having been smitten in heart and troub- 
 led in his conscience, he restored such a part of the 
 price back again with confession of his sin to the party, 
 as he thought himself bound to do. And it being 
 feared that the report of the sin was heard farther than 
 the report of his satisfaction, a course was concluded 
 on to make the satisfaction known to as many as heard 
 of the sin. It was also agreed upon at the said meet- 
 ing that if the persons above named did find themselves 
 straitened in the number of fit men for the seven, 
 that it should be free for them to take into trial of fitness 
 such other as they should think meet, provided that it 
 should be signified to the town upon the Lord's day 
 who they so take in, that every man may be satisfied 
 of them according to the course formerly taken. 
 
 Whereas there was a fundamental agreement made 
 in a general meeting of all the free planters of this 
 town, on the fourth of the fourth month called June, 
 namely, that church members only shall be free bur- 
 gesses, and they only shall choose among themselves 
 magistrates and officers to have the power of transact- 
 ing all public civil affairs of this plantation, of making
 
 NEW HAVEN, 1639. 1C9 
 
 and repealing laws, dividing inheritances, deciding of 
 differences that may arise, and doing all things and 
 businesses of like nature. It was therefore ordered by 
 all the said free planters that all those that hereafter 
 should be received as planters into this plantation 
 should also submit to the said fundamental agreement, 
 and testify the same by subscribing their names under 
 the names of the aforesaid planters as followeth : 
 Mr. Theoph. Eaton, Mr. Natli. Turner, 
 
 Mr. John Davenport, Mr. Richard Malbon, 
 
 Mr. Samuel Eaton, Mr. Browninge, 
 
 Mr. Robert Newman, [and the others.] 
 
 Mr. Matthew Gilbert, 
 
 A GENERAL COURT HELD AT NEWHAVEN THE 23D 
 OF OCTOBER, 1643. 
 
 Whereas this plantation at first with general and full 
 consent laid their foundations that none but members 
 of approved churches should be accounted free bur- 
 gesses, nor should any else have any vote in any elec- 
 tion, or power, or trust in ordering of civil affairs, in 
 which way we have constantly proceeded hitherto in 
 our whole court, with much comfortable fruit through 
 God's blessing: And whereas Stamforde, Guilforde, 
 Yennicock, have upon the same foundations and en- 
 gagements entered into combination with us, this 
 court was now informed, that of late there have been 
 some meetings and treaties between some of Milforde 
 and Mr. Eaton, about a combination, by which it 
 appeareth, that Milforde hath formerly taken in as free 
 burgesses, six planters who are not in church fellow- 
 ship, which hath bred some difficulty in the passages 
 8
 
 170 FUNDAMENTAL AGREEMENT, 
 
 of this treaty, but, at present, it stands thus: the depu- 
 ties for Milforde have offered, in the name both of the 
 church and town, First, that the present six free bur- 
 gesses who are not church members, shall not at any 
 time hereafter be chosen, either deputies, or into any 
 public trust for the combination. Secondly, that they 
 shall neither personally, nor by proxy, vote at any 
 time in the election of magistrates. And, thirdly, that 
 none shall be admitted freemen or free burgesses 
 hereafter at Milforde, but church members, according 
 to the practice of Newhaven. Thus far they granted, 
 but in two particulars they -and their said six freemen 
 desire liberty, first that the said six freemen being al- 
 ready admitted by them, may continue to act in all 
 proper particular town business wherein the combina- 
 tion is not interested. And, secondly, that they may 
 vote in the election of deputies to be sent to the gen- 
 eral courts for the combination or jurisdiction, which 
 deputies so to be chosen and sent, shall always be 
 church members. 
 
 The premises being seriously considered by the 
 whole court, the brethren did express themselves as 
 one man, clearly and fully, that in the foundations 
 laid for civil government they have attended their 
 light, and should have failed in their duty had they 
 done otherwise, and professed themselves careful and 
 resolved not to shake the said groundworks by any 
 change for any respect, and ordered, that this their 
 understanding of their way, and resolution to main- 
 tain it, should be entered with their vote in this bus- 
 iness, as a lasting record. But not foreseeing any 
 danger in yielding to Milforde with the before-men- 
 tioned cautions, it was, by general consent and vote,
 
 NEW HA YEN COL ONT t 1643. (.71 
 
 ordered that the consociation proceed in all things 
 according to the premises. 
 
 A GENERAL COURT HELD AT NEWHAVEN FOB THE 
 JURISDICTION, THE 27th OF OCTOBER, 1643. 
 
 Present : 
 Magistrates. . Deputies. 
 
 Tlieoph. Eaton, Gov., Geo. Lamberton, Newhaven. 
 
 Steph. Goodyear, Dep. John Astwood ) -..-.,,. , 
 
 Thomas Gregson, John Shirman j 
 
 William Fowler. Will Leete ) n -ir j 
 
 T7 , A m -r,- i i \ Guilforde. 
 
 Edward lapp, Sam. Disbrough ) 
 
 R. Gildersleeve { ^ , ,. , 
 John Whitmore ) 
 
 It was agreed and concluded as a fundamental order 
 not to be disputed or questioned hereafter, that none 
 shall be admitted to be free burgesses in any of the 
 plantations within this jurisdiction for the future, 
 but such planters as are members of some or other of 
 the approved churches in New England, nor shall 
 any but such free burgesses have any vote in any 
 election, (the six present freemen at Milforde enjoy- 
 ing the liberty with the cautions agreed,) nor shall 
 any power or trust in the ordering of any civil affairs 
 be at any time put into the hands of any other than 
 such church members, though as free planters, jul 
 have right to their inheritance and to commerce, 
 according to such grants, orders and laws as shall be 
 made concerning the same. 
 
 2. All such free burgesses shall have power in each 
 town or plantation within this jurisdiction to choose 
 fit and able men, from amongst themselves, being
 
 172 FUNDAMENTAL AGREEMENT, 
 
 church members as before, to be the ordinary judges, 
 to hear and determine all inferior causes, whether 
 civil or criminal, provided that no civil cause to be 
 tried in any of these plantation courts in value exceed 
 twenty pounds, and that the punishment in such 
 criminals, according to the mind of God, revealed in 
 his word, touching such offences, do not exceed stock- 
 ing and whipping, or if the fine be pecuniary, that it 
 exceed not five poun.ds. In which court the magis- 
 trate or magistrates, if any be chosen by the free 
 burgesses of the jurisdiction for that plantation, shall 
 sit and assist with due respect to their place, and 
 sentence shall pass according to the vote of the major 
 part of each such court, only if the parties, or any of 
 them, be not satisfied with the justice of such sentences 
 or executions, appeals or complaints may be made 
 from and against these courts to the court of 
 magistrates for the whole jurisdiction. 
 
 3. All such free burgesses through the whole juris- 
 diction, shall have vote in the election of all magis- 
 trates, whether Governor, Deputy Governor, or other 
 magistrates, with a Treasurer, a Secretary, and a Mar- 
 shal, etc. for the jurisdiction. And for the ease of 
 those free burgesses, especially in the more remote 
 plantations, they may by proxy vote in these electionSj 
 though absent, their votes being sealed up in the 
 presence of the free burgesses themselves, that their 
 several liberties may be preserved, and their votes 
 directed according to their own particular light, and 
 these free burgesses may, at every election, choose so 
 many magistrates for each plantation, as the weight 
 of affairs may require, and as they shall find fit men 
 for that trust. But it is provided and agreed, that 
 no plantation shall at any election be left destitute of
 
 NEW HAVEN COLONY, 1643. 173 
 
 a magistrate if they desire one to be chosen out of 
 those in church fellowship with them. 
 
 4. All the magistrates for the whole jurisdiction 
 shall meet twice a year at Newhaven, namely, the 
 Monday immediately before the sitting of the two 
 fixed general courts hereafter mentioned, to keep a 
 court called the court of magistrates, for the trial of 
 weighty and capital cases, whether civil or criminal, 
 above those limited to the ordinary judges in the 
 particular plantations, and to receive and try all 
 appeals brought unto them from the aforesaid planta- 
 tion courts, and to call all the inhabitants, whether free 
 burgesses, free planters or others, to account for the 
 breach of any laws established, and for other mis- 
 demeanors, and to censure them according to the 
 quality of the offence, in which meetings of magistrates, 
 less than four shall not be accounted a court, nor shall 
 they carry on any business as a court; but it is 
 expected and required, that all the magistrates in this 
 jurisdiction do constantly attend the public service at 
 the times before mentioned, and if any of them be 
 absent at one of the clock in the afternoon on Monday 
 aforesaid when the court shall sit, or if any of them 
 depart the town without leave, while the court sits, 
 he or they shall pay for any such default, twenty shil- 
 lings fine, unless some providence of God occasion 
 the same, which the court of magistrates shall judge 
 of from time to time; and all sentences in this court 
 shall pass by the vote of the major part of magistrates 
 therein, but from this court of magistrates, appeals 
 and complaints may be made and brought to the 
 general court as the last and highest for this jurisdic- 
 tion; but in all appeals or complaints from, or to, 
 what court soever, due costs and damages shall be
 
 174: FUNDAMENTAL AGREEMENT, 
 
 paid by him or them that make appeal or complaint 
 without just cause. 
 
 5. Besides the plantation courts and court of mag- 
 istrates, there shall be a general court for the juris- 
 diction, which shall consist of the Governor, Deputy 
 Governor and all the Magistrates within the jurisdic- 
 tion, and two Deputies for every plantation in the 
 jurisdiction, which deputies shall from time to time 
 be chosen against the approach of any such general 
 court, by the aforesaid free burgesses, and sent with 
 due certificate to assist in the same, all which, both 
 Governor and Deputy Governor, Magistrates and 
 Deputies, shall have their vote in the said court. This 
 general court shall always sit at Newhaven (unless 
 upon weighty occasions the general court see cause 
 for a time to sit elsewhere), and shall assemble twice 
 every year, namely, the first Wednesday in April, 
 and the last "Wednesday in October, in the later of 
 which courts, the Governor, the Deputy Governor, 
 and all the magistrates for the whole jurisdiction, with 
 a Treasurer, a Secretary, and Marshal, shall yearly be 
 chosen by all the free burgesses before mentioned : 
 besides which two fixed courts, the 'Governor, or in 
 his absence, the Deputy Governor, shall have power 
 to summon a general court at any other time, as the 
 urgent and extraordinary occasions of the jurisdiction 
 may require, and at all general courts, whether ordi- 
 nary or extraordinary, the governor and deputy 
 governor, and all the rest of the magistrates for the 
 jurisdiction, with the deputies for the several planta- 
 tions, shall sit together, till the affairs of the jurisdic- 
 tion be dispatched or may safely be respited, and if 
 any of the said magistrates or deputies shall either be 
 absent at the first sitting of the said general court,
 
 NEVf HAVEN COL ONY, 1043. 175 
 
 (unless some providence of God hinder, which the said 
 court shall judge of,) or depart, or absent themselves 
 disorderly before the court be finished, he or they shall 
 each of them pay twenty shillings fine, with due con- 
 siderations of further aggravations if there shall be 
 cavrse ; which general court shall, with all care and dili- 
 gence provide for the maintenance of the purity of 
 religion, and shall suppress the contrary, according to 
 their best light from the word of God, and all whole- 
 some and sound advice which shall be given by the 
 elders and churches in the jurisdiction, so far as may 
 concern their civil power to deal therein. 
 
 Secondly, they shall have power to make and re- 
 peal laws, and, while they are in force, to require exe- 
 cution of them in all the several plantations. 
 
 Thirdly, to impose an oath upon all the magistrates, 
 for the faithful discharge of the trust committed to 
 them, according to their best abilities, and to call them 
 to account for the breach of any laws established, or 
 for other misdemeanors, and to censure them, as the 
 quality of the offence shall require. 
 
 Fourthly, to impose an oath of fidelity and due 
 subjection to the laws upon all the free burgesses, free 
 planters, and other inhabitants within the whole juris- 
 diction. 
 
 Fifthly, to settle and levy rates and contributions 
 upon all the several plantations, for the public service 
 of the jurisdiction. 
 
 Sixthly, to hear and determine all causes, whether 
 civil or criminal, which by appeal or complaint shall 
 be orderly brought unto them from any of the other 
 courts, or from any of the other plantations, In all 
 which, with whatsoever else shall fall within their 
 cognizance or judicature, they shall proceed according
 
 176 FUNDAMENTAL AGREEMENT, 
 
 to the Scriptures, which is the rule of all righteous 
 laws and sentences, and nothing shall pass as an 
 act of the general court but by the consent of 
 the major part of magistrates, and the greater part 
 of deputies. 
 
 These generals being thus laid and settled, though 
 with purpose that the circumstantials, such as the val- 
 ue of causes to be tried in the plantation courts, the 
 ordinary and fixed times of meetings, both for the 
 general courts, and courts of magistrates, how oft and 
 when they shall sit, with the fines for absence or de- 
 fault, be hereafter considered of, continued or altered, 
 as may beet and most advance the course of justice, 
 and best suit the occasions of the plantations, the 
 court proceeded to present particular business of the 
 jurisdiction.
 
 New-Haven's 
 
 SETTLING JN 
 
 NEW-ENGLAND, 
 
 AND SOME 
 
 LAWES 
 
 FOK 
 
 Publifhed for the Ufe of that Colony. 
 
 Though fome of the Orders intended for 
 
 prefent convenience, may probably 
 
 be hereafter altered, and as 
 
 need requireth other 
 
 Lawes added. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 Printed by M. S. for Livewell Chapman, at the 
 
 Crowne in Popef-head- Alley. 
 
 1656.
 
 VI. 
 
 NEW HAVEN'S SETTLING IN NEW ENGLAND, 
 AND SOME LAWS FOR GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 It hath pleased the only wise, and all-sufficient God, 
 who ruleth all the world, determines times, and sets 
 the bounds of all men's habitations, but is the rich, and 
 precious portion of them that fear and trust in him, 
 at sundry times, and upon weighty occasions, to bring 
 several companies of his people, over the great deeps, 
 into this part of America, called New England, a 
 place far remote from their dear Native Country, and 
 hath here planted, protected, and graciously provided 
 for them. 
 
 The first adventurers ( before they had conveniency 
 for travel, and opportunity to consider, and compare 
 one place with another) sat down at Ply mouth, and 
 have had much experience of God's goodness and com- 
 passion in a wilderness, now betwixt thirty and forty 
 years. 
 
 In some years after, the Lord bringing over more of 
 his people, they planted in, and about the Massachu- 
 setts Bay, and grew a large colony, and after them the 
 English in Connecticut and New Haven, for the con- 
 veniency of the sea, and rivers, planted more westerly. 
 And for a while continued, though united in nation, re- 
 ligion, and affection, yet otherwise several and distinct 
 jurisdictions, free from any express engagement one to 
 another. In this time the enemy slept not, but was at 
 
 179
 
 180 LAWS OF 
 
 work, to disturb the peace of the English, both in sow- 
 ing tares within, among themselves, and stirring up the 
 Indians from abroad against them ; but He that is won- 
 derful in counsel, and excellent in working, overpow- 
 ered Satan, and his instruments, and gave good issues 
 to his people, in those their uncomfortable exercises. 
 
 A while after, upon the motion of the Massachu- 
 sets colony, a treaty was begun, and in process of time 
 comfortably finished ; solemn covenants were agreed, 
 and concluded betwixt the said jurisdictions, in the 
 following words. 
 
 Articles of Confederation betwixt the Plantations un- 
 der the government of the Massachusets, the Plan- 
 tations under the government of Pliinouth, the 
 Plantations under the government of Connectecut, 
 and the government of New Haven, with the Plan- 
 tations in combination therewith. 
 
 [ The articles of confederation between the four colonies, adopted 
 in 1643, need not be re-printed here. They may be found in Haz- 
 ard's Collection of State Papers, ii. 1-6 ; Winthrop's History of New- 
 England ii. 101 ; New Haven Col. Records (edited by Mr. Hoadly) 
 ii, 562-566 ; and elsewhere.] 
 
 When the Plantations within this Colony first treated 
 to be one Jurisdiction, and to settle themselves un- 
 der one Government, these following particulars 
 were solemnly and unanimously approved and con- 
 cluded as a fundamental Agreement, upon which the 
 Combination was framed. 
 
 That none shall be admitted freemen, or free bur- 
 gesses within this jurisdiction, or any part of it, but 
 such planters as are members of some one, or other of 
 the approved churches of New England ; nor shall any 
 but such be chosen to magistracy, or to carry on any 
 part of civil judicature, or as deputies or assistants to
 
 NE W HA YEN COL ONY. 181 
 
 have power, or vote in establishing lawes, or in making 
 or repealing orders, or to any chief military office, or 
 trust, nor shall any others, but such church members, 
 have any vote in any such elections. Though all 
 others admitted to be planters, have right to their 
 proper inheritances, and doe and shall enjoy all other 
 civil liberties and priviledges, according to all lawes, 
 orders, or grants, which are, or hereafter shall be made 
 for this colony.* 
 
 That all such freemen of this jurisdiction, shall 
 yearly without any summons, upon the election day, 
 which is to be the last fourth day in the week, com- 
 monly called Wednesday, in May (till by the generall 
 court some other time be ordered and published), 
 either in person, or by proxy, attend that service : 
 And according to their best light from the word of 
 God, shall vote in the election of Governour, Deputy 
 Governour, Magistrates, Commissioners for the United 
 Colonyes, Treasurer, Secretary, Marshall, or any other 
 officer, then chosen for the jurisdiction. And for the 
 ease of the said freemen ( especially such as dwell re- 
 mote) it is agreed, That when any of them cannot 
 conveniently come, they may send their votes, either 
 written, or in some other way sealed up in the pres- 
 ence of the rest of the freemen in the plantation where 
 they dwell, or the greater part of them. And f urther, 
 if any of them purposing to be present at the election, 
 when the other votes were sealed up, should after be 
 hindred, and then want opportunity to scale up his 
 
 *In this reprint, the marginal references to texts of scripture 
 which authorize the several articles of the Agreement and the pro- 
 visions of law, are omitted. For this first clause ( restricting to 
 church-members the privileges of freemen) the texts cited are : 
 Deut. i. 13 ; Ex. xviii. 21 ; Deut. xvii. 15; Jer. xxx. 21.
 
 182 LAWS OF 
 
 vote, in the presence of the major part of the free- 
 men ; in such case he may seale it up in the presence 
 of two such freemen as knew he sent no vote before, 
 and (upon their testimony or certificate ) it shall be 
 accepted, that so the liberty of the freemen may be 
 preserved, they may have means to attend their 
 duty, and their votes may be directed according to 
 their particular light. And the said freemen may at 
 the election court yearly, choose so many magistrates 
 for the jurisdiction in each plantation, as the weight 
 of affaires shall require, and as they shall there find free- 
 men fit for such a trust ; provided that when any man 
 of what plantation soever, shall be first propounded 
 for magistracy within this jurisdiction, seasonable no- 
 tice shalbe first given to all the plantations, of such a 
 purpose, or desire, that all the freemen may duely 
 consider or informe themselves, and that such as can- 
 not be present, but send their votes, may proceed ac- 
 cordingly, and that each freeman whether present or 
 absent, at the election, may the better improve his 
 liberty, It is ordered, that he may give or send his 
 vote, as he finds cause, either in the affirmative, by 
 putting in an Indian corne, or in the negative, by 
 putting in a beane, or in such other manner, as the 
 generall court shall iudge more convenient. 
 
 That the affaires of this jurisdiction, may be the better 
 carried on, and that the inhabitants may know whom 
 to obey, and from whom to seek redresse of inquiries, 
 it is agreed, that there be severall courts for severall 
 purposes, and of different constitutions and power. 
 
 First, a General Court, which shall consist of the 
 Governor, Deputy Governor, all the Magistrates, and 
 of two Deputies for each Plantation in the Jurisdic- 
 tion (where there is a church duely gathered, and
 
 NE W HA YEN COL ONY. 183 
 
 freemen orderly admitted), which deputies shall be 
 chosen either yearly, or against the approach of any 
 such general! court, by the freemen of each plantation, 
 or the greater number of them, and shall be sent at 
 each generall court with full power ( as having the pow- 
 er and voyces of all the said freemen derived to them) 
 to consult of, and determine, all such matters, as con- 
 cerne the publick welfare of this colony, and with due 
 certificate thereof, all which both Governor, Deputy 
 Governor, magistrates, and plantation deputies shall 
 have vote in the eaid court. 
 
 This generall court and all the members thereof, shall 
 from time to time ineete and sitt at Newhaven (unlesse 
 upon weighty cause, the major part of the court see 
 cause for a time to alter the place ), at least once every 
 yeare, namely the last fourth day in the weeke com- 
 monly called Wednesday in May ; first to carry on the 
 elections, and after to consider and order, all such 
 other affaires of the jurisdiction, as fall within their 
 cognizance, trust, and power, beside which fixed 
 courts, the Governor, or in his absence, the Deputy 
 Governor, and in their absence, any two Magistrates of 
 this jurisdiction, shall have power to summon a gene- 
 rall court, at any other time, as the urgent and extraor- 
 dinary occasions of the jurisdiction, or any part there- 
 of, may require, and at all such generall courts, wheth- 
 er ordinary, or extraordinary, the Governor, Deputy 
 Governor, Magistrates, with all the before-mentioned 
 deputies, shall sitt together till the affaires of the ju- 
 risdiction be dispatched, or may (as they conceive ) be 
 safely respited ; And if any of the said magistrates, or 
 deputies, shall either be absent at the first sitting of 
 the said court, or without leave depart, or disorderly 
 absent him or themselves from the service, before the
 
 184: LAWS OF 
 
 court be finished ( though the absence of a lesse part, 
 either of magistrates, or deputies, when the court is 
 either fixed, or with due notice, called extraordinarily, 
 shall neither stop proceedings nor abate the force of 
 what is ordered, by the major part both of magistrates, 
 and deputies, yet ) he, or they, shall each of them pay 
 twenty shillings for a fine to the jurisdiction, for such 
 absence, or departure ; But if any Plantation send no 
 deputy, or if the absence, or departure, be mingled 
 with contempt, or willf ull neglect, which may either 
 hinder the publick service, or prove an ill example, 
 the fine shall be increased, as the court upon due 
 consideration of the offence, with the agravations, 
 shall judge meete, or if the absence &c. grow by any 
 overruling providence of God, the same is also duely 
 to be considered by the court, for sparing or mitiga- 
 ting the fine. 
 
 This court thus framed, shall first with all care, and 
 diligence from time to time provide for the mainten- 
 ance of the purity of religion, and suppresse the 
 contrary, according to their best light, and directions 
 from the word of God. 
 
 Secondly, though they humbly acknowledge, that 
 the Supreame power of making lawes, and of repealing 
 them, belongs to God onely, and that by him this 
 power is given to Jesus Christ as Mediator, Matt, xxviii. 
 19, John v. 22 : And that the lawes for holinesse, and 
 righteousnesse, are already made, and given us in the 
 Scriptures, which in matters morall, or of morall 
 equity, may not be altered by humane power, or 
 authority ; Moses onely shewed Israel the lawes, and 
 statutes of God, and the Sanedrim the highest court, 
 among the Jewes, must attend those lawes : Yet 
 civill rulers, and courts, and this Generall Court in
 
 NE W HA YEN COL ONY. 185 
 
 particular (being intrusted by the freemen as before) 
 arethe ministers of God, for the good of the people ; 
 And have power to declare, publish, and establish, 
 for the plantations within their jurisdictions, the lawes 
 he hath made, and to make and repeale orders for 
 smaller matters, not particularly determined in Scrip- 
 ture, according to the more generall rules of righteous- 
 nesse, and while they stand in force, to require due 
 execution of them. 
 
 Thirdly, to require an oath from all the magistrates, 
 deputies, or assistents, &c., in every court of judica- 
 ture, for the faithfull discharge of the trust committed 
 to them, according to their best abilities. And to 
 call them to account for the breach of any lawes 
 established, or for other misdemeanours in their places, 
 and to censure them as the quality of the offence may 
 require ; and here the vote to passe as in the Law of 
 Appeals. 
 
 Fourthly, to impose an oath of fidelity and due 
 subjection to the just lawes standing in force, upon all 
 the freemen, planters, and inhabitants fit to take an 
 oath, with due penalty for obstinate refusall, after 
 some convenient time hath been given for due con- 
 sideration. 
 
 Fifthly, to order and appoint such works and for- 
 tifications as they conceive may tend to the better 
 defence of this colony; with guns, ammunition, and 
 all other provisions and furniture suitable thereunto : 
 And to provide that the same be kept and preserved 
 in a condition fit for present service, whether against 
 Indians, or other enemies. And to order all affairs 
 of war and peace, levying of men, &c. with due 
 respect to the former articles of confederation. 
 
 Sixthly, to order and regulate trade, both with
 
 186 LAWS OF 
 
 Indians and others, according to the rules of right- 
 eousness and prudence, for the publick good ; and 
 to settle and levy rates, contributions and impositions 
 upon all sorts of persons, lands and goods, within 
 this jurisdiction, as the publick service, and occasions 
 of church or commonwealth may from time to time 
 require. 
 
 Seventhly, to hear and determine all causes, whether 
 civil or crirninall, which by appeal or complaint shall 
 be orderly brought unto them, either from any infe- 
 riour court, or from any of the plantations. 
 
 In all which, with what ever else falls within their 
 cognizance, trust or judicature (as the highest court 
 within this jurisdiction) they shall proceed according 
 to Scripture light, and lawes, and orders, agreeing 
 therewith. And nothing shall be concluded, and passe 
 as an act of the general court (unlesse in cases express- 
 ly excepted) but by the consent and vote of the major 
 part of the magistrates, together with the consent 
 and vote of the greater part of the deputies. 
 
 Secondly, there shall be a court, called the Court of 
 Magistrates., wherein all the magistrates for the juris- 
 diction, shal meete and sitt at New-haven, at least 
 twice a year; namely, the second day of the weeke, 
 commonly called Munday, before the court of elections 
 in the third month called May, and the third fourth 
 day in the weeke, commonly called Wednesday, in the 
 eight month called October, to heare, examine, and 
 determine, all weighty and capitall causes civill, and 
 criminall, above those limited to plantation courts, 
 and to receive, and try all appeales duely brought unto 
 them, from plantation courts, and to call all the inhab- 
 itants, freemen, planters, and others to account for 
 breach of any lawes, or orders, established, or for
 
 NE W HA YEN COL ONT. 187 
 
 other misdemeanours, and to censure them, as the 
 quality of the offence shall require, in which meetings 
 of the magistrates, lesse than foure magistrates, shall 
 not be accounted a court, nor shall they carry on any 
 buisnesse as a court of magistrates. But it is expected, 
 and required, that all, and every of the magistrates 
 for this jurisdiction, doe constantly attend the pub- 
 lick service; at every court of magistrates, whether 
 fixed, or upon speciall occasion duely summoned, 
 either by the Governor, or in his absence, by the 
 Deputy Governor, or in their absence, by any two 
 magistrates of this jurisdiction, and if any of them 
 (having had due warning) be absent at the first sitting 
 of any such court, or after without leave depart, or 
 disorderly absent himselfe from the service, before 
 the court be finished, he, or they shall pay for every 
 such default, twenty shillings fine to the jurisdiction, 
 or more as the case may require, unlesse some prov- 
 idence of God (whereof the court of magistrates 
 shall from time to time judge) did necessarily cause the 
 same, and all sentences in this court, shall passe by 
 the vote of the major part of the magistrates present, 
 onely the Governor, and in his absence the Deputy 
 Governor, when votes in other respects are equall, 
 shall in this court, and when they or either of them 
 sitt in a plantation court, have a casting voyce, but 
 from this court, appeales and complaints may be made, 
 and brought to the generall court, the plaintiff in point 
 of security, first duely attending the Law of Appeales. 
 Thirdly, beside the generall court, and court of mag- 
 istrates, for the ease of the inhabitants, there shall be 
 Plantation Courts, to heare and determine inferiour 
 causes, which courts may be of two sorts, namely, 
 in every plantation within this jurisdiction, where
 
 188 LAWS OF 
 
 there is a magistrate, one, or more, the freemen from 
 among themselves, shall choose at least two deputies, 
 but three or fower if they see cause, to assist the 
 magistrate, or magistrates, and in such courts they 
 may try any civill cause betwixt party and party, in 
 valew not exceeding twenty pounds, and any criminall 
 cause, when the punishment by Scripture light, exceeds 
 not stocking, and whipping, and if the fine be pecuni- 
 ary, when the fine exceeds not five pounds, and in all 
 such courts, the sentance shall passe according to the 
 vote of the major part of the court, onely when votes 
 in their number are equall, the casting voyce shall be in 
 the Governor, or Deputy Governor, or magistrates pres- 
 ent. But to expedite justice with as little inconvenience 
 as may be to magistrates more remote, it is agreed, 
 and ordered, that any such plantation court, calling 
 in two other magistrats, from any other neighbouring 
 plantation, or plantations, within this jurisdiction, may 
 try any civill cause, though of the highest valew, 
 and any criminall cause, provided it be not capitall, 
 extending to the life of the off'endor, but in such 
 plantations, if the magistrate upon any occasion be 
 absent, the deputies alone have no such power of 
 judicature, onely to prevent inconveniences, they may 
 order the marshall to stay any malefactor or suspitious 
 person, or seize, or stop the estate of any man, or 
 part of it, upon case shewn, when the case will not 
 admit delay, till the magistrate come home, provided 
 that sufficient security be taken of him, or them, 
 causing such stay or seizure, to pay just damages, if 
 the proceedings prove unwarantable, and in case of 
 remove, or death of such magistrate, the deputies 
 fall in with other plantations, where there is no 
 magistrate, till further order be taken, and in such
 
 NE W HA YEN COL ONY. 189 
 
 plantations deputies being chosen, either by the generall 
 court, or with their allowance, bj the freemen from 
 among themselves, they may keepe courts to issue 
 smaller causes, and to order other affaires, in all 
 respects, as the general court shall from time to time 
 appoint and limit, but from all these courts, and in all 
 tryals, and proceedings in them, appeals and complaints 
 may be brought to the court of magistrates, the 
 plaintiff putting in security, according to the Law of 
 Appeales. 
 
 These generalls were at first laid, as a foundation 
 for government, though it was foreseene, and agreed, 
 that the circumstantialls therein, such as the ordinary, 
 and fixed times both for elections, and for the meet- 
 ing of the generall court, and court of magistrates, how 
 oft, and when they shall sit, the fines for absence, or 
 disorderly departing, and the valew of causes to be tryed 
 in plantation courts, with other particulars in their 
 proceedings, might after be further considered, con- 
 tinued or altered, as may best suite the course of 
 justice, and the conveniency of the plantations. 
 
 Certaine Lawes, Liberties, and Orders, made, granted, 
 and established, at severall times, by the Generall 
 Court of New-haven Colony, for and to the Inhab- 
 itants of that Jurisdiction, now collected, and 
 further published, for the use of such as are 
 concerned in them, wherein they have made use of 
 
 . the Lawes published by the Honourable Colony of 
 the Massachusets.* 
 
 *Tlic first edition of the "Laws and Liberties "of Massachusetts 
 was published, by authority, in 1649. No copy of this edition is 
 known to be extant. The Massachusetts " Body of Liberties " was 
 established in 1641.
 
 190 LAWS OF 
 
 It is ordered by this court, and the authority thereof, 
 that no man's life shall be taken away, no man's hon- 
 our, or good name, shall be stained, no man's person 
 shall be imprisoned, banished, or otherwise punished, 
 no man shall be deprived of his wife, or children, no 
 man's goods, or estate shall be taken from him, under 
 colour of law, or countenance of authority, unlesse it 
 be by vertue, or equity of some expresse law of this 
 jurisdiction, established by the generall court, and 
 sufficiently published, or for want of a law in any par- 
 ticular case, by the word of God, either in the court 
 of magistrates, or some plantation court, according to 
 the weight and valew of the cause, onely all capitall 
 causes, concerning life or banishment where there is 
 no expresse law, shall be judged according to the word 
 and law of God, by the generall court. 
 
 That no man shall be put to death, for any offence, 
 or misdemeanour in any case, without the testimony 
 of two witnesses at least, or that which is equivalent 
 thereunto; provided, and to prevent, or suppresse 
 much inconvenience which may grow, either to 
 the public!?, or to particular persons, by a mistake 
 herein, it is ordered, and declared, by the authority 
 aforesaid, that two, or three single witnesses, being of 
 competent age, of sound understanding, and of good 
 reputation, and witnessing to the case in question 
 (whither it concerne the publick peace, and welfare, 
 or any one, and the same particular person) shall be 
 accounted (the party concerned, having no just excep- 
 tion against them) sufficient proofe, though they did 
 not together see, or heare, and so witnesse to the 
 same individuall, and particular act, in reference to 
 those circumstances of time, and place.
 
 NE W II A YEN COL ONY. 191 
 
 Actions. 
 
 It is ordered by this court and the authority thereof, 
 that every person impleading another, in the court 
 of magistrates, or in any plantation court, when the 
 debt or damage he demands, or the action he layeth, 
 is above twenty pounds, so that it cannot be tryed by 
 a plantation court unless two magistrates of some 
 other plantation, be called in to assist, he shall pay 
 the sum of ten shillings, before his case be entred, or 
 any part of it heard, unlesse the court see cause to 
 admit the plaintiff to sue, in forma pauperis. But 
 in all actions, brought to any court, the plaintiff shall 
 have liberty to withdraw his action, or to be non- 
 suited, before sentence passe, in which case, he shall 
 alwayes pay full cost and charges to the def e,ndent, and 
 may after renew his suite at another court. 
 
 Age. 
 
 It is ordered, &c. that the age for passing away of 
 lands, or such kinds of hereditaments, or ingagements 
 of like nature, as for giving of votes, passing sentences 
 in publick meetings, civil courts, or causes, shall be at 
 least twenty and one years, but in cases admitting the 
 choyce of guardians, any age above fourteen may be 
 sufficient. 
 
 Appeales. 
 
 It is ordered, &c. that if any man cast, or sentenced 
 in his cause, be unsatisfied with the proceedings and 
 issue, it shall be in his liberty (the cause not being 
 criminall) to make his appeal from any plantation 
 court, to the court of magistrates ; and in like case, 
 from the court of magistrates, to the general court. 
 But in such case, when the magistrates, or some of them, 
 have already exprest themselves, to prevent difference
 
 192 LAWS OF 
 
 and inconvenience, it is ordered, that the major part 
 of the general court, consisting of magistrates and 
 deputies, taken joyntly shall issue it. But to prevent, 
 or provide against unnecessary trouble to courts, 
 charge to the jurisdiction, and other inconveniencies 
 which may follow, if the course of justice be delayed, 
 or evaded, it is further ordered, that whosoever shall 
 .so appeal, doe tender his appeal, and put in sufficient 
 security before the judges of the court from which 
 he appeales, the secretary, or other person or persons 
 authorized to admit appeals, effectually by himself, 
 his deputy or attorney to prosecute his appeal, at the 
 next usuall fixed time of that court's sitting, to which 
 the appeale is made ; and to observe, perform, and pay 
 to the defendant, as shall be there adjudged; but 
 every such appeal shall be entred, and security as 
 before put in, within three days after sentence in the 
 cause was given, and the same at the charge of the 
 party appealing, to be recorded, and certified to the 
 court, unto which the appeale is made. And lastly, it 
 is ordered, that if in the review it appear, the plain- 
 tiff had no cause to appeale, petition, or complain, he 
 shall pay such further charge, as the court shall judge 
 hath been expended in their sitting to re-examine his 
 cause, that no unnecessary charge fall upon the 
 Colony. 
 
 Appearance. Non-Appearance. 
 It is ordered, &c. that no man shall be punished 
 for not appearing at or before any civil assembly, 
 court, magistrate, or officer, nor for omission of any 
 office or service, to be performed in his own person 
 only, if he shall be necessarily hindred by any 
 apparent providence of God, which he could neither
 
 NE W II A YEN COL ONY. 193 
 
 foresee, nor avoid, and by giving or sending notice, 
 hath done what was in his power. Provided, that 
 this law shall not prejudice any person of his just 
 cost and damage, in any civil action. 
 
 Arrests. See Imprisonment. 
 
 Attachment. Sec further in the Title Distresse. 
 
 It is ordered, &c. that no attachment shall be 
 granted in any civil action to any forraigner, against 
 a setled inhabitant of this jurisdiction, before he hath 
 given sufficient security, or caution, duly to prosecute 
 his action, and to answer the defendant such costs and 
 damages, as the court shall award. And it is further 
 ordered, that in all attachments of goods and chattels, 
 of lands or hereditaments, whether by forraigners, or 
 setled inhabitants, legall notice shall be given to the 
 party concerned, or left in writing at his house, or 
 place of usuall abode, before the suit proceed ; but if 
 he be out of the jurisdiction, the cause shall proceed 
 to try all, but judgement shall not be entred till 
 another court at least a month after. And if the 
 defendant doe not then appear, judgement shall be 
 entred, but execution shall not be granted before the 
 plaintiff hath given sufficient security to be responsall 
 to the defendant, if he shall reverse the judgement 
 within one year, or such further time as the court 
 shall see cause to order. 
 
 Bakers. 
 
 It is ordered, &c. that every person within this 
 jurisdiction, who shall bake bread for sale, shall have 
 a distinct mark for his bread, and keep the true assizes 
 hereafter expressed and appointed. 
 
 When wheat is ordinarily sold by the bushell, at 
 9
 
 194 LAWS OF 
 
 the severall rates hereafter mentioned, the penny 
 white loaf, penny wheaten loaf, and penny household 
 loaf shall weigh severally and respectively by aver 
 dupoyse weight as followeth. 
 When the bushell of wheat is 
 
 s.d. the 
 
 at 3.0, penny white loaf 11 1-4 oz. wheaten 17 14 oz. houshold 23 oz. 
 at 3.6, penny white loaf 10 1-4 oz. wheaten 15 1-4 o*. houshold 20 1-2 oz. 
 at 4.0, penny white loaf 9 1-4 oz. whe&ten 14 oz. houshold 18 1-2 oz. 
 at 4.6, penny white loaf 8 1-4 oz. wheaten 12 3-4 oz. houshold 16 1-2 oz. 
 at 5.0, penny white loaf 7 3-4 oz. wheaten 11 1-2 oz. houshold 15 1-2 oz. 
 at 5.6, penny white loaf 7 oz. wheaten 10 1-2 oz. houshold 14 1-4 oz. 
 at 6.0, penny white loaf 6 1-2 oz. wheaten 10 oz. houshold 13 oz. 
 at 6.6, penny white loaf 6 oz. wheaten 9 1-2 oz. houshold 12 1-4 oz. 
 
 And so proportionably under the penalty of forfeit- 
 ing all such bread, as shall not answer the before-men- 
 tioned severall assizes. And for the better execution 
 of this order there shalbe in every plantation, as 
 occasion may require, an officer yearly chosen, who 
 shal be sworn at the next plantation court, or by the 
 next magistrate, or officer for taking oaths, unto the 
 faithfull discharge of his office, who is hereby author- 
 ized to enter into any house, either with the constable, 
 or marshall, or without, where he understands that 
 any bread is baked for sale, and to weigh such bread, 
 as often as he seeth cause : and after once notice, or 
 warning, to seize all such bread as he findeth defective 
 in weight, or not marked according to this order. 
 And all such forfeitures shall be divided, one third 
 part to the officer for his care and paines, and the rest 
 to the poor of the place. 
 
 Ballast. 
 
 It is ordered, &c. that no ballast shall be cast out of 
 any ship or other vessel in the channel, or other place 
 inconvenient, in any harbour within this jurisdiction, 
 under the penalty of ten pounds to be levied upon the
 
 NE W HA YEN COL ONT. 195 
 
 owners, mariners, seamen, or others offending, to the 
 use of the said plantation. The ship or vessel to be 
 stayed till payment be made. 
 
 Barratry. 
 
 It is ordered, &c. That if any person be proved, and 
 judged a common barrater, vexing others with unjust, 
 frequent, and troublesome suites, it shall be in the 
 power of any court, both to reject his cause, and to 
 punish him for his barratry. * 
 
 Bills and Specialties. 
 
 It is ordered, &c. That any debt, or debts, due upon 
 bill, or other specialty, being duly assigned to another, 
 shall be as good a debt, and estate to the assignee, as it 
 was^ or could be, to the assigner. And that it shall 
 be lawf nil for the said assignee to sue for, and recover 
 the said debt, due upon bill, or other specialty, and 
 so assigned, as fully as the original creditor might 
 have done. Provided the assignation be either made 
 upon the back of the specialty, or to the court some 
 other way cleared, that future questions may be 
 stopped, or duly answered, f 
 
 Burglary and Theft. 
 
 It is ordered, &c. That if any person shall com- 
 mit burglary, or break up any dwelling house, or any 
 thing equi[va]lent, or rob any person by force, or by 
 using any threatning gestures, or other actions, in the 
 fields, high-wayes, or other place, the paity so offend- 
 ing, shall for the first offence ( beside such restitution 
 and damage as the court to which the cognizance be- 
 
 * Mass. Body of Liberties, 34, amended ; and Conn. Code, 
 f Conn. Code, (see page 65,) with verbal amendments.
 
 196 LAWS OF 
 
 longs, shall see cause to order ) be branded on the right 
 hand with the letter (B) ; if he shall offend in the like 
 kind a second time ( beside restitution and damage ) 
 he shall be branded on the left hand, and also be se- 
 verely whipt ; and if he fall into the like offence the 
 third time, ( beside restitution and damage out of his 
 estate ) he shall be put to death as incorrigible. And 
 if any person shall commit such burglary, or BO rob in 
 any place on the Lord's day, he shall ( beside restitu- 
 tion and damage ) for the first offence, be burnt on 
 the right hand, as before, and severely whipt ; for the 
 second offence, he shall be burnt on the left hand, stand 
 on the pillory, be severely whipt, and wear a halter in 
 the day time constantly and visibly about his neck, as 
 a mark of infamy, till the court of magistrates see 
 cause to release him from it ; but if he fall into the 
 same offence the third time, he shall be put to death 
 as incorrigibly unrighteous, and presumptuously pro- 
 fane.* 
 
 And to prevent or suppresse other thefts, and pil- 
 f rings, it is ordered, That if any person shall be taken, 
 or proved to have stollen, assisted, or any way have 
 been accessary to the stealing of any cattel of what 
 sort soever, or swine, he shall by way of forfeit make 
 such restitution to the owner, as the court considering 
 all circumstances, shall judge most agreeable to the 
 word of God. And if any person shall be proved to 
 have stollen any goods of what sort soever, out of any 
 man's dwelling-house, warehouse, barn, or other out- 
 house, or left out in court, yard, garden, orchard, high- 
 way, from the water-side, or out of any boat or vessel, 
 or other place, or to have robbed any garden, or 
 orchard, or stollen, or hurt, any grafts, or fruit-trees, 
 
 * Massachusetts law of 1646.
 
 NEW HAVEN COLONY. 197 
 
 or fruit, he shall forfeit and pay double damages to 
 the owner, beside such further fine and punishment, 
 as the court considering all aggravating circumstances 
 of time, manner &c., shall judge meet.* If the thief 
 in any part of the premisses be not able to make resti- 
 tution ( if the case require it ) he is to be sold for a 
 servant, till by his labour he may make due restitution. 
 And if any children, or servants, who cannot pay for 
 themselves, shall transgresse, and trespasse in any part 
 of the premisses, if their parents or masters will not 
 pay the penalty for them, they shall be publickly 
 whipt, or further proceeded against as the case may 
 require, and all servants, and workemen, imbezeling, 
 pilfring, or stealing the goods of their masters, or such 
 as set them on worke, shall make such restitution, and 
 be liable to all lawes and penalties as other men, and 
 if any person shall be proved to pilfer or steale a sec- 
 ond or third time, his punishment shall be increased 
 by whiping or otherwise, as the court shall see cause. 
 
 And forasmuch as small thefts, trespasses, or other 
 offences of a criminall nature, are sometimes committed 
 by the English or others in townes or places remote 
 from prisons, or it may prove inconvenient to defer 
 the tryall, or to make stay of the persons offending, or 
 hard to get security for appearance at a court, it is there- 
 fore ordered, that any magistrate, or deputy intrusted 
 to assist in judicature, calling in such other help as the 
 place affords for a plantation court (which help is here- 
 by required to attend the service upon due warning), 
 may upon complaint brought to him, when the case so 
 requires, with the first conveniency, heare, and upon due 
 proofe determine any such offence (the valew whereof 
 
 * Massachusetts law of 1646.
 
 198 LAWS OF 
 
 either in point of fine, damage, or other punishment 
 exceeds not the limits of that plantation court, accord- 
 ing to the lawes here established ) and may give war- 
 rant to the marshal!, or other officer, for answerable 
 execution, but if the offender refuse to pay or have 
 nothing to satisfie, the magistrate, or deputy witli the 
 help aforesaid, may punish by stocking, whiping, or 
 otherwise ; according to the nature of the offence, 
 and import of this law. 
 
 Capitall Lawes. 
 
 It is ordered, &c., That if any person after legal!, or 
 other due conviction, shall have, or worship any other 
 God, but the Lord God, he shall be put to death. 
 Exod. 22. 20. Deut. 13. 6, 10. Detit. 17. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 
 
 If any person be a witch, lie or she shall be put to 
 death, according to Exod. 22. 18. Levit. 20. 27. 
 Deut. 18. 10, 11. 
 
 If any person within this jurisdiction, professing the 
 true God, shall wittingly and willingly presume to 
 blaspheme the holy name of God, Father, Son, or 
 Holy Ghost, with direct, expresse, presumptuous, or 
 high-handed blasphemy, either by willf ull or obstinate 
 denying the true God, or his creation, or government 
 of the world, or shall curse God, Father, Son, or Holy 
 Ghost, or reproach the holy religion of God, as if it 
 were but a politick device to keep ignorant men in 
 awe ; or shall utter any other kind of blasphemy of 
 like nature, and degree, such person shall be put to 
 death. Levit. 24. 15, 16. 
 
 If any person shall commit any wilf ull murder, if he 
 shall kill any man, woman, or child, upon premedita- 
 ted malice, hatred, or cruelty (not in a way of neces- 
 sary and just defence, nor by meer casualty against his
 
 NE W HA YEN COL ONY. 199 
 
 will ) lie shall be put to death. Exod. 21. 12, 13. Numb. 
 35. 31. 
 
 If any person slayeth another suddenly in anger, or 
 cruelty of passion, he shall be put to death. Lev. 24. 
 17. Numb. 35. 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21. 
 
 If any person come presumptuosly to slay another 
 with guile, whether by any kinde of force, poyson, 
 or other wicked practice, every such person shall be 
 put to death. Ex. 21. 14. Agreeing with Deut. 19. 19. 
 By parity of reason. 
 
 If any man or woman, shall lye with any beast, or 
 bruite creature by carnall copulation, he, or she, shall 
 surely be put to death, and the beast shall be slaine, 
 buried, and not eaten. Lev. 20. 15, 16. 
 
 If any man lyeth with mankinde, as a man lyeth 
 with a woman, both of them have committed abomi- 
 nation, they both shall surely be put to death. Levit. 
 20. 13. And if any woman change the naturall use, 
 into that which is against nature, as Rom. 1. 26. she 
 shall be liable to the same sentence, and punishment, 
 or if any person, or persons, shall commit any other 
 kinde of unnaturall and shamefull filthines, called in 
 Scripture the going after strange flesh, or other flesh 
 then God alloweth, by carnall knowledge of another 
 vessel then God in nature hath appointed to become 
 'one flesh, whether it be by abusing the contrary part 
 of a grown woman, or child of either sex, or unripe 
 vessel of a girle, wherein the naturall use of the woman 
 is left, which God hath ordained for the propaga- 
 tion of posterity, and Sodomiticall filthinesse ( tending 
 to the destruction of the race of mankind ) is commit- 
 ted by a kind of rape, nature being forced, though the 
 will were inticed, every such person shall be put to 
 death. Or if any man shall act upon himself, and in
 
 200 LAWS OF 
 
 the sight of others spill his owne seed, by example, or 
 counsel, or both, corrupting or tempting others to doe 
 the like, which tends to the sin of Sodomy, if it be not 
 one kind of it ; or shall defile, or corrupt himself and 
 others, by any other kind of sinf ull filthinesse, he shall 
 be punished according to the nature of the offence ; or 
 if the case considered with the aggrarating circum- 
 stances, shall according to the mind of God revealed 
 in his word require it, he shall be put to death, as the 
 court of magistrates shall determine. Provided that if in 
 any of the former cases, one of the parties were forced, 
 and so abused against his or her will, the innocent 
 person ( crying out, or in due season complaining) 
 shall not be punished, or if any of the offending par- 
 ties were under fourteen year old, when the sin was 
 committed, such person shall onely be severely cor- 
 rected, as the court of magistrates considering the age, 
 and other circumstances, shall judge meet. 
 
 If any man married, or single, commit adultery with 
 a marryed or espoused wife, the adulterer and adulter- 
 esee shall surely be put to death. Lev. 18. 20. Lev. 
 20. 10. Deut. 22. 23, 24. 
 
 If any person steale a man, or mankind, that person 
 shall surely be put to death. Exod. 21. 16. 
 
 If any person rise up by false witnesse, wittingly 
 and of purpose to take away any man's life, that per- 
 son shall be put to death. Deut. 19. 16, 18, 19. 
 
 If any person shall conspire, and attempt any inva- 
 sion, insurrection, or publick rebellion against this ju- 
 risdiction, or shall endeavour to surprize, or seize any 
 plantation, or town, any fortification, platform, or 
 any great guns, provided for the defence of the 
 jurisdiction, or any plantation therein; or shall 
 treacherously and perfidiously attempt the alteration
 
 NE W HA YEN COL ONY. 201 
 
 and subversion of the frame of policy, or fundamentall 
 government laid, and setled for this jurisdiction, he 
 or they shall be put to death. Numb. 16. 2 Sam. 18. 
 2 Sam. 20. Or if any person shall consent unto any 
 such mischievous practice, or by the space of foure and 
 twenty houres conceale it, not giving notice thereof to 
 some magistrate, if there be any magistrate in the 
 plantation, or place where he liveth, or if none, to 
 some deputy for the jurisdiction, or to the constable of 
 the place, that the publick safety may be seasonably 
 provided for, he shall be put to death, or severely pun- 
 ished, as the court of magistrates weighing all circum- 
 stances shall determine. 
 
 If any child, or children, above sixteen year old, 
 and of competent understanding, shall curse, or smite, 
 his, her, or their naturall father, or mother, each such 
 child shall be put to death, Exod. 21. 17. Levit. 20. 9. 
 Exod. 21. 15, unlesse it be proved, that the parents 
 have been very unchristianly negligent in the educa- 
 tion of such child, or children, or so provoked them by 
 extream and cruell correction, or usage, that they have 
 . been urged or forced thereunto, to preserve them- 
 selves from death or maiming. 
 
 If any man have a stubborn rebellious son, of suffi- 
 cient age and understanding, namely sixteen year old, 
 or upward, which will not obey the voyce of hia 
 father, or the voyce of his mother ; and that when they 
 have chastned him, will not hearken unto them, then 
 shall his father and his mother (being his naturall 
 parents ) lay hold on him, and bring him to the mag- 
 istrates assembled in court, and testifie unto them, 
 that their son is stubborn and rebellious, and will not 
 obey their voyce and chastisement, but lives in sundry 
 notorious crimes ; such a eon shall be put to death. 
 Deut. 21. 18, 19, 20, 21.
 
 202 LAWS OF 
 
 If any man shall ravish any maid, or single woman, 
 who is above the age of ten years, committing carnall 
 copulation with her by force, against her own will, 
 he shall be severely and grievously punished, as the 
 court of magistrates considering all circumstances shall 
 determine. 
 
 Caske and Cooper. 
 
 It is ordered, &c. That all cask, whether pipes, 
 hogsheads, barrels, quarter cask, or other sorts used 
 in trade, whether for any liquor, fish, pork, beef, or 
 other commodity put to sale, shall be of London assize. 
 And that in each plantation within this jurisdiction, 
 where cask is made or used for trade, the plantation 
 court, or the constable, with the present or last depu- 
 ties for the generall court, where there is no plantation 
 court, shall from time to time appoint some fit person, 
 or persons, to view and gage all such vessel or cask : 
 and such as shall be found of due assize and made of 
 sound, and well seasoned stuffe, ( and none but such 
 shall be marked with the gager's mark ) who shall 
 have for his paines eight pence for every tun, and pro- 
 portionably for what he so marketh. And every 
 cooper shall have, and set a distinct brand-mark of 
 his own, upon each cask, upon paine of forfeiting after 
 the rate of twenty shillings a tun, for what he sells, 
 either without the gager's mark, or not marked with 
 his own constant brand mark. 
 
 Cattett, Corn Fields, Fences. 
 
 To prevent, or remedy much inconvenience, and 
 many differences which may grow about fencing, 
 planting, sowing, feeding, and improving of common 
 fields, inclosed for corn, or other necessary use, it is 
 ordered, That every person interessed in any such
 
 NE W HA YEN COL ONT. 203 
 
 field shall from time to time, make and keep his 
 part of the fence, sufficiently strong and in constant 
 repaire, according to all orders in force in each plan- 
 tation, to secure the corn, and other fruits therein. 
 And shall not put, cause, or permit any cattel to he 
 put in, so long as any corn, or other fruit shall be 
 growing, or remain upon any part of the land so 
 inclosed. Unlesse by some generall expresse agree- 
 ment of such as are interessed. And if at any time 
 the owners or occupiers of any such inclosed land 
 cannot, or doe not agree, in any part of the premises, 
 it is ordered, That upon due and seasonable notice 
 given to the select men or towns men, appointed for 
 prudentiall affaires, proper to their care and trust, by 
 any concerned, and unsatisfied, they shall appoint a 
 convenient time to hear and order such differences, 
 and settle a due way of fencing, improving, and pre- 
 serving such fields, and the fruits of them. And 
 whosoever shall oppose or transgresse, shall be liable 
 to all damages proved to grow thereby, and to such 
 further fine for breach of order, as the plantation 
 court, or authority there setled for such purposes, 
 shall judge meet. But in any plantation, where there 
 are yet no such select, or towns men, the freemen 
 from among themselves, shall yearly choose a con- 
 venient number to order such occasions, that peace 
 and righteousnesse may be the better preserved 
 therein. And these select, or towns men, shall from 
 year to year appoint one, two, or more, of the planters, 
 for all or each common field, belonging to the planta- 
 tion where they dwell, to view the common fences 
 within their trust and to take due notice of the reall 
 defects and insufficiency thereof, and shall forthwith 
 acquaint the owners with the same. And if the said
 
 204 LAWS OF 
 
 
 
 owners or occupiers doe not at furthest within six 
 working dayes, or sooner if the said select men see cause, 
 and so appoint, sufficiently repaire, or cause the same 
 to be repaired, he, or they, shall forthwith upon the 
 demand of the appointed viewer or viewers (beside 
 other just damages) pay as a fine to the plantation, 
 twelve pence for every rod (if there be a considerable 
 quantity of such defective fence together), or for every 
 single defect, in such faulty fence, or the said viewer 
 or viewers, taking due witnesse of the defects, may if 
 it suite their conveniency forthwith repaire or renew 
 them, or cause them to be repaired or renewed, and 
 shall have double recompence for the same, to be 
 paid (beside other just damages) by the owners, or 
 occupiers of the said insufficient fence, or fences. 
 And in either case if payment be denyed or delayed, 
 such viewer, or viewers, shall have warrant from the 
 said select men, directed to the marshall, or constable, 
 to levy the same forthwith upon the estate of the 
 delinquent. 
 
 And when lands lye in common unfenced if one 
 man shall improve his land by fencing in severall, and 
 others, one, or more shall not, he who shall so im- 
 prove, shall secure his land from other men's cattel 
 (unruly cattle excepted), who shall compell no man to 
 make any fence with him, except he also improve in 
 severall, and where one man shall improve before his 
 neighbour, and so make the whole fence, if his said 
 neighbour shall after improve, he shall then satisfie 
 for half the other's fence against him, according to 
 the present value, and shall maintaine the same : and 
 if the said first man shall after lay open his said field, 
 or land, then the said neighbour shall both enjoy his 
 said half fence so purchased, and shall have liberty
 
 NE W J7A YEN COL ONY. 205 
 
 to buy the other half fence against his land, paying 
 according to the present worth as it shall be rated by 
 two men indifferently chosen. And the like order 
 shall be, when any man shall improve land, against, 
 or adjoyning to a town common. Provided this ex- 
 tend not to house-lots, in which, if one shall improve, 
 his neighbour or neighbours shall be compellable to 
 make, and maintaine one half of the fence between 
 them, whether he or they improve, or not. Provided 
 also, that no man shall be liable to damage done in 
 any ground not sufficiently fenced, and himself not 
 interessed iu the defective fence, or some part of it, 
 except the damage were done by prohibited or unruly 
 cattel of any sort (in which swine are included) which 
 cannot be restrained by ordinary fences, or where any 
 shall unwarrantably put in cattel, of what sort, or 
 under what colour or pretence soever, or otherwise 
 willfully trespasse upon his neighbour's ground. 
 
 It is further ordered, That whatsoever swine, or 
 greater cattel (horses excepted, which are particularly 
 mentioned hereafter,) shall be found in the woods, or 
 commons unmarked, are lyable to poundage, and 
 being either pounded, or otherwise prosecuted and 
 proved, the owner shall pay for each swine unmarked, 
 three shillings and four pence, of which half the fines 
 to the pounder, or prosecutor, and the rest to the 
 plantation. And for each of the greater sort of cat- 
 tel, six shillings, whereof half shall be ordered to the 
 pounder, or prosecutor, and the rest to the plantation ; 
 but if the owners be not known, or found, then every 
 such swine or beast of a greater kind, to be duly 
 cryed, that the owner may take notice, claim his in- 
 terest, and pay the fine, and charges; but if yet no 
 owner be found, then after due apprisement by
 
 206 LAW8 OF 
 
 indifferent men chosen by authority in the place, and 
 the same recorded by the secretary, sale to be so far 
 made, that the fine and charges may be fully paid, and 
 the remainder kept by the treasurer, till the owner be 
 knowne, and the rest of such swine, or cattel, being 
 first marked with a publick town mark, or brand, 
 with some distinction from the mark of particular 
 men, to be again turned into the woods. 
 
 Lastly, it is ordered, That no owner of cattel, of 
 what kind soever, after knowledge, or notice given, 
 that any cattel of his, whether horse, other beast, or 
 swine, is unruly in respect to fences, shall suffer any 
 such to goe at liberty, either in common, or against 
 corn fields, or other impropriate enclosed grounds 
 fenced as aforesaid, but shall either constantly keep 
 them upon his own ground, within sufficient fences, 
 all his own, or put and keep upon each of them, such 
 shackles and fetters, or yoaks and rings, as may 
 sufficiently from time to time, restrain and prevent 
 trespasse, or shall pay all damages and charges, 
 whether in corne, or other fruits, with hurt in fences, 
 expence of time, and help in catching, pounding, 
 driving out, and bringing home, any such unruly cat- 
 tel, of what kind soever, with such further fine for 
 breach of order, and court charges, if the plaintiff 
 be put to recover it that way, as the court shall judge 
 meet. 
 
 Charges Publiok. 
 
 That publick charges may be defrayed in a ready 
 and just way, it is ordered by this court, and the 
 authority thereof, That in each plantation within this 
 jurisdiction, the select or towns men,* or some others 
 
 *"It seems that Townsmen were chosen in New Haven for the first 
 time, November 17, 1651, that the town meetings, 'which spends
 
 NE W If A YEN COL ONY. 207 
 
 thereunto deputed, doe yearly the first week of the 
 third month called May, require, procure, and make 
 a full arid just list of all the male persons within their 
 limits, from sixteen years old, and upwards ; and a 
 true estimation of all personall and reall estates, being 
 or reputed to be the estate of all and every the per- 
 sons belonging to the plantation, or in their present 
 possession, viz. of houses, lands of all sorts, meadow 
 and upland, as well unbroken up, as other (except 
 such as doth and shall lye common for free feed of 
 cattel at all times to the use of the inhabitants in 
 generall), mills, ships, and all small vessels, merchant- 
 able goods, cranes, wharfs, and all sorts of cattel and 
 other estate (houshold stuff, and goods of that kind, 
 provided and kept for that use, and not for trade, 
 onely excepted), whether at sea, or on shoar, with a 
 due consideration and estimate of the advantage men 
 may have by their severall and respective arts, or 
 trades. Which list, and particular account, of males 
 and estates in reference to rates, shall by the deputies 
 chosen by each plantation, and sent to assist at the 
 generall court, be presented yearly when they sit, in 
 the latter end of May, under such penalty for default, 
 as the court considering the hindrance in the juris- 
 diction affaires, shall see cause to inflict. All which 
 persons and estates, are to be assessed and rated, by 
 such as are thereunto appointed, for one single rate, 
 as followeth, viz. every male person above sixteen 
 years of age (except magistrates and elders of churches) 
 at twent} r pence by the head, and all estates both reall 
 and personall, at one penny for every twenty shillings. 
 And that houses (wherein there is much difference) 
 
 the towne much time, may not be so often.' Town Ecc. ii. 76." 
 f!. J. Hoadly, in note to N. II. Col. Kec. ii. 581.
 
 208 LAWS OF 
 
 may be the more equally rated, according to their 
 worth, it is ordered, That the deputies from the sev- 
 erall plantations within this jurisdiction now assem- 
 bled at this generall court, doe before their return, 
 rate two houses in New-haven, which shal be as 
 patterns for the other plantations to rate by. That all 
 lands, whether meadow, or upland, and whether the 
 upland be better, or worse, broken up, or not (except 
 it lye common as before), be rated at twenty shillings 
 an acre; and for that a considerable part of men's 
 estates in these parts, lyeth in cattel, to avoyd many 
 questions which may grow about their age, it is ordered, 
 That all sorts of cattel from year to year, though 
 any of them should not be a year old till the last of 
 July, yet in reference to rates, be accounted, and pay 
 as if they were a year old the first of May. And in 
 like manner for two years old, or elder; and in lieu 
 thereof, cattel though near three quarters of a year 
 old the first of May, shall not be rated, and cattel of 
 a year and almost three quarters, shall be rated but a 
 year old, and so upward. And it is further ordered, 
 That till this court find some considerable alteration 
 in prises, every cow of four year old (the age reckoned 
 as before) or upward, shall be rated at five pounds; 
 every heifer, or steer, three year old, reckoned as 
 before, at four pounds ; and betwixt two and three 
 years old, at fifty shillings; and of one year old, 
 thirty shillings. Every ox, and bull of four year old, 
 or upward, at six pounds ; every horse of three year 
 old (after the former account) or more, shall be valued 
 at ten pounds ; every mare of three year old, or up- 
 ward, at twelve pounds ; those of two year old, or 
 upward, according to the former account, whether 
 horse, or mares, each of them at five pounds ten
 
 NE W IIA YEN COL ONY. 209 
 
 shillings ; and those of three-quarters of a year old, or 
 above, till they come to be a year and three-quarters, 
 shall be rated at three pounds and ten shillings; every 
 yew sheep of a year old, or above, at thirty shillings ; 
 every weather sheep, or ram, of a year old, or above, 
 at sixteen shillings; every goat of a year old, or 
 above, at eight shillings; every swine of a year old, 
 or above, at twenty shillings; every asse of a year 
 old, or above, at forty shillings. And all hey, and 
 corn in the husbandman's hand, is hereby exempted 
 from rates, because all meadow, arrable land, and cat- 
 tel, are rateable as aforesaid. And for all such persons, 
 as by the advantage of their arts and trades, are more 
 enabled to bear publick charges, then common labour- 
 ers and workmen, as butchers, bakers, victuallers, 
 smiths, carpenters, taylors, shoemakers, joyners, bar- 
 bers, millers, masons, with other artists, .such are to 
 be rated for their returns and gaines in proportion to 
 other men, for the produce of their estates. Provided 
 that in the rate by the poll, such persons as are dis- 
 abled by sicknesse, lamenesse, or other infirmity, shall 
 be so long exempted. And for such servants and 
 children, as take not wages, their parents and masters 
 shall pay for them ; but such as take wages, shall pay 
 for themselves. And it is ordered, That all rates 
 assessed by this court, be duly paid in, to the juris- 
 diction treasurer, at such time, or times, in such pay, 
 and at such prises, as this court shall appoint, and 
 under such penalties for default, as shall from time 
 to time be ordered. And power is hereby given and 
 granted to each plantation within this jurisdiction, to 
 gather all rates from time to time, from the severall 
 inhabitants, as they grow due ; and for want, or delay 
 of payment in an orderly way, to distreyn within
 
 210 LAWS OF 
 
 their own limits, to prevent further inconveniences. 
 But that the jurisdiction suffer not by the neglect or 
 delay of any plantation, or plantations herein, it is 
 further ordered, That at any time hereafter, upon the 
 complaint of the jurisdiction treasurer, any magistrate 
 may send the marshall alone, or with others to dis- 
 treyn the cattel, corn, or any other goods belonging 
 to any of the inhabitants within such plantation, as 
 shall be defective in the payment of rates due, for 
 the whole sum behind and unpaid, with addition of 
 all penalties incurred, and due charges for the mar- 
 shall, and others imployed in seizing, and bringing 
 away such distresse, every inhabitant in such case, 
 having liberty to require, and recover his damage, 
 from the plantation, or officers, there intrusted for civil 
 affaires, according to justice. Provided that if any 
 person now, or hereafter, having taken up a lot, or 
 lots in any plantation, be removed, or shall withdraw 
 himself, and his moveable estate, or any considerable 
 part of it, still keeping such lot, or lots, in his own 
 possession, or power, without due improvement, by 
 which means the plantation wants his personall ser- 
 vice, besides other inconveniences, it is hereby ordered, 
 That in such case, every such person shall in all 
 respects, pay his rates by lands only, as was ordered, 
 and done before rating by heads, and estates, but in 
 due proportion to a whole rate, as then it was. And 
 if the plantation find no other means to recover the 
 said rates, they may distreyn houses, or lands, or both, 
 upon a true account, that what advantage they shall 
 make, by selling or letting the same, or any part 
 thereof, over and above what is due for the said rates, 
 with just damages, and necessary charges, shall be 
 returned to the owner, if he demand the same, within 
 three years.
 
 NE W HA YEN COL ONY. 211 
 
 Children's Education. 
 
 "Whereas too many parents and masters, either 
 through an over tender respect to their own occasions, 
 and businesse, or not duly considering the good of 
 their children, and apprentices, have too much neg- 
 lected duty in their education, while they are young, 
 and capable of learning, it is ordered, That the deputies 
 for the particular court, in each plantation within 
 this jurisdiction for the time being ; or where there 
 are no such deputies, the constable, or other officer, 
 or officers in publick trust, shall from time to time, 
 have a vigilant eye over their brethren, and neigh- 
 bours, within the limits of the said plantation, that all 
 parents and masters, doe duly endeavour, either by 
 their own ability and labour, or by improving such 
 schoolmaster, or other helps and means, as the planta- 
 tion doth afford, or the family may conveniently pro- 
 vide, that all their children, and apprentices as they 
 grow capable, may through God's blessing, attain at 
 least so much, as to be able duly to read the Scriptures, 
 and other good and profitable printed books in the 
 English tongue, being their native language, and in 
 some competent measure, to understand the main 
 grounds and principles of Christian Religion necessary 
 to salvation. And to give a due answer to such plain 
 and ordinary questions, as may by the said deputies, 
 officers, or others, be propounded concerning the same. 
 And where such deputies or officers, whether by 
 information or examination, shall find any parent or 
 master, one or more negligent, he or they shall first 
 give warning, and if thereupon due reformation follow, 
 if the said parents or masters shall thenceforth seriously 
 and constantly apply themselves to their duty in 
 manner before expressed, the former neglect may be
 
 212 LAWS Of 
 
 passed by ; but if not, then the said deputies, or other 
 officer or officers, shall three months after such 
 warning, present each such negligent person, or per- 
 sons, to the next plantation court, where every such 
 delinquent upon proof, shall be fined ten shillings to 
 the plantation, to be levied as other fines. And if in 
 any plantation, there be no such court kept for the 
 present, in such case, the constable or other officer, or 
 officers, warning such person or persons, before the 
 freemen, or so many of them as upon notice shall meet 
 together, and proving the neglect after warning, shall 
 have power to levy the fine as aforesaid: but if 
 in three months after that, there be no due care taken 
 and continued for the education of such children or 
 apprentices as aforesaid, the delinquent (without any 
 further private warning) shall be proceeded against 
 as before, but the fine doubled. And lastly, if, 
 after the said warning, and fines paid or levied, 
 the said deputies, officer, or officers, shall still find 
 a continuance of the former negligence, if it be 
 not obstinacy, so that such children or servants may 
 be in danger to grow barbarous, rude and stubborn, 
 through ignorance, they shall give due and seasonable 
 notice, that every such parent and master be sum- 
 moned to the next court of magistrates, who are to 
 proceed as they find cause, either to a greater fine, 
 taking security for due conformity to the scope and 
 intent of this law, or may take such children or 
 apprentices from such parents or masters, and place 
 them for years, boyes till they come to the age of one 
 and twenty, and girles till they come to the age of 
 eighteen years, with such others, who shall better 
 educate and govern them, both for publick conve- 
 niency, and for the particular good of the said children 
 or apprentices.
 
 NE W HA YEN COL ONY. 213 
 
 Conveyances fraudulent. 
 
 To prevent or avoyd the mischievous inconveniences 
 which may grow by fraudulent conveyances, and that 
 every man may the better know what estate or inter- 
 est other men may have in any houses, lands, or other 
 hereditaments which he purposeth to deale in, it is 
 ordered, that no morgage, bargaine, sale, grant, or 
 conveyance, made of any house or houses, lands, rents, 
 or other hereditaments, within this jurisdiction, where 
 the granter remains in possession, shall be hereafter 
 in force, against any other person or persons, then 
 the granter and his heirs, unlesse the same be acknowl- 
 edged before some court or magistrate within this 
 jurisdiction, and recorded as hereafter expressed. 
 And that no such grant, bargain, or sale already made 
 in way of morgage, &c. where the granter remains in 
 possession, shall be of force against any other but the 
 granter and his heirs, except the same shall be entred 
 (as here expressed) within one month after the first pub- 
 lishing of this order, if the party concerned be within 
 this jurisdiction, or else within three months after he 
 shall return. And if any such granter be required of 
 the grantee, his heirs or assigns, to make an acknowl- 
 edgement accordingly, of any grant, sale, bargain, or 
 morgage, by him made, and shall refuse so to doe, it 
 shall be in the power of any court or magistrate, to 
 send for the party so refusing, and upon evidence of 
 his injuriousnesse therein, to commit him to prison, 
 without baile or mainprize, untill he shall acknowl- 
 edge the same. And the grantee in such case is to 
 enter his caution with the secretary, or other officer 
 appointed to record such deeds, and this shall save 
 his interest in the mean time. But if it be doubtfull 
 whether it t>e the deed or grant of the party, he shall
 
 214 LAWS OF 
 
 be bound with sureties to the next court of mag- 
 istrates, and the caution shall remain good as aforesaid. 
 Lastly, it is ordered, that in each plantation, either the 
 secretary, or some other officer, be appointed duly to 
 enter and record, in a book kept for that purpose, all 
 and every such grants, sales, bargaines, morgages of 
 houses, lands, rents, and other hereditaments, as 
 aforesaid, with all and every such caution, together 
 with the name of the granter and grantee, thing, and 
 estate granted, with the date thereof ; the grantee pay- 
 ing six pence to the secretary or officer, for each such 
 entry or record. 
 
 Cooper, see Caske. 
 
 Courts for Strangers. 
 
 For the ease and conveniency of strangers, who some- 
 times cannot stay to attend the ordinary courts of jus- 
 tice, it is ordered, that the Governour, Deputy Govern- 
 our, or any magistrate within this jurisdiction, may call 
 a speciall court, and that in such cases, any three mag- 
 istrates, calling in such of the deputies for the plan- 
 tation court, as may be had, shall have power to hear 
 and determine all causes civil and criminal ( triable 
 in plantation courts, when two magistrates are called 
 in) which shall arise betwixt such strangers ; or when 
 any such stranger or strangers, shall be a party, whether 
 plaintiff or defendant, the secretary of the place (as in 
 other ordinary trialls) duly recording the proceedings, 
 all which shall be at the charge of the party, or parties, 
 as the court shall determine ; so that neither the juris- 
 diction nor plantation be charged by such courts. 
 
 Cursing, see Prophane Swearing. 
 Damages pretended, and Vexatious Suites. 
 It is ordered, &c. That if any person or persons in
 
 NE W II A VEN COL ONY. 215 
 
 any suit, shall falsely pretend great damages or debts, 
 to discredit, trouble, or vex his, her, or their adversary, 
 the court upon discovery and proof, shall have power 
 to set a reasonable fine upon the head of any such 
 offender ; and that in all cases, where it appears to the 
 court, that the plaintiff hath willingly and wittingly 
 done wrong to the defendant, in commencing and 
 prosecuting any action, suit, complaint, or indictment, 
 in his own name, or in the name of others, he shall 
 beside just damages to the party wronged, be fined 
 forty shillings, or any lesse sum to the jurisdiction or 
 plantation treasury, as the case may require. 
 
 Distresse. 
 
 It is ordered, &c. That no man s corn or hey that 
 is in the field, or upon the cart, nor his garden stuff, 
 nor any thing subject to present decay, shall be taken 
 in distresse, or by way of attachment, unlesse it be first 
 duly prized, by order of some magistrate, or other of- 
 ficer ; and that he that takes it, first put in due secur- 
 ity to satisfie the worth of it, if it come to any harm, 
 with other damages, according to the course of justice. 
 
 Disturbers of the Public "Peace. 
 
 It is ordered, &c. That whosoever shall disturb or un- 
 dermine the peace of this jurisdiction, or of any of the 
 plantations, churches, families, or persons within the 
 same, whether by conspiring, or plotting with others, 
 or by his own tumultuous and offensive carriage, tra- 
 ducing, reproaching, quarrelling, challenging, assault- 
 ing, battery, or in any other way, tending to publick 
 disturbance, in what place soever it be done, or shall 
 defame any court of justice, or any of the magistrates, 
 or other judges of any such court within this jurisdic- 
 tion, in respect of any act, or sentence therein passed ;
 
 216 LA WS OF 
 
 every such offender upon due proof made, either in the 
 generall court, court of magistrates, or particular court 
 ( if the try all, and issuing of the case exceed not their 
 limits), shall be punished by fine, imprisonment, 
 binding to the peace, or good behaviour, disfranchise- 
 ment or banishment, according to the quality and 
 measure of the offence, or disturbance.* 
 
 Divorce, or a Marriage declared a Nullity. 
 Desertion, &c. 
 
 It is ordered, &c. That if any marryed person 
 proved an adulterer, or an adulteresse, shall by flight, 
 or otherwise, so withdraw or keep out of the jurisdic- 
 tion, that the course of justice ( according to the rnind 
 and law of God here established ) cannot proceed to 
 due execution, upon complaint, proof, and prosecu- 
 tion, made by the party concerned, and interessed, a 
 separation or divorce, shall by sentence of the court 
 of magistrates be granted and published, and the in- 
 nocent party shall in such case have liberty to marry 
 again. Mat. 19. 9. 
 
 And if any man marrying a woman fit to bear 
 children, or needing and requiring conjugall duty, and 
 
 *The following clause was added by the General Court, Feb. 24, 
 1656-57 : 
 
 " And for that designes or practises tending to publique incon- 
 uenienc and mischeife, are vsually mannaged by letters or writings 
 in a cunning secret way, the conspirators or actors not thinking it 
 safe to meete often, it shall be in the power of the gouernor, or any 
 magistrate, or other officer where there is no magistrate, vpon just 
 or probable grounds, to search or cause to be searched any man's 
 house, study, closset, or any other place, for bookes, letters, wright- 
 ings, or anything else, to discouer and preuent such danger, and the 
 like in case of murder, theft, and other enormioss crimes, that wee 
 may Hue a quiet and peaceable life, in all godlines and honesty, 
 which is the vse and end of magistracy." (N, H, Col. Kec., ii. 198.)
 
 NEW HA YEN COLONY. 217 
 
 due benevolence from her husband, it be found (after 
 convenient forbearance and due tryall ) and satisf ying- 
 ly proved, that the husband, neither at the time of 
 marriage, nor since, hath been, is, nor by the use of 
 any lawfull means, is like to be able to perform or 
 afford the same, upon the wive's due prosecution, every 
 such marriage shall by the court of magistrates, be 
 declared voyd, and a nullity, the woman freed from 
 all conjugall relation to that man, and shall have lib- 
 erty in due season, if she see cause, to marry another; 
 but if in any such case, deceipt be charged and proved, 
 that the man before marriage knew himself unfit 
 for that relation, and duty, and yet proceeded, sin- 
 fully to abuse an ordinance of God, and in so high a 
 measure to wrong the woman, such satisfaction shall 
 be made to the in juried woman, out of the estate of 
 the offender, and such fine paid to the jurisdiction, as 
 the court of magistrates shall judge meet. But if 
 any husband after marriage, and marriage duty per- 
 formed, shall by any providence of God be disabled, 
 he falls not under this law, nor any penalty therein. 
 And it is further declared, that if any husband shall 
 without consent, or just cause shewn, willfully desert 
 his wife, or the wife her husband, actually and per- 
 emptorily refusing all matrimoniall society, and shall 
 obstinately persist therein, after due means have been 
 used to convince and reclaim, the husband or wife so 
 deserted, may justly seek and expect help and relief, 
 according to 1 Cor. 7. 15. And the court upon satis- 
 fying evidence thereof, may not hold the innocent 
 party under bondage. 
 
 Dowryes. 
 
 It is ordered, &c. That every marryed woman 
 (living with her husband in this jurisdiction, or other 
 10
 
 218 LAWS OF 
 
 where absent from him, with his consent, or through 
 his meer default, or inevitable providence, or in case 
 of divorce where she is the innocent party) that shall 
 not before marriage be estated by way of joynture 
 (according to agreement) in some housing, lands, tene- 
 ments, hereditaments, or other means for tearm of 
 her life, shall immediately after the death of her 
 husband, have right and interest by way of dower, in 
 and to one third part of all such houses, lands, tene- 
 ments and hereditaments, as her said husband was 
 seized of to his own use, either in possession, rever- 
 sion, or remainder, within this jurisdiction, at any 
 time during the marriage, to have and enjoy for 
 tearm of her naturall life, according to the estate of 
 such husband, free, and freely discharged of and from 
 all titles, debts, rents, charges, judgements, executions, 
 and other incumbrauces whatsoever, had, made, or 
 suffered by her said husband, during the said marriage 
 between them, or by any other person claiming by, 
 from, or under him, otherwise then by any act, or 
 consent of such wife, as this court shall ratifie and 
 allow. And if the heir of the husband, or other 
 person interessed, shall not within one month after 
 lawfull demand made, assign, and set out to such 
 widow, her just third part with conveniency, or to 
 her satisfaction, according to the intent of this law, 
 then upon due complaint, and prosecution either 
 before the court of magistrates, or plantation court, 
 as the case may require, her dower, or third part, 
 shall be assigned and set forth by such persons as the 
 court shall appoint, with due costs and damages, 
 provided that this law shall not extend to any houses, 
 lands, tenements, or other hereditaments, sold or con- 
 veyed away by any husband bona fide, for_valuablc
 
 NEW HAVEN COLONY. 219 
 
 consideration before this law was published. And it 
 is further ordered, That every such wife, as before 
 expressed, immediately after the death of her husband, 
 shall have interest in, and unto, one third part of all 
 such money, goods, and chattels, of what kind soever, 
 whereof her husband shall dye possessed, (so much as 
 shall be sufficient for the discharge of his funeral 1, 
 and just debts, being first deducted) to be allowed, 
 and, set out to her (as before appointed) for her 
 dower; provided alwayes, that every such widow 
 endowed as aforesaid, shall from time to time, main- 
 tain all such housea, fences, inclosures, with what else 
 shall be for her life assigned to her of such estate, 
 for her dowry, and shall in all respects leave the same 
 in good and sufficient repaire, neither committing nor 
 suffering any strip, or wast. 
 
 JEcdesiasticall Provisions. 
 
 Forasmuch as the word of God, as it is contained 
 in the Holy Scriptures, is a pure and precious light, 
 by God in his free and rich grace given to his people, 
 to guide and direct them in safe paths to everlasting 
 peace : And for that the preaching of the same, in a 
 way of due exposition and application, by such as 
 God doth furnish and send, is through the presence 
 and power of the Holy Ghost, the chief ordinary 
 means appointed of God for conversion, edification, 
 and salvation, It is ordered, That if any Christian (so 
 called) shall within this jurisdiction, behave himself 
 contemptuously toward the word preached, or any 
 minister thereof, called, and faithfully dispensing the 
 same in any congregation, either by interrupting 
 him in his preaching, or falsely charging him with 
 errour, to the disparagement and hindrance of the
 
 220 LAWS OF 
 
 work of Christ in his hands, every such person or 
 persons, shall be duly punished, either by the planta- 
 tion court or court of magistrates, according to the 
 quality and measure of the offence, that all others 
 may fear to break out into such wickednesse. 
 
 And it is further ordered, that wheresoever the 
 ministry of the word is established within this juris- 
 diction, according to the order of the gospel, every 
 person according to the rnind of God, shall duly resort 
 and attend thereunto, upon the Lord's days at least, 
 and also upon days of publick fasting, or thanksgiv- 
 ing, ordered to be generally kept and observed. And 
 if any person within this jurisdiction, shall without 
 just and necessary cause, absent or withdraw from 
 the same, he shall after due means of conviction 
 used, for every such sinfull miscarriage, forfeit five 
 shillings to the plantation, to be levied as other fines. 
 
 It is further ordered, that all the people of God 
 within this jurisdiction, who are not in a church way, 
 being orthodox in judgement, and not scandalous in 
 life, shall full have liberty to gather themselves into a 
 church estate, provided they doe it in a Christian way, 
 with due observation of the rules of Christ, revealed 
 in his word ; provided also that this court doth not, 
 nor hereafter will approve of any such company of 
 persons, as shall joyn in any pretended way of church 
 fellowship, unlesse they shall first in due season, 
 acquaint both the magistrates, and the elders of the 
 churches within this colony, where and when they 
 intend to joyn, and have their approbation therein. 
 Nor shall any person being a member of any church, 
 which shall be gathered without such notice given, 
 and approbation had; or who is not a member of 
 some church in New England, approved by the
 
 NE W HA YEN COL ONY. 221 
 
 magistrates, and churches of this colony, be admitted 
 to the freedonie of this jurisdiction. 
 
 And that the ordinances of Christ may be upheld, 
 and comfortable provision made and continued for a 
 due maintenance of the ministry according to the 
 rule, 1 Cor. 9. 6. to 12, Gal. 6. G, It is ordered, that 
 when, and so oft as there shall be cause, either through 
 the perversnesse, or negligence of men, the particular 
 court in each plantation, or where no court is held, 
 the deputies last chosen for the generall court with 
 the constable, or other officer for preserving peace, 
 &c. shall call all the inhabitants, whether planters, or 
 sojourners before them, and desire every one par- 
 ticularly to set down what proportion he is willing 
 and able to allow yearly, while God continues his 
 estate, towards the maintenance of the ministry there. 
 But if any one, or more, to the discouragement or 
 hindrance of this work, refuse or delay, or set down 
 an unmeet proportion, in any and every such case, the 
 particular court, or deputies and constable as afore- 
 said, shall rate and assesse every such person, accord- 
 ing to his visible estate there, with due moderation, 
 and in equall proportion with his neighbours. But 
 if after that, he deny, or delay, or tender unsuitable 
 payment, it shall be recovered as other just debts. 
 And it is further ordered, that if any man remove 
 from the plantation where he lived, and leave or 
 suffer his land there, or any part of it, to lye unim- 
 proved, neither selling it nor freely surrendring it to 
 the plantation, he shall pay one third part of what he 
 paid before, for his movable estate and lands also. 
 And in each plantation where ministers maintenance 
 is allowed in a free way without rating, he shall pay 
 one third part of what other men of the lowest rank,
 
 222 LAWS OF 
 
 enjoying such accommodations, doe pay : but if any 
 removing settle near the said plantation, and continue 
 still to improve his land, or such part of it as seems 
 good to himself, he shall pay two third parts of what 
 he paid before, when he lived in the plantation, both 
 for moveable estate, and land, or two third parts of 
 what others of like accommodation pay. 
 
 Escheates. 
 
 It is ordered, &c. That where no heire, or owner of 
 houses, lands, tenements, goods, or chattels, can be 
 found upon the decease of the late testator or pro- 
 prietor, a true inventory of every such estate, in all 
 the parts, and parcels of it, shall with the first con- 
 veniency be duly taken, and a just apprisement made 
 upon oath, by fit men thereunto appointed by the 
 magistrate, or such authority as at that time is in the 
 plantation, where the said estate is; and the whole 
 estate to be seized to the publick treasury, till the 
 true heires or owners shall make due claime thereto, 
 unto whom the same shall be restored, upon just and 
 reasonable tearms. 
 
 Falsifying, see Forgery. 
 Fences, see Cattell. 
 Fines, see Rates. 
 
 Fire. 
 
 It is ordered &c. That whosoever shall kindle any 
 fire in woods, or grounds, lying in common, or 
 inclosed, so as the same shall burn fences, buildings, 
 or cause any other damage, in any season or manner, 
 not allowed by the authority in that plantation, or on 
 the last day of the week, or on the Lord's day, such 
 person shall pay all damages, and half so much more,
 
 NEW UA YEN COLONY. 223 
 
 for a fine to the plantation, and if not able to, shall be 
 corporally punished, as the court shall judge meet. 
 But whosoever shall wittingly and willingly burn, or 
 destroy any farm, or other building, timber hewed, 
 sawn, or riven, heaps of wood, charcoal, corn, hey, 
 straw, hemp, flax, or other goods, he shall pay double 
 or treble damages, as the court shall judge meet ; or 
 if not able to make such restitution, he shall be either 
 sold for a servant till by his labour he may doe it, or 
 be severely punished, as the case may require. 
 
 Forgery, or Falsifying. 
 
 It is ordered, &c. That if any person shall forge or 
 falsifie any deed or conveyance, testament, bond, bill, 
 release, acquittance, letter of attorney, or any wri- 
 ting to pervert equity and justice, he shall stand on 
 the pillory three severall lecture dayes, or other dayes 
 of most publick resort, as the plantation court or 
 court of magistrates (according to the value of the 
 cause) shall appoint, and shall render double damages 
 to the party wronged ; and further, he shall be dis- 
 abled to give any evidence to any court, or magistrate 
 in this jurisdiction, till upon his repentance satisfyingly 
 manifested to the court of magistrates, he be by 
 sentence released from it. 
 
 Fornication. 
 
 It is ordered, &c. That if any man shall commit 
 fornication with any single woman, they shall be 
 punished, either by enjoyning marriage, or fine, or 
 corporall punishment, any, or all these, as the court 
 of magistrates, or plantation court duly considering 
 the case with the circumstances, shall judge most 
 agreeable to the word of God.
 
 224 LAWS OF 
 
 fraudulent Conveyances. See Conveyances. 
 
 Gaming. 
 
 To prevent much inconvenience which may grow 
 by gaming, It is ordered, That no person who either as 
 an inn-keeper, or seller of strong liquors, wine or 
 beer, entertaines strangers or others, to lodge, or eat, 
 or drink, shall permit or suffer any to use the game of 
 Slmffleboard, or any other gaining, within his house, or 
 limits, under the penalty of twenty shillings for every 
 time so offending. And whatever person or persons 
 shall so play or game, in any such house, or place, or 
 in any other gaming-house, where there is a common 
 resort to such play, or gaining, shall forfeit for every 
 such offence five shillings. And whosoever shall so 
 play, or game for money, or money-worth, shall 
 further forfeit double the value thereof, one-half, to 
 the informer, and the rest to the plantation, within the 
 
 limits whereof he so played or gamed. 
 
 . i 
 
 Heresie. 
 
 Although no Creature be Lord, or have power over 
 the faith and consciences of men, nor may constreyn 
 them to believe, or prof esse, against their consciences, 
 yet to restreyn, or provide against such as may bring 
 in dangerous errours or heresies,tending to corrupt and 
 destroy the soules of men, It is ordered, &c. That if 
 any Christian within this jurisdiction, shall goe about 
 to subvert or destroy the Christian faith, or Religion, 
 by broaching, publishing, or maintaining any danger- 
 ous errour, or heresie,'or shall endeavour to draw, or se- 
 duce others thereunto, every such person so offending, 
 and continuing obstinate therein, after due means of 
 conviction, shall be fined, banished, or otherwise severely 
 punished, as the court of magistrates duly considering
 
 NE W HA YEN COL ONY. 225 
 
 the offence, with the aggravating circumstances, and 
 danger like to ensue, shall judge meet. 
 
 Horses. 
 
 Whereas many questions, and sometimes trouble- 
 some suites grow betwixt men, about horses running 
 together in the woods unmarked, It is ordered, That 
 each plantation in this jurisdiction shall have a mark- 
 ing iron, or flesh-brand, for themselves in particular, 
 to distinguish the horses of one plantation from anoth- 
 er ; namely, New-haven, an iron made to set on the 
 impression of an H, as a brand-mark, Milford an M, 
 Guilford a G, Stamford an S, Southold an S with an O 
 in the middle of it, Brainf ord a T. Which plantation 
 brand-mark, is to be visibly and as sufficiently as may 
 be, set upon the near buttock of each horse, mare, and 
 colt, belonging to that plantation. Beside which, every 
 owner is to have, and mark his horse or horses, with his 
 own particular flesh-brand having some letter, or letters 
 of his name, or such distinguishing mark, that one man's 
 horses may be known from another's. And that in 
 each plantation there be an officer appointed, to re- 
 cord each particular man's mark, and to see each par- 
 ticular man's horse, mare, and colt, branded, and to 
 take notice, and record the age of each of them, as 
 near as he can, with the colour, and all observable 
 marks, whether naturall or artificiall ; and what artifi- 
 ciall marks it had before the branding, whether on the 
 ear, or elsewhere, with the year and day of the month 
 when branded. And in each plantation, the officer for 
 his care and pains, to have six pence of the owner, for 
 each horse, mare, or colt, so branded and recorded. 
 And that after the publishing hereof, every one who 
 hath any horse or horses, of what age or kind soever,
 
 226 LAWS OF 
 
 doe duly attend this order, at his perill ; the officer also 
 is to require as satisfying evidence of his right, who 
 presents any such horse, &c. as may be had, or to 
 record any defect of due evidence, that a way may be 
 open to other claimes. 
 
 Impost upon Wines, and strong Liquors. 
 
 For the better support of the government of this 
 jurisdiction, &c. That every person, merchant, sea- 
 man, or other, who shall bring any wine into any 
 li arbour, or place within this colony ( except it come 
 directly from England, or out of some other harbour 
 within this jurisdiction, where they have already paid 
 custome, and that certified by the officer who received 
 it, before he or they land or dispose any of it, more 
 or lesse) shall first make entry of so many buts, 
 pipes, or other vessels, as he, they, or any of them 
 shall put, take on shore, or any way dispose, by a note 
 in writing, delivered to the jurisdiction treasurer at his 
 house, or to some other officer, appointed by each 
 plantation, who is to be upon his oath for the said 
 service, under the penalty of forfeiture and confisca- 
 tion of all such wines as contrary to this order are or 
 shall be landed or sold before such entry made, where- 
 soever found, or some lesse penalty, as the court 
 shall judge meet, upon proof that the errour was com- 
 mitted through ignorance. And the first buyer, un- 
 der the same penalty, shall see the same be done, the 
 one half to the jurisdiction, and the other half to him 
 that informs, and prosecutes in the case. And the 
 merchantjOr owner of such wines of any kind, as soon as 
 he imports, lands, and sells them, or any of them, 
 shall deliver and pay to the said treasurer, or officer, 
 for every but or pipe of Fiall wines, or any other 
 wines of those Islands, five shillings ; for every pipe
 
 NE W IIA YEN COL ONY. 227 
 
 of Madaiy wines, six shillings and eight pence ; for 
 every but or pipe of Sherris Sack, Maligo,or Canary 
 wines, ten shillings ; for Bastards, Tents, and Alligants, 
 ten shillings : and proportionably for greater or les- 
 ser vessels of each kind. And for every hogshead of 
 French wines, two shillings and six pence, and pro- 
 portionably for greater or lesser vessels. And upon 
 proof that any the forementioned wines, have been 
 imported or landed, without such entry and payment, 
 if neither the seller nor wine can be found, then dou- 
 ble the value of the said customes, by this order due to 
 the jurisdiction, are to be recovered by way of action, 
 as other debts, of the first buyer of the said wines, if 
 it will not be paid otherwise. 
 
 And it is further ordered, that whosoever shall 
 bring any strong liquor, of what kind soever, into any 
 harbour or other part of this colony (unlesse directly 
 out of England, or out of some other part of this juris- 
 diction, where custome hath been paid, and certified, 
 as in the case of wines ) before he or they land or dis- 
 pose of any of it, more or lesse, shall first make a true 
 and full entry, of the quantity he shall so import, or 
 cause to be imported or landed, by a note in writing 
 delivered to the jurisdiction treasurer at his house, or 
 to some other officer, as in the case of wines, under 
 the like penalty of forfeiture, with mitigation if the 
 case require it, as there, the one half to the jurisdic- 
 tion, the other half to him that informs and prose- 
 cutes. And the owner, or importer of any such strong 
 liquor, as soon as he lands, imports, and sells it or any 
 part of it, shall deliver and pay to the said treasurer, 
 or officer, for every anchor containing ten gallons, 
 six shillings and eight pence, and so for greater or 
 lesser quantities, namely after the rate of eight pence
 
 228 LAWS OF 
 
 a gallon. And the first buyer shall under the same 
 penalty, see that such entry and payment be duly 
 made. And that whosoever within this colony, shall 
 at any time for sale or merchandize, distill any sort of 
 strong liquor, he or she shall within eight days after 
 the same is distilled, and so ready for use, or sale, 
 give in a like true note in writing, of the full quan- 
 tity so distilled, to the treasurer, or other officer, un- 
 der the like penalty, and shall within three months 
 after, duly pay, or cause to be paid to the said treas- 
 urer, or officer, after the rate of eight pence a gallon, 
 for the full quantity so distilled, and upon proof, that 
 any such strong liquorhath been distilled and sold with- 
 out such entry and payment, the value thereof shall be 
 forfeited to the jurisdiction, unlesse cause of mitiga- 
 tion appear, as in the wines. And that no person at 
 any time retaile any sort of strong liquor within this 
 jurisdiction, without expresse license from the authori- 
 ty of the plantation, within the limits whereof he so 
 sells, wherein the selling of lessethen three gallons at 
 a time, is to be accounted retaile, and that due modera- 
 tion be attended in prises, when it is so retailed. But 
 that none of any sort, be at any time sold, above three 
 shillings and six pence a wine quart. Lastly, it is or- 
 dered, that if any distilling such strong liquor, within 
 this colony, shall by way of trade or merchandize, after 
 he hath paid such custome, ship and send forth out of 
 this jurisdiction, any quantity of the same, he shall 
 for so much, have the said custome repayed, by the 
 treasurer, or officer, who received it. 
 
 Im/prisonmen t. 
 
 It is ordered, That no man's person shall be impris- 
 oned either for fine, or debt, to the jurisdiction or
 
 NE W HA YEN COL ONY. 229 
 
 plantation, or particular person, if any competent 
 means of satisfaction from his estate,' doe otherwise 
 appear ; but if no such estate be known, nor can pres- 
 ently be found, or if contempt or other proud and of- 
 fensive behavionir against the court, or any authority 
 here setled, be mingled with his cause, he may be 
 imprisoned, and kept in prison at his own charge, if 
 he be able, till satisfaction be made, or till the court 
 which committed him, or some superiour court, see 
 cause to release him. Provided neverthelesse, that 
 no man's person shall be kept in prison for debt, at 
 the will of the creditor, but when there appears some 
 estate which he will not produce, in which case, any 
 court, or commissioners authorized by the generall 
 court, may administer an oath to the party, or any 
 others, suspected to be employed, or privy to the con- 
 veying away, or concealing of such estate, or some of 
 it ; but if any such person or persons, in such case, 
 being so required, shall refuse to discover the truth by 
 oath, he shall be liable to such fine, as the court duly 
 weighing the case shall judge meet; but if no estate 
 can be found, to pay or satisfie such just debt, or 
 debts, every such debtor shall satisfie by service, if the 
 creditor, or creditors, require it, for such time, as the 
 court considering the debt, shall with due moderation 
 judge meet ; but shall not be sold to any out of the 
 United English Colonyes, if the debt grow by any or- 
 dinary way of borrowing, contract, or other engage- 
 ment, and not by sinfull and heynous miscarriages, 
 which disturb the publick peace, which the court to 
 whose cognizance such cases are proper, will duly 
 
 weigh and consider. 
 
 Incest. 
 
 It is ordered, &c. That if any persons shall commit
 
 230 LAWS OF 
 
 incest, which is, when being near of kin, within the 
 degrees by God forbidden, they wickedly defile them- 
 selves one with another, they shall be put to death. 
 Levit. 20. 11, 12, 14, 17, 19, 20, 21. 
 
 Indians. 
 
 It is ordered, &c. That no planter, inhabitant, or 
 sojourner within this jurisdiction, shall directly, or in- 
 directly for himself, or any other, purchase, or truck 
 any plantation, or land, upland, or meadow more or 
 less, of any Indian, Indians, or others from them, 
 either upon the Maine between Connecticut River, 
 and Hudson's River, or upon Long Island, nor shal re- 
 ceive any land by way of gift or upon any other tearms, 
 for his or their, or any either private or publick use, 
 or advantage, or as agent for others who may pretend 
 to begin a plantation without express license, either 
 from the court of magistrates for this jurisdiction, or 
 at least from some one of the plantation courts, where 
 there is a magistrate, and deputies. And in the lat- 
 ter case, the land to lye so as neither in point of title, 
 nor conveniency may concern any other plantation, 
 but onely the plantation so licensing, under the pen- 
 alty of losing and forfeiting all the right and title 
 purchased, or obtained in any such land, with such 
 further punishment for contempt as the court shall 
 judge meet. And if any person or persons within 
 this jurisdiction, by what way or means soever be al- 
 ready justly possest, or interessed of or in any land 
 within the limits before mentioned, he or they shal 
 neither directly nor indirectly by gift, sale, or upon 
 any other consideration or respect, alienate or return 
 the right he or they have in the same, or any part of 
 it, to the Indians, or any of them without license from
 
 NE W HA T EN COL ONY. 231 
 
 this court ; and if any plantation within this jurisdic- 
 tion shal hereafter purchase, or upon any tearms re- 
 ceive, or obtaine title or right to any land from the 
 Indians, or others from them, which may concerne, or 
 be convenient to another plantation within this juris- 
 diction also ; and so there grow any question or differ- 
 ence either in reference to the land, or this order ; it 
 shall be heard and determined by this Court, that 
 peace may be continued, and the conveniency of each 
 plantation provided for. 
 
 And the better to suppress or restrain the incon- 
 veniences or mischiefs which may grow by a general 
 and unlimited furnishing of the Indians with guns, 
 powder, shot, or any other weapons or instruments 
 proper or useful in or for war. It is ordered, That 
 whosoever of, or within this jurisdiction, or any part 
 thereof shal directly or indirectly, by himself or any 
 other, sel, barter, give, lend, lose, or by any means, 
 or device whatsoever, furnish any Indian or In- 
 dians, or any for them, with any guns smal or 
 great, by what name soever called, or with any powder 
 shot, lead, or shot mould, or with any stocks or locks for 
 guns, or swords, rapiers, daggers, or blades for any 
 such, or pikes, pike-heads, halberts, arrow-heads, or any 
 other provision or furniture for war of what kind so- 
 ever, whether fully finished or not ; or what smith, or 
 other person within or belonging to this jurisdiction 
 shal mend any gun, stock, or any thing belonging to 
 it, or procure it to be done, or any the f orementioned, 
 or other weapons or instruments proper, or used for 
 war, without express written license from this general 
 court, or some one or more deputed by them to give 
 such license with directions upon what terines, and in 
 what manner, such a trade with a due respect to all
 
 232 LAWS OF 
 
 the premises shall be managed, shal forfeit and pay to 
 the jurisdiction twenty times the value of what shal 
 be sold, bartered,or any way alienated, mended,or upon 
 any contrivement or device done contrary to the ten- 
 our and true meaning of this order, or any part of it, 
 whereof one 4th part goeth to the informer, and the 
 rest to the jurisdiction. 
 
 And to the same purpose and end, it is further or- 
 dered, that whosoever, shal either directly or indirect- 
 ly sel, bartar, or cause to be sold &c., any guns, powder, 
 shot, lead, or any of the forementioned instruments 
 or provisions for warr, to any person or persons inhab- 
 iting out of this jurisdiction, without license from two 
 magistrates of this jurisdiction under their hands, or 
 where there is but one magistrate under his hand, and 
 the hands of two deputies for the plantation court? 
 shal as a fine for his breach of order and contempt pay 
 five times the value of what shal be so sold, bartered, 
 &c. 
 
 And it is further ordered, that the magistrate or 
 magistrates who at any time give any such license 
 under their hands shal keep a true account in writing 
 of all the particulars, and quantities, he or they so 
 license, to whom and upon what grounds, that upon 
 any question this court may receive satisfaction there- 
 in ; and that every such license be limited, as to the 
 perticular things and quantities ; so to the time, that 
 if the same or any part thereof be not within the 
 limited time sould and delivered, the license for the 
 whole, or such part to be altogether void, and each 
 sale or delivery after, without a new license, to be 
 adjudged a breach of this order. 
 
 And the better to prevent controversies and dis- 
 turbance betwixt the English and Indians in this
 
 NE W HA YEN COL ONY. 233 
 
 jurisdiction ; it is ordered, that whosoever slial upon 
 any occasion, trust, or take pawn or pledge of any 
 Indian for the securing or payment of any thing sold 
 or lent, he slial neither after take any thing from him 
 or them by force, for, or toward satisfaction, nor dis- 
 pose of any pawn, or pledg so received, though the 
 time set for redeeming it be enquired, without either 
 consent of the Indian, or license from the court, or 
 from the authority setled in the Plantation where 
 lives. 
 
 Indians, see further, into the title of Inn-keepers, 
 Tipling, and Drunkenness. 
 
 Indictments. 
 
 If any person shall be indicted of, or legally 
 charged with any capitall crime (who is not then in 
 durance) and shal withdraw, or refuse to render his 
 person to some magistrate, or officer for this jurisdic- 
 tion, within one moneth, after three proclamations 
 publickly made in the town, or plantation where he 
 did formerly usually abide, there being a full moneth 
 betwixt proclamation and proclamation ; his lands 
 and goods shall be seized to the use of the jurisdic- 
 tion (and ordered with due respect to his family, as 
 the court of magistrates shal judge meet) till he 
 make his lawful appearance. And such withdrawing 
 of himself shall stand instead of one witnesse to 
 prove the crime charged, unlesse he can make it ap- 
 peare to the court that he was necessarily hindered. 
 
 Inkeepers, Tipling, Drunkenness. 
 It is ordered, &c. That no person, or persons, 
 shall at any time hereafter, under any pretence or 
 colour whatsoever, undertake or become a common
 
 234: LAWS OF 
 
 victualer, keeper of a cooke's shop, or house for com- 
 mon entertainment, tavern, or publick seller of wine, 
 ale, strong beere, or strong liquor by retaile within this 
 jurisdiction ; nor shall any either directly or indirectly, 
 sell any sort of wine privately in his house, cellar, 
 <fec. or out of doores, by a lesse quantity, or under 
 three gallons at a time, without approbation and 
 license of the plantation-court to which he belongeth : 
 or where there is no such court, without the license 
 of the constable, and major part of the free-men, 
 under the penalty of five pounds, to be paid to the 
 plantation for the first miscarriage complained of, 
 and proved ; and ten pounds for the second miscar- 
 riage so proved : And where payment cannot or wil 
 not be made, imprisonment during the court's pleas- 
 ure, for the first offence, and for the second offence, 
 such further punishment as the court shall order. 
 And that no person so licensed shal sell any beere, 
 or ale, above three pence an ale quart, under the 
 penalty of three shillings and four pence for such 
 miscarriage, proved the first time, and six shillings 
 and eight pence the second time. But it is allowed 
 and ordered, that any man that will may sell beere 
 or ale out of doores, at a peny a quart, or cheaper. 
 
 It is further ordered, That whosoever licensed as 
 before, selleth any sort of wine by retaile, that is, by 
 any lesse quantity then three gallons at a time, he 
 shall pay to the jurisdiction treasurer over and above 
 the custome before mentioned, after the rate of forty 
 shillings for every but, or pipe so re-taled ; and every 
 one, that so selleth by retale, shal give a true account 
 and notice to the said treasurer, or to some other 
 officer appointed for that purpose in each plantation, 
 of the true or f ul quantity, which he either buyeth or
 
 NE W JIA YEN COL ONY. 235 
 
 receiveth into his custody, and that within one week 
 after he is so possessed of it, upon paine of forfeiting 
 the same, or the value thereof ; and shal further every 
 six months, truly account with the jurisdiction's treas- 
 urer, or other officer as aforesaid, for what he hath 
 sold by re.-tale as aforesaid, and discharge the same, 
 having due allowance for what he hath sold by greater 
 parcels, then by this order is accounted re-tale ; and 
 in case of delay, or neglect of payment after demand, 
 the treasurer or officer shal recover it by action as 
 other debts, provided that if any person shal give in 
 a false account to defraud the jurisdiction, upon due 
 proof, he shal pay double the value of what he would 
 so have kept back. 
 
 And it is further ordered, That every person so li- 
 censed to draw and sel strong beer, ale, wine, or strong 
 liquour, do see, and take care that good order, and all 
 rules of sobriety be duly attended in his course, and 
 house, and about the same ; and that he neither see, 
 nor suffer any to be drunken, or to drink excessively, 
 or to continue tipling above the space of an hour, or 
 at unseasonable times ; or after nine of the clock at 
 night without weighty cause; nor that any children 
 or servants without the consent of parents, or gov- 
 ernors be permitted to sit, or stay there drinking or 
 unnecessarily to spend their time there, especially at 
 late or unseasonable hours, but that he duly complain 
 to authority, that all such disorders may be seasonably 
 suppressed, under the penalty of five shillings for the 
 first offence, with such increase of fine for a continued 
 slightness or neglect as the court shal determine. 
 
 Provided notwithstanding, that such licensed per- 
 sons may entertain strangers, land travellers, sea-faring 
 men, lodgers, or others for their necessary occasions,
 
 236 LAWS OF 
 
 refreshment, or during meales, when they come from 
 their journies or voyages, or when they prepare for 
 their journey or voyage in the night, or next day 
 early, or such may continue in such houses of com- 
 mon entertainment, as their business and lawful oc- 
 casions may require, so that there be no disorder 
 among them. 
 
 But every person found drunken, namely so that 
 he be thereby for the present bereaved, or disabled 
 in the use of his understanding, appearing in his 
 speech, jesture, or carriage in any of the said houses 
 or elsewhere, shal forfeit for the first time ten shil- 
 lings ; and for excess of drinking, or continuing in any 
 such place unnecessarily at unseasonable times, or 
 after nine of the clock at night five shillings, and for 
 continuing tipling there above the space of an hour 
 two shillings six pence for the first offence, and for the 
 second offence in each kind, and for all further dis- 
 order, quarrelling, or disturbance, whether a first or 
 second time, such further fine or punishment as the 
 court shall determine. 
 
 And for that God may be much dishonoured, and 
 many inconveniences may grow by the Indians dis- 
 orderly drinking of wine, strong water, and strong 
 beere, unto which they are much addicted ; it is 
 ordered, That no person whatsoever shall either di- 
 rectly or indirectly within this jurisdiction, sel any 
 wine, strong water, or strong beere to any Indian or 
 Indians, or procure any for them, either to drink 
 within this jurisdiction, or upon any pretence to carry 
 away without special license under the hand of some 
 magistrate of this jurisdiction, or in any plantation 
 where there is no magistrate, under the hand of one 
 of the deputies, or constable where he lives ; and that
 
 NEW HA YEN COL ONY. 23 7 
 
 no license so given shal serve, or be of force any lon- 
 ger then for that one particular time, and for the 
 limited quantity then granted, under the penalty of 
 five shillings for the first offence, and ten shillings 
 for the second ; but if any shal offend the third time 
 therein, it is left to the plantation court where the 
 offence is committed to consider the case, and to 
 inflict such punishment or increase of fine as shal be 
 meet ; and in any plantation, where at present there 
 is no court kept, the deputies last chosen for the 
 general court, or constable, shall require the forfeit- 
 ures, and for defect of payment make seizure of so 
 much out of the delinquent's estate ; but if any person 
 shal offend the third time, every such person shal by 
 the said deputies, or constable, be bound over to 
 answer it before the next court of magistrates. 
 
 Laws without penalty. 
 
 It is by this court declared and ordered, That in all 
 laws and orders formerly, now, or hereafter to be 
 made, where no fine, or penalty is expressed and 
 limited, all transgressors have been, are, and shall be 
 lyable to such penalties, or punishments as the court 
 of magistrates, or any plantation court, to which the 
 cognizance appertains, weighing the nature of the 
 offence, with the circumstances, shall judge meet, 
 liberty of appeales, or complaints, as in other cases, 
 being duly preserved. 
 
 Leather p , and Shoo-makers. 
 
 Upon consideration of the damage or injury which 
 many sustaine by the ill coming of leather, and by 
 the shooe-makers ill making it up into shooes, and boots, 
 it is by this court ordered, That in every plantation
 
 238 LAWS OF 
 
 within this jurisdiction where either tanner, or shooe- 
 maker is imployed in their trades, one or two sealers 
 shall be chosen, and appointed, as the occasions reqvire, 
 who shal he under oath, faithfully (according to their 
 best ability) to discharge their trust ; and shal scale 
 no leather, but such as they judg sufficiently tanned, 
 and fit to be wrought out, and sold in shooes, and 
 boots. And that every such plantation shal have two 
 scales, to distinguish betwixt good leather wel and 
 sufficiently tanned, and such, as though tanned enough, 
 is in some other respect defective, either by over- 
 liming, or for want of being wel wrought upon the 
 beame, or by frost, or hath received some dammage in 
 drying ; so that though it may serve for inward or 
 middle soals, yet not for other uses without dammage 
 to the bu} T er ; all which leather so defective, shall be 
 sealed with a different scale, that it may known to be 
 faulty. But that which is not sufficiently tanned, 
 shal neither be sealed, nor used in boots, or shooes, 
 til it be duly tanned. The chosing arid appointing 
 of which sealer or sealers, the print or mark, which 
 each plantation shal set upon their seals for good, or 
 faulty leather, with the rate to be allowed for sealing, 
 being left to the several plantations, but no tanner 
 within this jurisdiction shal upon any pretense, sel, 
 deliver, cause, or suffer to be delivered, or pass out 
 of his hands, or custody, any hide, or hides, til being 
 fully dry, they be first sealed by the officer or officers 
 thereunto appointed, under the penalty of forfeiting 
 the said leather, or the value of it to the plantation 
 where the offence is committed. 
 
 And it is further ordered, That if any shooe-maker 
 shal use, or put any unsealed leather, either in bootes, 
 or shooes, or put any of the forementioned faulty
 
 NE W HA YEN COLONY. 239 
 
 leather (though sealed as such) in any outward soals, 
 or upper leather, or in any other place, which may 
 be hurtful to the buyer, or wearer ; or shall use any 
 other way of deceit in making up his ware, he shall 
 make due and full recompence to the person or per- 
 sons wronged, and complaining ; and shal suffer such 
 farther punishment as his offence considered with 
 the circumstances shal require; and whosoever shal 
 bring hides from any other place, and shal sel or use 
 any of them for bootes or shooes within this jurisdic- 
 tion, before they be sealed by some officer here, 
 according to the import of this order, or shal use 
 them in. bootes, or shooes, contrary to the intent 
 thereof ; the hides so sold or used, or the value of 
 them shal be forfeited to the plantation where the 
 offence is committed, or such recompence, or line shal 
 be made or paid, (if it grow only of ignorance) as the 
 case may require ; provided that if both buyer and 
 seller be faulty, they shal pay the forfeit betwixt 
 them ; but due tenderness and respect is to be had of 
 an innocent stranger who brings, sels, or uses good 
 leather, though for want of means to know the law, 
 it were unsealed. 
 
 Levies, see Marshall. 
 
 Lying. * 
 
 It is ordered, That if any person above the age of 
 fourteen years shal wittingly, and willingly make, 
 and publish any lye, tending to the damage, or injury 
 of any particular person, or with intent to deceive 
 and abuse the people, with false newes, or reports, or 
 which may be any way pernicious to the publick 
 
 * Taken, in substance, from the Massachusetts law of 1645, and 
 Connecticut law of 1G50. See, before, pages 102, 103.
 
 240 LAWS OF 
 
 weale ; and the same complained of, and duly proved 
 either before any court or magistrate, or where there 
 is no magistrate, before the constable, or other officer, 
 he calling one or two of the freemen to him, (who 
 are hereby inabled to hear and determine ordinary 
 offences of this nature, according to the tenour of this 
 law) the offender shal pay to the plantation where he 
 is prosecuted for his lying, as it is a sin against God, 
 for the first offence ten shillings; and if after such 
 conviction, he offend the second time, he shal pay for 
 that second offence twenty shillings ; which fines, or 
 penalties shal be severally levied as in other cases. 
 But if any such person be not able, or utterly refuse 
 to pay the said fines, or either of them, he shall in 
 Buch case be committed to the stocks ; and for the first 
 offence shal continue there betwixt one and two hours ; 
 for the second offence betwixt three and four hours. 
 But if he offend the third time, he shal be publickly 
 whipt for the same ; each person being notwithstand- 
 ing left his liberty, to proceed further by action of 
 of slaunder, defamation, or otherwise, aa the case may 
 require. But the said court, magistrate, or other 
 officer, as before, finding weighty aggravations in the 
 case, either in the sin against God, or disturbance, and 
 damage to the publick, are to proceed accordingly ; 
 or if need require may bind the offender over to the 
 court of magistrates. 
 
 Magistrates, or oilier Judges in relation. 
 To prevent occasions and jealousies of partial and 
 undue proceedings in courts of justice: It is ordered, 
 That no magistrate, or deputy shal sit as a Judge, or 
 among the Judges when any cause of his own is tryed ; 
 and that in every case of civil nature between party,
 
 NE W HA YEN COL ONY. 241 
 
 and party, where there shal fal out so near relation 
 between any judg, and any of the parties, as betwixt 
 father, and son, either by nature, or marriage, brother 
 and brother, uncle and nephew, landlord and ten- 
 nant in matters of considerable valew, wherein 
 any of them being one of the judges is concerned ; 
 such judge though lie may be present at the tryal, and 
 may propound and hold forth light in the case, yet he 
 elial neither sit as judg, nor shal have power to vote 
 or pass sentence therein ; and in case the court with- 
 out such magistrate or deputy may not proceed, either 
 two magistrates may be called in, or the matter refer- 
 red to the court of magistrates if it be not otherwise 
 to just satisfaction issued. 
 
 Manslaughter. 
 
 It is ordered, That if any person in the just and 
 necessary defence of his own life, or the life of another, 
 shal kil any person attempting to robb, or murther in 
 the field, high-way, or other place, or to break into any 
 dwelling house, if he cannot otherwise prevent the 
 mischiefe, or with safety of his own person take the 
 i'ellon, or assailant, and bring him to tryal, he shal be 
 holden blameless.'* 
 
 Marriage. 
 
 For the preventing of much inconvenience which, 
 may grow by clandestine and unlawful marriages : It 
 is ordered, That no persons shal be either contracted, 
 or joyned in marriage before the intention of the 
 parties proceeding therein, hath been three times pub- 
 lished, at some time of ptiblick lecture, or town 
 meeting in the town, or towns where the parties, or 
 
 * From Massachusetts law of 1647, and Conn. Code of 1650. 
 See, before, p. 105. 
 11
 
 242 LAWS OF 
 
 either of them dwel, or do ordinarily reside ; or be set 
 up in writing upon some post of their meeting house 
 door, in publick view, there to stand so as it may be 
 easily read by the space of fovrteen daies ; and that 
 no man unless he be a magistrate in this jurisdiction, 
 or expressly allowed by the general court shall marry 
 any persons, and that in a publick place, if they be able 
 to go forth under the penalty of five pounds fine for 
 every such miscarriage. 
 
 And the court considering that much sin hath been 
 committed against God, and much inconvenience hath 
 growen to some members of this jurisdiction by the 
 irregular and disorderly carriage of young persons of 
 both sexes, upon purpose or pretence of marriage, did 
 and do order, that whosoever within this jurisdiction 
 shal attempt, or indeavor to inveagle, or draw the 
 affections of any maide, or m aide-servant, whether 
 daughter, kinswoman, or in other relation, for himself, 
 or for any other person, without the consent of father, 
 master, guardian, governor, or such other, who hath 
 the present interest, or charge, or ( in the absence of 
 such) of the nearest magistrate, whether it be by 
 speech, writing, message, company-keeping, unneces- 
 sary familiarity, disorderly night meetings, sinful 
 dalliance, gifts, or any other way,directly or indirectly, 
 every such person (beside all damages which the 
 parent, governor or person intrusted or interessed, 
 may sustain by such unlawful proceedings ) shall pay 
 to the plantation forty shillings for the first offence ; 
 and for the second offence towards the same party 
 four pounds ; and for the third offence he shal be 
 further fined, imprisoned, or corporally punished, as 
 the plantation court, or court of magistrates consider- 
 ing all circumstances shal determine.
 
 NE W II A YEN COL ONY. 243 
 
 And whereas some persons men or women do live, 
 or may come to settle within this colony, whose wives, 
 or husbands are in England or elsewhere, by means 
 whereof they are exposed to great temptations, and 
 some of them live under suspition of uncleanesse, if 
 they do not fal into lewd and sinful courses : It is 
 therefore ordered, That all such persons living within 
 this jurisdiction, shal by the first opportunity, repair 
 to their said relations, (unless such cause be shewen to 
 the satisfaction of the plantation court, that further 
 respite and liberty be given) under the penalty of pay- 
 ing twenty pounds fine, for contempt, or neglect 
 herein. Provided that this order do not extend to 
 such as are, or shal come over to make way for their 
 families, or are in a transient way for traffick, mer- 
 chandise, or other just occasions for some smal time. 
 
 Marshall. 
 
 That justice may be the better executed, the juris- 
 dictions occasions carried on, and that the marshal 
 and other officers may know how to demean them- 
 selves in their places; It is ordered, that in case of 
 rates and fines to be leavied, and in case of debts, and 
 executions in civil actions ; the officer shall first de- 
 mand the summ due of the party, or at his house, or 
 place of usual abode, but upon refusal or non-pay- 
 ment, he shal have power ( calling in such assistance 
 as the case may require) to break up the door of any 
 house, chest, or place where he shal conceive, or have 
 notice, that any goods liable to such leavy or execu- 
 tion shal be ; and if he be to take the person, he may 
 do the like, if upon demand he shal refuse to render 
 himself ; and whatever charges the officer in any such 
 case shal be put unto, he ehal have power to leavy
 
 244 LAWS OF 
 
 the same, as he doth the debt, assesment, or fine ; 
 and in case the officer be put to leavy any such goods, 
 as cannot without considerable charge, be conveyed 
 to the place where the treasurer, or party dwelleth, 
 who should receive the same, he shal levy the said 
 charge also, with the rest ; provided it shall not be 
 lawful for any such officer, to leavy any man's neces- 
 sary bedding, apparel, tooles, armes, or such imple- 
 ments of houshold stuff, as serve for his necessity, 
 without express direction from the court, upon whose 
 sentence, the execution or seizure was grounded, or 
 at least, of some magistrate of the jurisdiction, but in 
 such cases he shal leavy his land or person. And in 
 no case shal the officer be put to seek out any man's 
 estate, furthur than his place of abode; but if the 
 party wil not discover his goods, or lands to a sufficient 
 value, the officer may take his person. 
 
 And to prevent the inconveniences which may 
 grow by the slightness of some men's spirits, who are 
 apt to neglect and violate wholsome orders and laws, 
 made in the jurisdiction, or plantations, It is ordered, 
 That whosoever shal be fined by any court for any 
 disorder, or breach of law, every such person shal 
 forthwith pay the fine, or penalty, or put in security 
 speedily to do it, or else shal be imprisoned, or kept 
 to work, if the court upon due consideration of per- 
 sons, and circumstances judge it not meet to make 
 other seizure. 
 
 Masters, and Servants, &c. 
 
 It is ordered, &c. That no servant male, or female, 
 or other person under government, shall without li- 
 cense from his, her, or their masters or governors, 
 either give, sel, or truck any commodity whatsoever, 
 during the time of their service, or subjection, under
 
 NE W HA YEN COL ONY. 245 
 
 the paine of such fine, or corporal punisnment, as the 
 court upon a due consideration of the offence shal judg 
 meet; and that whosoever shal receive from, or trade 
 with any child, son, or daughter, under age, and under 
 government, or with any servant, or servants, in a 
 suspitious disorderly manner, or shal harbor or enter- 
 taine any such in the night, or at other unseasonable 
 times, or shal suffer them disorderly to meet at any 
 place within their power, or to play at shovel-board, 
 or other game, or games, to drink, spend mony, or 
 provisions, or shal use or suffer any offensive, sinful 
 carriage, conference, counsel, or songs, which in their 
 nature tend to corrupt,, all such persons shal be liable 
 to such fines, or other punishment, as the court shal 
 
 judge meet. 
 
 Maymtng, Wounding, &c. 
 
 If any shal in distempered passion, or otherwise, 
 sinfully hurt, wound, or maime another, such person 
 shal be punisht by fine, with some valuable recom- 
 pence to the party ; and shal pay for the cure, with 
 losse of time, &c. And when the case requires it, the 
 court of magistrates are duly to consider the mind of 
 God, as it is revealed, Exod. 21. 18, to the 28. Levit. 
 24. 19,20. 
 
 Military Affairs. 
 
 For as much as the well managing of the militia, is 
 under God, in all places, of great import, and concern- 
 ment, for publick peace, and safety : It is orderd, That 
 (beside a general stock of guns, powder, shot, match, 
 &c. provided and kept in store by each plantation in 
 this jurisdiction, according to former agreements of 
 the Commissioners for the United Colonies, and orders 
 of this court, which they are hereby required to keep 
 continually f ul, and in a constant readiness for service,
 
 246 LAWS OF 
 
 upon all occasions, and by their deputies to make a 
 true certificate thereof yerely to the general court) 
 every male within this jurisdiction from sixteen, to 
 sixty years of age, (not freed by publick allowance) 
 shal be, and from time to time continue wel furnished 
 with arms, and all other suitable provision ; namely a 
 good serviceable gun, such as shal be ordered by the 
 court, and allowed by the military officers, to be kept 
 in a constant fitness in all respects for service, with 
 a fit, and sufficient rest, a good sword, bandaleers, or 
 home, a worme, a scourer, a priming wire, shot bagg, 
 charger, and whatsoever else is necessary for such 
 service, with a pound of good powder, four pounds of 
 pistol bullets, or four and twenty bullets fitted for the 
 gun, four f addom of serviceable match, for a match- 
 lock gun, five or six good flints fitted for every firelock 
 gunn, under the penalty of ten shillings for any 
 defect ; and the military officers are hereby required 
 to give or send in an account yearly in May, from 
 each plantation, to the general court, or court of 
 magistrates, how the inhabitants are furnished and 
 provided. 
 
 That in each plantation within this jurisdiction, 
 according to the number of soldiers, in their trained 
 band, and as they are furnished with able men for 
 such a service, and trust, military officers as need re- 
 quireth, shal from time to time be chosen. And all the 
 freemen in each plantation shal have their vote, in 
 the nomination, and choice of them ; provided that 
 none but freemen be chosen. And that every captain, 
 and chief e officer, chosen in any of the plantations, for 
 the military affairs, shal from time to time be propoun- 
 ded to the next general court, after he is chosen, for 
 approbation and confirmation. And if the said court,
 
 NE W HA YEN COL ONY. 247 
 
 have any just exception, against any so propounded, the 
 freemen shall proceed to a new choice, that the jurisdic- 
 tion may be furnished with such officers, as in whom 
 they may satisfyingly confide. 
 
 That in each plantation, the captain or chief military 
 officer shal once in each quarter of a year, at least, but 
 of tener if there be cause, order, or take a strict view, 
 how every male, from sixteen to sixty years of age is 
 furnished with arms, and provisions, according to the 
 former directions, and where any are found faulty, the 
 clark or some other officer shal duly present their 
 names, with each defect to the next plantation court, 
 or* to such officer (where there is no court) who hath 
 a trust in civil affairs, that the fines and penalties may 
 from time to time be duly leavied. And if this view 
 of arms, &c. shall at any time be neglected, or the 
 defects not duly presented ; the captain or chief mili- 
 tary officer, or the other officer ordered to take this 
 view, or the clark, or officer appointed to present, &c. 
 shall pay forty shillings each quarter when this service, 
 or any part of it, is omitted as the fault upon examin- 
 ation shal joyntly or severally be justly charged. 
 
 There shal be in each plantation within this juris- 
 diction, every year at least six training daies, or daies 
 of pnblick military exercise to teach and instruct all 
 the males, above sixteen years of age, (who are not 
 freed from that service) in the comly handling, and 
 ready use, of their arms in all postures of war, to 
 understand and attend all words of command ; and 
 further, to fit all such as are in some measure instructed 
 for all military service, against there be occasion un- 
 der the penalty of forty shillings, to be leavied of the 
 military officers, as the court upon examination shal 
 find them more or lesse faulty, and with respect to
 
 248 LAWS OF 
 
 their places, the greater trust paying the greater fine 
 for neglect ; which dayes of training shal be some of 
 them in the spring of the year, before harvest, and 
 some in the latter end of the summer, before winter, 
 as may best suit each plantation, but at no time any 
 two of these traynings shal be within fourteen 
 dayes one of another. And it is further ordered, That 
 on every such training day, the captain or chief mili- 
 tary officer present, cause the names of all the soldiers 
 to be read, at least in the forenoone, but in the after- 
 noon also if he see cause. And whosoever in any 
 training day shal be totally absent, shal pay five shil- 
 lings for every such default, whosoever shal at any 
 time of the day withdraw himself from the service, 
 without leave from the chief military officer present, 
 he shall pay either as for total absence, or a greater or 
 lesse fine, as the offence considered in all circumstan- 
 ces may require ; And whosoever shal come late, shal 
 pay for each such default one shilling ; and for any 
 other disorderly offensive carriage, according to the 
 nature and measure of it. This court expecting from 
 each plantation, that they suffer not men to neglect, or 
 grow slight in a service of such import. 
 
 That a fourth part of the trained band in every plan- 
 tation shal in their course, as the military officer shal 
 order, come constantly to the publick worships of 
 God every Lord's day, and (such as can come) on 
 lecture dayes, to be at the meeting-house, at latest, 
 before the second drum hath left beating, with their 
 arms compleat, their guns ready charged, their match 
 for their match-locks, and flints ready fitted to their 
 fire-lock guns, with shott and powder for at least five 
 shot, beside the charge in their guns, under the pen- 
 alty of two shillings fine, for every person negligent,
 
 NE W HA YEN COL ONY. 249 
 
 or defective in furniture, and for late coming one shil- 
 ling. The sentinal also, and they that walk the round 
 shal have their matches lighted, during the time of 
 their meeting, if they use their matchlocks, and shal. 
 diligently and faithfully attend their duty under such 
 further penalty as the breach of such a trust may re- 
 quire. 
 
 That a strict watch be constantly kept in the night, 
 in all the plantations within this jurisdiction, accord- 
 ing to all such orders, as shal from time to time be 
 made, either by the general court, or by plantation 
 courts, or officers intrusted for civil affairs, where 
 there is no court ; and that both for number of watch- 
 men, in each plantation, the time of setting or begin- 
 ning the watch every night, their rising, and leaving 
 it in the morning, and all other carriage, and duties in 
 managing this trust, they duly attend and observe all 
 directions given. And it is left to the care and consid- 
 eration of the governor, magistrates, officers, or any of 
 them, as the case may require, to double, or further to 
 increase the watch by night, in times of danger, and 
 to appoint some competent number of men to ward or 
 walk by day, with their armes, in, or about the plan- 
 tation, as may best tend to the publick safety ; And if 
 any watchman, or war'der do at any time neglect his 
 duty, either in coming too late to the service, or de- 
 parting too soon from it, not coming completely fur- 
 nished with arms, according to order, or any other 
 way neglecting duty, or falsfying his trust, he shal pay 
 such fine, or receive such punishment as his neglect or 
 unfaithfulnesse deserves, that both himselfe may be 
 warned, and others may feare to be slight, or false in 
 a matter of such concernment. 
 
 But upon consideration of publick service, and other 
 11*
 
 250 LAWS OF 
 
 due respects, It is ordered, That all Magistrates within 
 this jurisdiction, and teaching Elders, shal at all times 
 hereafter, be freed, not onely in their persons, but 
 each of them, shall have one son or servant by vertue 
 of his place or office, freed from all watching, warding, 
 and training. And it is further ordered, That all 
 ruling elders, deputies for courts intrusted for judica- 
 ture, all the chief military officers, as captains, lieften- 
 ants, and ensignes, the jurisdiction treasurer, deacons, 
 and all physitians, schoolmasters, and surgeons allowed 
 by authority in any of these plantations, all masters 
 of ships and other vessels, above fifteen tun, all pub- 
 lick millers, constantly imployed, with others for the 
 present discharged for personal weakness and infirm- 
 ity, shal in their own persons, in time of peace and 
 safety, be freed from the said services ; And that all 
 other seamen and ship carpenters, and such as hold 
 farms, above two miles from any of the plantations, 
 train onely twice a yeare, at such times as shal be 
 ordered, either by the authority, or by the military 
 officers of the plantation. But all persons freed and 
 exempted from the respective services, as before, shall 
 yet in all respects, provide, keep, and maintain in a 
 constant readinesse, compleat arms, and all other mil- 
 itary provisions as other men, magistrates and teaching 
 elders excepted, who yet shal be constantly furnished 
 for all such sons and servants as are hereby freed 
 from the forementioned services. 
 
 Ministers maintenance, see Ecclesiastical provisions. 
 Oppression. 
 
 To prevent, or suppress much sin against God, and 
 much damage to men, which doth, and may grow by 
 such as take liberty to oppress, and wrong others, by
 
 NE W HA YEN COL ONT. 251 
 
 taking excessive wages for work, or unreasonable 
 prises for commodities : it is ordered, That if any shal 
 offend in either of the said cases, upon complaint and 
 proof, every such person shal be punished by fine, or 
 imprisonment, according to the quality and measure 
 of the offence, as the court shal judge meet. 
 
 x Plantations. 
 
 Whereas the freemen of every town, or plantation, 
 within this jurisdiction, have in sundry particulars 
 liberty to make orders among themselves, as about 
 fencing their land, ordering or keeping their cattel,or 
 swine, &c. as may best suite with their own con- 
 veniency ; It is by this court ordered, That if any 
 greater cattel, of what sort soever, or swine, belonging 
 to one plantation, be found either unmarked, or proved 
 to have done trespass, or both, within the limits of 
 another plantation ; The damage being duly rated, 
 the owners of such cattel, or swine, shal from time to 
 time, pay all fines and damages, according to the just 
 agreements, and orders, made by the plantation, where 
 the trespass is done; provided that the orders* be 
 such, and no other, then what they make, and execute 
 upon themselves, in like cases. 
 
 Pound, Pound breach. 
 
 For prevention, or due recompence of damages in 
 corne-fields, or other places done by cattel, or swine ; 
 It is ordered, That there shal be one sufficient pound, 
 or more, made, and maintained in every plantation 
 within this jurisdiction, for the impounding of such 
 cattel, or ewine, as shal be found in any corne-field, 
 other inclosure, or place .prohibited, til it may appear, 
 where the fault, and damage ought to be charged.
 
 252 LAWS OF 
 
 And whoso impounds any cattel, or swine, shal give 
 present notice to the owner, if he be known, other- 
 wise they shal be cryed at the two next lectures, or 
 most publick meetings, but if yet the owner be not 
 found, then fine, and damages to be recovered, as in 
 the order about cattel, &c. And if any of them 
 escape out of the pound ; the owners if known, shal 
 pay all just damages and charges. 
 
 But if any person, or persons, shal resist, or rescue 
 any cattel or swine going, or driven toward the pound, 
 or shal by any way, or meanes, get, or convey any 
 such out of the pound, without due order from lawful 
 authority, setled by this court, he or they, shall pay 
 for such rescue, or disorder, forty shillings, and in 
 case of pound breach five pounds, beside just dam- 
 ages to the party wronged. And if in the rescue, any 
 bodily harme be done to any person, he, or they, may 
 have remedy from the rescuer, or rescuers ; and if 
 any such miscarriage be committed by any not able, 
 or refusing to answer the forfeiture and damage, 
 every such person shal sustain such bodily punish- 
 ment, as the court shal judge meet, and shal answer 
 all damage to the party by service, if estate cannot 
 be found, as in the case of other just debts ; arid if it 
 appear there were any procurer, or abettor of any the 
 former offences, every such person shal be liable to 
 forfeiture, dammage, or punishment, as if himselfe 
 had done it. 
 
 Prophanation of the Lord?s Day. 
 Whosoever shall prophane the Lord's day, or any 
 part of it, either by sinful servile work, or by un- 
 lawful sport, recreation, or otherwise, whether wil- 
 fully, or in a careless neglect, shal be duly punished
 
 NE W II A YEN COLONY. 
 
 by fine, imprisonment, or corporally, according to the 
 nature, and measure of the sinn, and offence. But if 
 the court upon examination, by clear, and satisfying 
 evidence find that the sin was proudly, presump- 
 tuously, and with a high hand committed against the 
 known command and authority of the blessed God, 
 such a person therein despising and reproaching the 
 Lord, shal be put to death, that all others may feare 
 and shun such provoking rebellious courses ; Numb. 
 15. from 30 to 36 verse. 
 
 Prophane swearing, or cursing. 
 
 If any person within this jurisdiction, shal swear 
 rashly and vainly, either by the holy name of God, 
 or any other oath, or shal from distempered passion, 
 or otherwise curse another, he shal forfeit to the 
 plantation where he so offends, for the first offence, 
 10^. And if after such conviction, he offend the 
 second time, he shal pay for that second offence 20s. 
 and it shal be in the power of any magistrate alone, 
 or where there is no magistrate, of any constable, or 
 deputy of a particular court, calling in to him one 
 or two of the freemen, to warne, or cal such a person 
 before him, and upon sufficient proof, to pass sentence, 
 and leavy the said penalties, according to the usual 
 order of justice in this jurisdiction. But if any such 
 person be not able, or utterly refuse to pay the fore- 
 mentioned fines, or any of them, he shal in such case, 
 be committed to the stocks, and for the first offence, 
 shal continue there, betwixt one and two hours; for 
 the second offence, betwixt three and four hours. But 
 if the said person, notwithstanding such former pro- 
 ceedings, shal offend the third time, by such swear- 
 ing, or cursing, he shal be whipped, for his incorrigible
 
 254: LAWS OF 
 
 prophaneness. But if swearing and cursing go botli 
 together, or be accompanied with other sinful aggra- 
 vations, such miscarriages shal be punished with a 
 higher fine, or corporally with due severity, as the 
 court shal judge meet. 
 
 Rates, Fines etc. 
 
 Whereas much inconvenience may arise by the 
 neglect of officers in collecting, and seasonably paying 
 in, all such rates, fines, and debts, as from time to 
 time, grow due to the jurisdiction treasury; It is 
 ordered, That in each plantation, where the officer, or 
 collector, doth not at the time appointed for the pay- 
 ment of all such rates, and fines, or at furthest within 
 one moneth after (though his office within, or after 
 that month, be expired,) and that by distress, 
 whereunto he is hereby inabled, when a milder course 
 wil not serve, gather, and receive them, in some such 
 pay, as this court hath appointed, and presently, 
 without delay, pay them in, as each plantation hath, 
 or shal order ; that the jurisdiction treasurer may be 
 duly furnished for the publick occasions ; that then 
 the particuler court, or constable, in each plantation, 
 cause the said rates, and fines to be leavied by dis- 
 tress, out of the proper estate of such remiss collector, 
 or officer, to prevent further inconvenience, and dis- 
 . turbance to the plantation. But if any such officer, 
 or collector, be removed out of the jurisdiction, or if 
 any of the planters be dead, removed, or grown insol- 
 vent, or if by any other meanes, the ful payment of 
 the rates, and fines be hindred, the present authority 
 in any such plantation by a due assessment, are to 
 leavy, and gather the same, of the present planters, 
 and without delay, to pay it in to the jurisdiction
 
 NE W HA YEN COL ONY. 255 
 
 treasurer ; otherwise the cattel,or other goods, of any 
 planter, or planters, are to be seized by the marshal, 
 or other officer, with, or without assistants, as in the 
 law for publick charges is exprest. 
 
 Records. 
 
 It is ordered, That all parents, masters, house- 
 keepers, and others who have either children, servants, 
 sqjourners, or lodgers in the house, or dwelling with 
 them shal bring in to the secretary of the plantation, 
 where he lives, or to such other officer in each planta- 
 tion as shal be thereunto appointed, the names of such 
 persons belonging, or in any way referring to them, or 
 any of them, as shal either be born, or dye, with the 
 respective time of each such birth, or death. And 
 also that every new married man (if married within 
 this jurisdiction) shal bring in the certificate thereof, 
 under the hand of the magistrate or officer that 
 married him, with the time when, to be recorded first 
 by the officer of the plantation, where he was married ; 
 but if married in another jurisdiction, though at 
 present or after he come to be an inhabitant in this, 
 then to record the marriage where he livcth ; and to 
 pay for every record, whether birth, death, or mar- 
 riage, three pence, whereof two pence for each such 
 record, shal be to the officer in each plantation, who 
 shal both record in the plantation book, and yearly 
 deliver or send a transcript of every birth, death, or 
 marriage, with a peny for each, to the secretary for 
 the general court : and what person soever (to whom 
 it doth belong) shal neglect to bring in a note, or 
 certificate, as aforesaid, together with three pence for 
 each record, to the said plantation-officer, more then 
 one month, after each birth, death, or marriage, he
 
 256 LAWS OF 
 
 shal pay for each six pence to the said officer ; if he 
 neglect two months, he shal pay twelve pence ; if 
 three moneths, five shillings ; which forfeits shal go, 
 two third parts to the plantation-officer, the rest to 
 the jurisdiction-officer. And if the plantation-officer 
 shal either neglect to record, or to deliver over the 
 transcripts, as before ; or if the secretary for the gen- 
 eral-court, shal neglect to record them, each officer for 
 every such neglect shal pay to the jurisdiction-treasurer 
 ten shillings. 
 
 It is further ordered and declared, That every man 
 shal have liberty to record in the publick register of 
 any court, any testimony given upon oath, in the 
 same court, or before two magistrates, or any deed or 
 evidence, legally confirmed, there to remain in per- 
 petuam rei memoriam / and that every inhabitant in 
 this jurisdiction, shal have free liberty to search, and 
 view any such publick records or registers, and to 
 have a copie thereof, written, examined, and signed 
 by the secretary, or officer of the said court, paying 
 the due charge or fees therfore. Also every trial 
 betwixt party and party, and proceedings against 
 delinquents in criminal causes, shal be briefly and 
 distinctly recorded, the better to prevent after mistakes, 
 and other inconveniences. 
 
 Replevin. 
 
 It is ordered and declared, That every man shal 
 have liberty to replevy his cattel, or goods, impounded, 
 distreined, or seized, unless it be upon execution after 
 judgment, or for payment of rates, or fines ; provided 
 he put in good security to prosecute the replevin, and 
 to satisfie such damage and charge, as his adversary 
 shal recover against him in law.
 
 NE W HA YEN COL ONY. 257 
 
 Sabbath, see prophanation of the Lord's day. 
 Seamen, &c. 
 
 It is ordered, That if any seaman, marriner, mas- 
 ter of ship or vessel, or other person, shal receive into 
 any ship, pinnace, bote, cannooe, or other vessel by 
 what name soever called, and shal carry away, or 
 suffer to take, or have passage, out of any harbor, or 
 plantation, within this jurisdiction, any child, servant, 
 or other person, whether male, or female, whom he 
 knoweth to stand in relation, or under the charge and 
 government of another, and so not at his or her own 
 present dispose, or any debtor, delinquent, or offender, 
 whom he knoweth, or hath heard to be under, or 
 liable, to any ingagement, censure, or punishment, to 
 or from any particular person, or the authority of 
 this jurisdiction, or any plantation therein, without 
 express, and written license, from some magistrate, 
 dwelling in that plantation, or from the constable, or 
 deputies intrusted for civil affairs, where there is no 
 magistrate, or at least from the master, or governor 
 of the family, who hath the trust or power, where 
 there is no other ingagement or guilt : He shal be 
 liable (if known and apprehended in any part of this 
 jurisdiction) to satisfie, and pay all such debts and 
 ingagements as any such person oweth, or ought to 
 satisfie, and to pay such damage or fine to the person 
 or persons wronged, or to the plantation, or jurisdic- 
 tion, as the court considering the case, with the 
 circumstances, shal judge meet. 
 
 Sentences of Judgement. 
 
 It is ordered, That all sentences of Judgement, upon 
 criminal causes, shal be executed upon the offenders, 
 in the presence of the magistrates, or one of them at
 
 258 LAWS OF 
 
 least ; Deut. 25. 2, [or] of some other officer in the 
 absence of the magistrate. 
 
 /Servants, see Masters. 
 Shoemakers, see Leather. 
 
 Single Persons. 
 
 To prevent, or suppress inconvenience, and disorder 
 in the course and carriage of sundry single persons, 
 who live not in service, nor in any family relation, 
 answering the mind of God in the fift commandement: 
 It is ordered, That no single person of either sex, do 
 henceforward board, diet, sojourn, or be permitted so 
 to do, or to have lodging ; or house room within any 
 of the plantations of this jurisdiction, but either in 
 some allowed relation, or in some approved family 
 licensed thereunto, by the court, or by a magistrate, 
 or some officer, or officers in that plantation, appointed 
 thereunto, where there is no magistrate ; the gov- 
 ernor of which family, so licensed, shal as he may 
 conveniently, duly observe the course, carriage, and 
 behaviour, of every such single person, whether he, or 
 she walk diligently in a constant lawful imployment, 
 attending both family duties, and the publick worship 
 of God, and keeping good order day and night, or 
 otherwise. And shal then complaine of any such 
 disorder, that every such single person may be ques- 
 tioned, and punished, if the case require it. And if 
 any single person shal dyet, or lodge, or if any house- 
 keeper shal admit, or entertaine any such, contrary to 
 the true meaning of this order; or if any licensed to 
 receive such, shal neglect to complain of any disorder 
 observed, all, and every such persons, shal pay such 
 fine, as the court, or authority appointed for the place, 
 ehal judge meet.
 
 NEW HA YEN COLONY. 259 
 
 Sojoumers, see Strangers. 
 Strayes. 
 
 It is ordered, That whosoever slial take up, or de- 
 tain any stray beast, or swine, or find any lost goods, 
 he shal within six daies, give notice thereof to the 
 marshal, cryer, or other officer appointed for such 
 service, by the plantation to which he belongs, who 
 shal enter, or cause the same to be entred in a book ; 
 and take order, that it be duly cryed, on their three 
 next lecture dayes, or upon three several dayes of the 
 town's most general meeting which the time wil afford ; 
 and if the value exceed twenty shillings, he shal cause 
 the like publication to be made, at the publick meet- 
 ings, of the two next towns, that the owner may the 
 better hear of, and recover what belongeth to him. 
 And further, in the case of a stray beast, he shal 
 within one moneth after such finding, put, and in- 
 deavour from time to time, to keep a with, or wreath 
 about the neck of it; and within three months at 
 furthest, ( if the owner in that time appear not ) he 
 shal acquaint the next magistrate with the stray taken 
 up, or goods found, and his due proceedings about 
 them, that the same may be apprised by such indiffer- 
 ent men as the said magistrate shal nominate, and 
 appoint. And shal within six dayes after that, cause 
 the apprisement to be duly recorded, by the secretary 
 of the plantation-court, or constable, or other officer 
 there intrusted for publick affairs, with the colour, 
 age, natural or artificial markes, or such other descrip- 
 tion, as best suits the stray, or goods, so taken up, or 
 found. And if the owner of any such stray appeare 
 within one yeare after such publication, he shal have 
 restitution in kind, if with safety, and conveniency it 
 might be so long kept, paying all just damages, and
 
 LAWS OF 
 
 charges, to the finder, and officers, nay if he appear 
 within three years, after the stray was first taken up, 
 (paying as before) he shal have the f ul value ( accord- 
 ing to the forementioned apprisement ) restored. 
 But if the owner shal be, and continue so negligent 
 that neither in the first, second, nor third year, he 
 improve the means prescribed, to assert, and clear his 
 title ; the said stray, or lost goods, (to prevent conten- 
 tion, and inconvenience which may after grow ) shal 
 be in reference to the first owner by sentence of the 
 plantation-court lost, and forfeited ; and the f ul value, 
 all damages, and charges to finder, officers, or others, 
 being first deducted (wherein if there be any question, 
 the court, or some indifferently chosen if there be no 
 court in that plantation, shal consider and determine) 
 shal be equally divided, one half to the plantation, and 
 the other half to the finder. But if the said finder shal 
 omit, or neglect his duty, or any part of it, according 
 to the former directions, he shal pay such damage to 
 the owner, and such fine to the plantation, as the 
 owner, and such fine to the plantation, as the court 
 upon consideration of the miscarriage shal judge meet ; 
 if he proceed further, to sel, kil, or any way for his 
 own advantage dispose, or alienate the property of 
 any such stray, without attending the said directions, 
 he shal upon proofe, pay double the value, either to 
 the owner, if he may be found, or to the plantation to 
 which the finder belongs ; provided also that if the 
 owner or other person, shal injuriously, without order 
 from authority, or consent of the finder, take off such 
 with or wreath, or take away such stray (after such 
 with or wreath, to his knowledg hath been put on ) 
 before he have cleared his interest, and given satis- 
 faction for damages, or charges expended, he shal
 
 NE W HA YEN COL ONY. 261 
 
 forfeit the ftil value of the stray, apprised as before, 
 to the use of the finder. 
 
 /Strangers, see Courts. 
 Strangers complaining. 
 
 If any stranger, or person of another nation, com- 
 plain of injury received from any within this juris- 
 diction ; It is ordered, that due search and inquiry be 
 made concerning the same, that justice may have a 
 free passage ; and that the stranger (if wronged) may 
 receive due satisfaction, either out of the estate of the 
 offender, or by his corporal punishment, as the case 
 may require, and according to Matt: 7. 12. 
 
 Strangers, Sojourners, and Servants. 
 To prevent sundry inconveniences which may grow 
 to this jurisdiction, and the plantations thereof, by 
 the inconsiderate, and disorderly receiving and enter- 
 taining of strangers, or others, to be planters, or so- 
 journers in any part of this colony ; it is ordered, 
 That henceforward, no person receive, or entertain 
 any man, or woman, of what age or quality soever, 
 coming or resorting either from forraign parts, or from 
 other jurisdictions, or plantations, into any plantation, 
 or farme house, or habitation within the bounds, or 
 limits of any plantation within this jurisdiction, to 
 settle as a planter, or sojorner, nor sel, give, nor any 
 way alienate, or pass over, lease, or let any house, or 
 hous-lot, or any part or parcel of any of them, or any 
 land, of what kind or quality soever, nor shal 
 permit any such to stay, or abide above one 
 moneth, without a license from, and under the hand 
 of some magistrate dwelling in that plantation, or 
 without the consent, and express order of the major
 
 262 LAWS OF 
 
 part of the freemen of such plantation where there is 
 no magistrate, or without the consent, and order of 
 the greater part of the inhabitants, where there is 
 neither church nor freemen, under the penalty of ten 
 pounds to be paid as a fine to the plantation, where 
 this order is violated. Yet if any such violation or 
 offence be made, or committed, only by error, or 
 mistake, and with smal or no inconvenience to the 
 plantation, or jurisdiction ; the fine, or penalty, may 
 be moderated, as the plantation-court, or court of 
 magistrates, shal see cause. Provided that this order 
 is neither intended, nor reacheth to travelers, nor 
 such as resort hither in a way of merchandise, or 
 trade, nor to the entertainment of friends, who in a 
 way of love come only to visit, and walk inoffensively, 
 nor to servants received, and entertained upon fam- 
 ily respects. In all which cases, as every perticuler 
 person considers his own conveniency in receiving 
 and entertaining, so the court of magistrates, or 
 plantation court wil consider how far they may justly 
 free the jurisdiction, or plantatation, from inconve- 
 nience, and charge. But it is by this court ordered, 
 That if any servant fal sick, or any way diseased, or 
 distempered, during the time of service by covenant 
 or agreement; the governor of such servant, while 
 that tearm lasteth, shal provide what is necessary, 
 without putting any burden, or charge upon the plan- 
 tation, or jurisdiction: And if such hurt came, or 
 were brought upon such servant by the cruelty, or 
 miscarriage of the family governor ; such governor 
 shal allow recompence or maintenance, after the time 
 of relation is expired, as the plantation court shal 
 judge meet. But if the hurt came by any providence 
 of God, without the default of the family governor ; 
 the plantation shal dispose, or provide for such servant,
 
 NE W II A YEN COL ONT. 263 
 
 after his or her time of service is expired, as the case 
 may require. 
 
 And to prevent difference or questions which may 
 arise, and grow within this jurisdiction : it is agreed, 
 and ordered, that if any person, male, or f emal, elder, 
 or younger, whether with, or without license, shal 
 hereafter sojourne, or have constant dwelling, or 
 abode, within the limits of any plantation in this 
 jurisdiction, for and during the tearm, or time of one 
 whole year, every such person shal to all purposes (in 
 reference to any plantation within this jurisdiction, 
 but no further) be accounted an inhabitant there, and 
 shal not be sent back, or returned (unless to some 
 particular person standing, and continuing in relation 
 to receive, and provide as the case may require) nor 
 shal the jurisdiction, or any other plantation in it be 
 liable to any charge, or burden, in reference to any such 
 person, though he, or she, hath dwelt elsewhere in the 
 jurisdiction before. 
 
 Stripes. 
 
 Stripes, or whipping, is a correction fit and proper 
 in some cases, where the offence is accompanied with 
 childish, or brutish folly, with rude tilthiness, or with 
 stubborn insolency, with bestly cruelty, or with idle 
 vagrancy, or for faults of like nature. But when 
 stripes are due : it is ordered, That not above forty 
 etripse shal be inflicted at one time ; Deut 25. 3. 
 
 Suits Vexatious, see damages pretended. 
 
 Swearing, see prophane swaering. 
 
 Swine, see Cattel, and see Plantations. 
 
 Thefts, see Burgalry. 
 
 Trespass. 
 It is ordered, and declared, That in any trespass,
 
 264 LAWS OF 
 
 or damage done to any man or men, if it appeare, or 
 can be proved to be done, by the meer default of him, 
 or them, upon whom the losse, or damage fals ; it shal 
 be judged no trespass, nor any recompence allowed 
 for it. 
 
 Watch, see Military affairs. 
 Weights and Measures. 
 
 Whereas a considerable part of righteousnesse, 
 between buyer, and seller, doth consist, in known, 
 certain, and just weights, and measures, It is ordered, 
 That every plantation, within this jurisdiction, there 
 be several standards, procured, and sealed, that they 
 may be uniform, and certain ; viz. for weights, a 
 set of brass weights, to 4 pounds, with the less 
 weights included, according to the averdepois pound, 
 consisting of sixteen ounces, with a good beam, and 
 scales, fit to try them. And so for corn measures, 
 the bushell, halfe bushell, peck, halfe peck, to be fitted 
 to Winchester measure in England, and alike in all 
 plantations. And measures for liquid things, as the 
 ale quart, wine quart, wine pint, &c : and that there 
 be one ell, and one yard. That all, and each may be 
 according to the use in London, as is generally prac- 
 tised in these United Colonies. And that in goods 
 sold by the ell, or yard, a thums breadth be allowed 
 to the length of each ell, and yard. In goods sold by 
 the hundred weight, that five-score and twelve be 
 allowed. And in all sorts of nails sold by the hun- 
 dred, six-score be allowed to the hundred, according 
 to the course in England. 
 
 And that in each plantation within this jurisdiction, 
 some fit man, or men, be chosen and appointed, under 
 oath to view, and try all the forementioned weights
 
 NEW HA YEN COLONY. 265 
 
 and measures used in buying and selling, at least 
 once a year ; but oftener if there be cause, and to fit 
 them to the forementioned standards, and then to 
 mark them, with some such known, and approved 
 mark, and to have such allowance for the same, as 
 each plantation shal order, which viewer, or officers, 
 so sworn, shal in each plantation yearly (beside 
 extraordinary viewers) appoint a convenient time, 
 and place, to prove, and try, all such weights, and 
 measures, and shal give publick, or due notice of it, 
 and such weights or measures, as cannot be brought 
 or conformed to the standard, shal be ordered or 
 destroyed, that they be no more used in buying or 
 selling. 
 
 Lastly, if any viewer, or officer, so chosen, and 
 sworn, do neglect his duty and trust, in any part of 
 the premises, he shal pay as a fine to the plantation, 
 f ourty shillings. If any person within this jurisdiction 
 after such notice given, shal neglect to bring in his 
 weights, and measures, at the time, and to the place 
 appointed, he shal pay three shillings four pence for 
 every such default, one halfe to the viewer, or officer, 
 and the other half to the plantation. But if any person 
 within this jurisdiction, shal at any time buy, or sel, 
 by any false or unallowed weight, or measure, to the 
 damage of his neighbour, he shal pay (besides restitu- 
 tion) such fine to the plantation,as the court considering 
 the nature, and measure of the offence, shal judge meet. 
 
 Wills Inventories, and the estates of such 
 
 as dye intestate. 
 
 It is ordered, That when any man dyeth possessed 
 of an estate within this jurisdiction, whether it be 
 greater, or lesse, the secretary of each plantation, or 
 12
 
 266 ' LAWS OF 
 
 some officer thereunto appointed, sbal enquire and 
 call for the last wil and testament of every such person, 
 together with a true inventory of all the goods and 
 estate of the deceased, within this jurisdiction, which 
 with the first conveniency shal be justly prized, and 
 the estate disposed, or preserved, as the case shal 
 require. But the will (if any be made and found) 
 and the inventory, shal be duly and respectively 
 proved by oath, the wil by witnesses, the inventory 
 for the quantity of the goods, by executors, adminis- 
 trators, or such as have had the estate in custody. 
 And for the valuation by the apprisers, who shal be 
 approved and appointed thereunto, by the plantation 
 court, or by some magistrate or authority there setled, 
 and shal be recorded by the secretary or some other 
 officer in all the particulars, and so kept among the 
 plantation records, and after presented to the next 
 court of magistrates, or at the furthest to the next 
 court but one, after the party deceased, under such 
 penalty as the court shal judge meet, and delivered to 
 the secretary for the jurisdiction, who shal keep all 
 original wils and inventories upon the file, and enter 
 onely a brief abstract of them, among the jurisdiction 
 records ; namely, the date of the wil, the names of 
 the witnesses, when proved, when the inventory was 
 taken, the persons by whom the estate was prised, 
 with the Bumme it amounts to, and writing upon the 
 wil and inventory, in what folio the premises are 
 entered in the book of record. And that six shillings 
 be paid for every such wil and inventory. But in 
 plantations where there is no court, the jurisdiction 
 secretary shal at each generall court, call to the depu- 
 ties for such wils, and inventories, which are to be 
 brought in, and entered at large, in a book of records
 
 NE W HA YEN COL ONY. 26 7 
 
 kept by the court of magistrates for that purpose, and 
 the originals kept on the file, as before expressed. 
 And in such cases the jurisdiction secretary to receive 
 the fees due both to himselfe and the plantation 
 secretary, and when either the wils, or inventories, 
 or both, are large, and require much writing, the 
 court of magistrates, or plantation court, may enlarge 
 the secretaries fees. But if through the unskilf ulnesse, 
 or inadvertency of any person, any wil, or wils, made 
 or left, want due form, or cannot be legally proved, 
 in such case, the court following as neer as they 
 rationally may, the scope, and aim of the testator, the 
 executor, or administrator, before any of them inter- 
 meddle, or have any power of such an estate, shal (if 
 the court see cause) put in sufficient security, which 
 shall stand in force three years from the date, to 
 deliver back the value of the whole estate, or such 
 part of it, as the court shal finde just cause otherwise 
 to dispose of. 
 
 But if no Wil be found, then the court of magis- 
 trates, or plantation court, shal consider, who hath the 
 next right of administration and when any such doth 
 administer, he, she, or they, shal give such bond, or 
 security, as the court considering the value of the 
 estate, with such questions as are like to arise, shal 
 judge meet, to bring in a true inventory, within a 
 convenient time limited, and to dispose of the whole 
 estate, as the court according to the laws here setled, 
 shall see cause to order. And concerning such as dyo 
 here intestate, It is ordered, That the true estate, all 
 just debts being paid, and all necessary expences dis- 
 charged ; such as about the funeral of the deceased, 
 prising the goods, bringing in the inventory, imme- 
 diate and reasonable charges of housekeeping, til
 
 268 LAWS OF 
 
 things (without unnecessary delay) may be setled, shal 
 be divided and aloted as foloweth ; Namely, one 3d 
 part at least, to the widow of the deceased, if he leave 
 a widow. And if there be children left, not or not duly 
 provided for, two third parts at most to them, with due 
 respect to the eldest son, who is to have a double child's 
 portion, of the whole estate, real, and personal, unlesse 
 the general court, upon just cause, and grounds, shal 
 judge otherwise, either for dividing the estate, or for 
 the portion of the first born. But in case the intestate 
 leave his wife (who hath well deserved of him while 
 he lived) and but one child, one third part of the es- 
 tate, shal as before, go to the widow, and one third part 
 to the child ; but the other third part shal be divided by 
 the plantation court, as they see cause, betwixt the 
 widow and the child, reserving liberty for an appeal, 
 either to the court of magistrates, or to the general 
 court, as in other cases. 
 
 Wine, &ee Impost. 
 
 Witnesses. 
 
 That justice may have the more free passages, It is 
 ordered, That any one magistrate, or other officer 
 authorised by the general court, may upon oath, take 
 the testimony of any person of fourteen yeares of age, 
 or above, being of sound understanding, and of good 
 reputation, in any case, civil, or criminal, out of court ; 
 and testifie the same, if it be desired, by his subscrip- 
 tion, for evidence in another jurisdiction. But if it 
 be for this jurisdiction, the magistrate, or officer is to 
 keep the same in his own hands, or custody, til the 
 court ; or deliver it to the secretary, or other officer to 
 be recorded, that nothing be altered in it. And yet 
 where any such witnesse lives in the plantation where
 
 NE W HA VEN COL ONY. 2G9 
 
 the court is held, or at farthest within sixteen miles 
 of it, and is not disabled by sicknesse, or other infirm- 
 ity ; the said testimony so taken out of court (espe- 
 cially in capital causes) shal not be received, or made 
 use of in court, except it were either at first, taken in 
 the presence of the party testified against, or that the 
 witnesse be after present in court, to be (if there be 
 cause) further examined about it. And it is further 
 ordered, That any person (by warrant from a magis- 
 trate, or other officer thereunto authorised) summoned 
 to appeare as a witnesse, in any civil case betwixt 
 party and party, shal not be compellable to travel to 
 any court in another plantation, where he is to give 
 his testimony, except he who procured the summons, 
 shal first lay down, or give him satisfaction for his 
 travel, and expences outward and homeward, after the 
 rate of two shillings a day, in proportion to the length 
 of the way, and for such time, as he shal necessarily 
 spend in attendance about such case, at the court or 
 place, due recompence shal be awarded "by the court. 
 And if any wituesse so summoned, and after such pay- 
 ment, or satisfaction, shal fail to appeare, to give his 
 testimony, he shal (upon an action of the case) be liable 
 to pay the parties dammages. And the like appear- 
 ance (under such penalties as the nature and weight of 
 the case may require) shal all witnesses (being so 
 summoned) be bound to make, to give evidence in 
 criminal causes, who shal also have due satisfaction 
 from the treasurer, upon notice, and direction from 
 the secretary of the court, where the cause was tried. 
 And it is further ordered, that in all such causes, the 
 charges of the witnesses shal be born by the delin- 
 quent, and shal be added to the fine or censure im- 
 posed. That what the treasurer upon such warrant
 
 270 LAWS OF 
 
 from the court, shal disburse to the witnesses, may be 
 duly repaid by the offender, that neither the jurisdic- 
 tion nor plantation be unnecessarily burdened. 
 
 Wolves. 
 
 Upon experience of great hurt already done by 
 wolves in these parts, and upon consideration how 
 mischievous the increase of them may prove : It is 
 (for the incouragement of all such as wil set themselves 
 to kil, and destroy them) ordered ; That whosoever 
 shal kil an old wolf within this jurisdiction, and bring 
 his head, shal have for the same 20s. and for each 
 young wolf so kild, and brought 10s. And that the 
 Indians have for each old wolfe's head so kild, five 
 shillings ; and for each young one 2s. & 6d. which 
 several summs are to be paid by the plantation, within 
 the limits wherof, any such wolfe is kild ; The 
 bounds whereof, are the lines betwixt each plantation ; 
 and to this purpose, so to be accounted 12 miles up 
 into the country.
 
 NE W UA YEN COL ONY. 271 
 
 SOME PBESEDENTS AND FOKMES OF THINGS FREQUENTLY 
 USED. 
 
 Summons. 
 
 To (A. B.) husbandman of (B.) you are to appeare 
 at the next Court, holden at (N.) on the day of 
 
 the month next ensuing, to answer the com- 
 
 plaint of (C. D.) for with holding a debt of 
 due upon a bond or bill, &c. or for a horse &c. sould 
 you by him, or for work, or for a trespass done him, 
 in his corne, or hay, by your cattel, or for a defama- 
 tion, or slander, you have raised, or brought upon his 
 name, or for striking him, or the like. And hereof 
 you may not fail at your peril. Dated the day 
 
 of the month, 1655. 
 
 An Attachment. 
 
 To the Marshal or Constable of (1ST.) or to his deputy; 
 you are required to attach (when the case requires it) 
 the body, and goods, of (E. F.) and to take bond of 
 him, to the value of with sufficient 
 
 surety, or sureties, for his appearance, at the next Court 
 holden at (N.) on the day of the month, 
 
 then and there to answer the complaint of (G. H.) for 
 &c. as before. And so make a true returne thereof 
 under your hancl. Dated the day, &c. 
 
 Bond for Appearance. 
 
 Know all by these presents, That we (E. F.) of (M.) 
 husbandman ; and (I. K.) of the same plantation 
 carpenter, do bind ourselves, our heirs, and execu- 
 tors to (L. M.) marshal or (N. O.) constable of (N.) 
 aforesaid, in pounds, upon condition, that the 
 
 said (E. F.) shal personally appears at the next court
 
 272 LAWS OF 
 
 at (K.) to answer (G. H.) in an action of And 
 
 to abide the order of the court therein ; And not to 
 depart without license. 
 
 Replevin. 
 
 To the Marshal or Constable of ; you are re- 
 
 quired to replevi two heifers of (P. R.) now distreyned, 
 or impounded by (S. T.) and to deliver them to the 
 said (P. R.) provided he give bond to the value of 
 with sufficient surety, or sureties, to pros- 
 ecute his replevin, at the next court holden at (S.) 
 and so from court to court, til the cause be ended ; 
 and to pay such costs, and damages as the said (S. T.) 
 shal by law recover against him ; and so make a true 
 return thereof, under your hand. Dated, &c. 
 
 Oath of fidelity. 
 
 You (S. T.) being by the providence of God, an 
 inhabitant within Newhaven jurisdiction, do freely, 
 and sincerely acknowledge yourself to be subject to 
 the government thereof ; and do here sweare by the 
 great and dreadful name of the everlasting God, that 
 you wil be true, and faithful to the same ; and wilyeild 
 due assistance thereunto, with your person, and estate, 
 as in equity you are bound ; and wil truly indeavour to 
 to entertain and preserve all the liberties and privi- 
 ledges thereof, submitting yourself to all the just and 
 wholsome laws, and orders, which already are, or 
 hereafter shal be by lawful authority there made, and 
 established. And further that you will neither plot, 
 nor practise any evil against it, nor consent to any that 
 shal so do. But wil fully, and timely discover the 
 same to lawful authority there setled, for the speedy 
 preventing thereof. And that you wil as in duty you
 
 NE W HA YEN COL ONY. 373 
 
 are bound, maintaine the honour of the same, 
 and of all the lawful magistrates thereof, pro- 
 moting the publick good whilst you shal continue 
 an inhabitant there; and whensoever you shall be 
 duly called as a free burgess, according to the funda- 
 mental order, and agreement for government in this 
 jurisdiction, to give your vote, or suffrage touching 
 any matter which concerneth this colony ; you shall 
 give it as in your conscience you shall judge may 
 conduce to the best good of the same, without respect 
 of person, or favour to, or from any man. So help 
 you God in our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 Governor's Oath. 
 
 Whereas you (A. B.) are chosen to the place of 
 Governor, within this jurisdiction for the insuing 
 year ; And til a new governor be chosen, and sworn, 
 you do here swear by the great and dreadful name of 
 the ever living God, to maintaine (according to your 
 best ability) all the lawful priviledges of this com- 
 mon-wealth ; according to the fundamental order and 
 agreement made for government thereof, and that 
 you wil carry and demean yourself for the said time 
 of your government, according to the laws of God, 
 and for the advancement of his gospel, the laws of 
 this colony, and the good of the inhabitants thereof, 
 you shal do justice to all without partiality, as much 
 as in you lyeth. So help you God, <fec. 
 
 Deputy Governor, and Magistrates. 
 Whereas you (C. D.) are chosen to the place of 
 Deputy Governor &c., or you (E. F.) are chosen to 
 the place of a Magistrate &c. as in the Governor's 
 oath, mutatis mutandis. 
 12*
 
 274 NEW HA YEN COLONY. 
 
 Other Officers and Witnesses. 
 
 Several other oaths are to be administred to other 
 officers, as Secretary, and Treasurer for the jurisdic- 
 tion, Deputies for particular courts, Marshal, Constable, 
 Witnesses, &c. But the substance of their oaths is to 
 ingage them to a faithful discharge of the duty of 
 their places, and trust, according to the best of their 
 ability, to preserve the peace of the jurisdiction, and 
 to give ful and true evidence, in the cases, wherein 
 they give testimony.
 
 vir. 
 
 LAWS, ORDERS, AND JUDGMENTS, OF THE 
 NEW HAVEN COURTS, 1639-1660. 
 
 [From the Colonial Records, Vol. L] 
 
 25th Feb., 1639-40. Mrs. Higginson, late planter 
 of Quillipieck dying without making her will, and 
 leaving behind her eight children, an inventory of 
 of her estate being taken, the court disposed of her 
 estate and children as followeth, with the consent and 
 approbation of Mr. John Higginson, her eldest son : 
 
 Charles Higginson is to have 40. to his portion, 
 and to be with Thomas Fugill as his apprentice unto 
 the full end and term of nine years from the first of 
 March next ensuing the date hereof. And the said 
 Tho: Fugill is to find him what is convenient for 
 him as a servant, and to keep him at school one year, 
 or else to advantage him as much in his education as 
 a year's learning comes to,* and he is to have the ben- 
 
 *"Here is a proceeding which marks as distinctly as any 
 measure could, the views entertained by the leaders of the colony, 
 of the value of education, the protection which ought to be exten- 
 ded to the indigent, and their regard for popular rights. If any 
 one hereafter shall wish to inspect the early colonial records of 
 New Haven, to find subjects of reproach or merriment, let him be 
 referred to the indentures of Charles Higginson No sugges- 
 tion for the adoption of a rule by which an elementary education 
 was secured to apprentices could have been received/rom any law 
 of the parent country" Kingsley's Hist. Disburse, p. 39. 
 
 275
 
 276 LA WS AND ORDERS OF 
 
 efit of the use of his portion till the said term be 
 expired, an'd at the end thereof to pay it to the said 
 Charles Higginson, if he live till the said nine years 
 be expired, but if he die before, then the said Thomas 
 Fugill is to pay the said portion to the rest of his 
 brothers that are alive at tbe end of the said nine 
 years. (pp. 20, 30.)* 
 
 1639-40. John Jenner, accused for being drunk 
 with strong waters, was acquitted, it appearing to be 
 of infirmity and occasioned by the extremity of the 
 cold. 
 
 Mr. Moulenour, accused of being drunk, but not 
 clearly proved, was respited. (p. 29.) 
 
 1640. It was ordered that commodities well bought 
 in England for ready money, shall not be sold here 
 above three pence in the shilling for profit and 
 adventure, above what they cost with charges, when 
 sold by retail ; when sold by the piece or vessel, by 
 wholesale, less profit may suffice. 
 
 When- bought from ships or other vessels here, 
 not above Sob. [half-pence] in the shilling by retail, 
 nor above a penny in the shilling by wholesale. But 
 commodities of a perishing nature, subject to waste 
 and damage, fall not under the former rates, yet the 
 rates to be so ordered that neither buyer nor seller 
 suffer in the rates. (p. 35.) 
 
 It is ordered that every man that is appointed to 
 watch, whether masters or servants, shall come every 
 Lord's day to the meeting completely armed, and all 
 others also are to bring their swords, no man exempted 
 
 * The references are to the first (printed) volume of the N. H. 
 Colonial Records, edited by Mr. Hoadly. The spelling has been 
 modernised, throughout.
 
 NEW HA YEN COLONY, 1640-41. 277 
 
 save Mr. Eaton, our pastor, Mr. James, Mr. Samuell 
 Eaton and the two deacons. (40.) 
 
 It is ordered that Mr. Gregson shall be truck mas- 
 ter of this town for this year ensuing, to truck with 
 the Indians for venison, so as he may afford to sell 
 to the planters that have need at 305. [half-pence] a 
 pound, all together, good and bad, one with another. 
 
 It is ordered that no English men that kills venison 
 shall sell the fattest for above 3<7. a pound, and the 
 lean at 2d. ob. [2 pence]. (43.) 
 
 1640. Thomas Franckland for drinking strong 
 liquors to excess and entertaining disorderly persons 
 into his cellar to drinking meetings, together with his 
 contempt of the court, was whipped, fined 20s. and 
 deprived of his cellar and lot, his lot and liberty of 
 staying in the plantation being only granted to him 
 upon his good behavior. 
 
 Andrew Loe junior was whipped for breaking 
 Richard Osborne his cellar and stealing, and that on 
 the Sabbath day. (46.) 
 
 It was ordered that all that live in cellars, and 
 have families, shall have liberty for three mouths to 
 provide for themselves, but all single persons are to 
 betake themselves forthwith to some families, except 
 the magistrate see cause to respite them for a time. 
 
 1641. It is ordered that seven hours shall be ac- 
 counted a day's work for a team, if that whole time be 
 diligently improved in work according to the nature 
 of that employment, and the hire for a steer by the 
 day 9<., for a grown ox or bull 12c?., for a horse or 
 mare 16<, for cart furniture and man 6d. 
 
 For master carpenters, joiners, plasterers, brick- 
 layers, mowers, coopers, thatchers, rivers of clap- 
 boards, pales, shingles, laths and the like callings
 
 278 LAWS AND ORDERS OF 
 
 which require skill and strength, not above 2s. in 
 summer, and 2Qd. in winter. 
 
 But others of the same trades or callings, not 
 allowed master workmen, not above 20d. in summer 
 and 16d. in winter. 
 
 Plasterers, haymakers, fellers of timber, those that 
 cross-cut timber, and all sorts of laborers experienced 
 and diligent in their way, improving time as above, 
 in summer not above 186?. in winter not above I4d. 
 
 Unskillful negligent laborers, and boys, both in 
 summer and winter, in several employments, accord- 
 ing to the service they do, which when any doubt 
 ariseth shall be judged by able and indifferent. (52, 53.) 
 
 Diet for a laboring man with lodging and washing 
 45. Gd. by the week. Yenison sold by the English, if 
 fat, not above 2c?. ob. per pound, if leane 2d. per 
 pound, fowl a proportionable abatement to what 
 was set last year. (55.) 
 
 All commodities bought and sold among the plan- 
 ters, and all work wages and labor (henceforward, till 
 some other course be settled by order), to be paid for 
 either in corn, as the price goeth in the plantation, or 
 in work as the rates settled by the court, or in cattel 
 of any sort as they shall be indifferently prized, or in 
 good merchantable beaver according to its goodness ; 
 and payment to be made at the times which shall be 
 agreed upon. (55, 56.) 
 
 Feb., 1642. It is ordered that a free school shall 
 be set up in this town, and our pastor Mr. Davenport, 
 together with the magistrates, shall consider what 
 yearly allowance is meet to be given to it out of the 
 common stock of the town, and also what rules and 
 orders are meet to be observed in and about the same. 
 
 (62.)
 
 NEW HAVEN COLONY, 1642-44. 279 
 
 1642. It is ordered that no young men shall live 
 by themselves in cellars, but betake themselves to 
 such families as the masters thereof may not only 
 watch over them, but be able to give an account of 
 or concerning them or their conversation when they 
 shall be required. (70.) 
 
 Samuel H., and Elizabeth C., being desirous to 
 join together in the state of marriage, and not being 
 able to make proof of their parents' consent, but see- 
 ing they both affirm they have the consent of their 
 parents, and with all having entered into contract, 
 
 sinfully and wickedly have both made 
 
 themselves unfit for any other, and for which they 
 have both received public correction, upon these 
 considerations, granted them liberty to marry. (77, 78.) 
 
 1643. Whereas goodman Osborne hath heretofore 
 spoiled divers hides in the tanning which he allegeth 
 was for want of skill or experience in the tan of this 
 country, he promiseth for the time to come to make 
 good what is spoiled in the tanning, for now he knows 
 the nature of the tan, and therefore, if any hides be 
 now spoiled it is through his default. 
 
 1643. It is ordered that every family within this 
 plantation shall have a coat of cotton wool, well and 
 substantially made, so as it may be fit for service,* 
 
 and that in convenient time the taylors see it be done. 
 
 (121.) 
 
 April, 1644. It was ordered that the judicial laws 
 of God, as they were delivered by Moses, and as they 
 are a fence to the moral law, being neither typical nor 
 ceremonial, nor had any reference to Canaan, shall be 
 accounted of moral equity, and generally bind all 
 
 *To be proof against Indian arrows.
 
 280 LAWS AND ORDERS OF 
 
 offenders, and be a rule to all the courts in this juris- 
 diction in their proceeding against offenders, till they 
 be branched out into particulars hereafter. 
 
 It was ordered that in case any of the magistrates in 
 the smaller plantations see need of help in some 
 weighty causes or difficult knotty cases, upon due no- 
 tice and request to the Governor, provision shall be 
 made accordingly, (130.) 
 
 1644 The proposition for the relief of poor schol- 
 ars at the college at Cambridge was fully approved of, 
 and thereupon it was ordered, Joshua Attwater and 
 William Davis shall receive of every one in this 
 plantation whose heart s willing to contribute there- 
 unto, a peck of wheat or the value of it. (149.) 
 
 1647. The Governor propounded that the college 
 corn might be forthwith paid, and that considering 
 the work is a service to Christ, to bring up young 
 plants for his service, and besides, it will be a reproach 
 that it shall be said Newhaven is fallen off from this 
 service. (311.) 
 
 1645. Richard L., having been formerly con- 
 victed and censured for sundry miscarriages in 
 ways of unrighteousness, now made an acknowledg- 
 ment of his guilt in the court, thinking thereby to 
 give satisfaction, who showed themselves willing to 
 take satisfaction, but yet advised him to be careful to 
 make his peace with God, and seek to get that bitter 
 root, (whence such evil fruits did spring,) that a refor- 
 mation of those evils may appear in his conversation. 
 
 (153.) 
 
 1645. James Kussells, by reason of his lame 
 thumb, was excused from bringing his musket on the 
 Lord's days and other days of public solemn worships. 
 
 (160.)
 
 NEW HA YEN COLONY, 1644-45. 281 
 
 Joseph B. and Joseph C. were accused for drinking 
 to excess ; Joseph B. confessed that they had drunk 
 sack in his father's cellar, out of the hung, with a 
 tobacco pipe, and in the chamber out of a bottle, and 
 that they went after that to the ordinary, and there 
 drank a quart of beer. Sister Linge testified that 
 she saw them as they caine from the ordinary and 
 Joseph B. did lead Joseph C. by the arm, and she 
 speaking to them asked whether Joseph C. were 
 drunk, whereupon Joseph B. let him go, and then she 
 saw him stagger and reel and, as she conceived, being 
 not able to go nor stand as a man, he sit him down 
 upon a block or log by the pales, but could not sit as 
 one sober, whereupon she again said he was drunk, 
 because he could not go nor stand, and then Joseph 
 B. called him to come to him which he did,* but yet 
 in a reeling manner. Mrs. Evance and her maid tes- 
 tified that when they first saw Joseph C. after this 
 they could perceive nothing that he ailed. 
 
 The court being fully satisfied in the evidence given 
 by sister Linge, and the Governor testifying that, upon 
 [the] examination he had taken, they told abundance of 
 lies, especially Joseph B., the premises considered, the 
 court conceived they deserved to be severely whipped, 
 but referred it to Mr. Evance and Mr. B. to give them 
 correction in their families. (170, 171.) 
 
 Bamfeild Bell being reproved by Win. Paine for 
 singing profane songs, answered and said, "you are one 
 of the holy brethren that will lie for advantage." It 
 was testified by the said "Wm. Paine and Joseph 
 Brewster. Mr. Evance testified that it was his con- 
 stant frame, to reproach those that walk in the ways 
 of God. The premises considered, the sentence of 
 the court was that he should be severely whipped.
 
 282 LAWS AND ORDERS OF 
 
 Mrs. Brewster entreated the court that the execu- 
 tion of the sentence may be respited til] her husband 
 come home, because he is her husband's kinsman. 
 
 (173.) 
 
 1645. Hannah M. complained that Mr. Brewster 
 called [her] Billingsgate slut, and that she was sent 
 for on shipboard to play the slut. 
 
 Mr. Brewster confessed he being much provoked and 
 disquieted by her frowardness and brawling on ship- 
 board, did call her slut, and Billingsgate slut, and said 
 he hoped she would dance about the whipping post ; 
 and affirmed &c. 
 
 Mr. Brewster's maid and Mr. Lamberton's maid 
 testified, that the said Hannah M. was very fro ward 
 and contentious, and a cause of much contention and 
 unquietness amongst them as they came from the 
 Bay. 
 
 When the Governor had shown what was the 
 ordinary acceptation of "Billingsgate slut," namely, 
 that some that were so called were convicted scolds, 
 and punished at the cucking stool for it, and some of 
 them charged with incontinency, Mr. Brewster said he 
 had sufficiently proved the one true, and he would not 
 acquit her in the other ; being asked what ground he 
 had to lay such an implicit charge upon her, he said 
 he had nothing at all against her but what he gathered 
 from Mrs. Norton's words. The court told [ him ] he 
 ought to acknowledge his failing, and so repair her rep- 
 utation, as much as he may. At length he did acknow- 
 ledge he was to blame, and said he was sorry he had 
 spoke so rashly, and that he intended no such charge 
 against her. The court also according to the evidence 
 reproved Hannah M. for her froward disposition, 
 remembering her that meekness is a choice ornament
 
 NE W HA YEN COLONY, 1645-46. 283 
 
 for women, and wished her to take it as a rebuke 
 from God, and to keep a better watch over her spirit 
 hereafter, lest the Lord proceed to manifest his 
 displeasure further against her. 
 
 Hannah M. did acknowledge it had been some 
 trouble to her that she had been so froward and con- 
 tentious to the disquieting of others, and hoped it 
 
 should be a warning to her for time to come. 
 
 (180, 181.) 
 
 1645. For the better training up of youth in this 
 town, that through God's blessing they may be fitted 
 for public service hereafter, either in church or com- 
 monweal, it is ordered, that a free school be set up, 
 and the magistrates with the teaching elders are 
 entreated to consider what rules and orders are meet 
 to be observed and what allowance may be convenient 
 for the schoolmaster's care and pains, which shall be 
 paid out of the town's stock. According to which 
 order, 20 a year was paid to Mr. Ezekiell Cheevers, 
 the present schoolmaster, for two or three years at 
 first, but that not proving a competent maintenance, 
 in August, 1644, it was enlarged to 30 a year and 
 so continueth.* (210.) 
 
 1646. It was ordered, that whosoever fetcheth fire, 
 or sends for it, and not in a covered vessel, though 
 the fire be denied them, or upon any other occasions 
 they come without it, they shall pay Gd. fine ; but if 
 they carry any fire away, they shall pay 12c?., because 
 great damage may grow to the town by slightness 
 and carelessness this way. 
 
 It was ordered, that whosoever shall be found taking 
 
 * This is from the revision, in 1644-45, of laws and orders then 
 in force. The order for a free-school in New Haven, was made 
 Feb., 1641-42. See, before, p. 278.
 
 284 LAWS AND ORDERS OF 
 
 tobacco in an uncovered place, as in the street of the 
 town, or in men's yards, shall pay Qd. fine each time, 
 also if on training days, either in the company or the 
 meeting house at any time. (241.) 
 
 Thomas Blatchley having formerly given the Court 
 some offence, and neglecting the image of God in 
 magistrates, and going away so irreverently, and saying 
 he would have justice in another place if he had it not 
 here ; which now lying on his conscience, desires to 
 clear himself; wherewith the court was satisfied. (271.) 
 
 1647. It was propounded that those planters, 
 householders and sojourners, would give in their 
 names, who desire to have their seats in the soldiers' 
 seats, engaging themselves to bring their arms con- 
 stantly, to all public meetings for the worships of 
 God. (291.) 
 
 1647. George King charged with blaspheming the 
 name of God by cursing; James Heywood said he 
 heard him swear by the name of God, and told him 
 the danger of such a course, and since, he hath heard 
 him swear. 
 
 Thomas Morris affirmed he had been told of swearing 
 aboard the ship, and since swore by the name of God, 
 aboard a Dutchman, and he told him of it. The oath 
 was a by God. George King confessed he spake the 
 words. 
 
 The Governor told him, that when the son of an 
 Egyptian blasphemed the name of God, it was not 
 borne. It's the piercing through the name of God in 
 passion, which is a high provocation of God, whereas 
 the rule is, let your words be yea, yea, and nay, nay, 
 and by a man's words he may lose his life. 
 
 It was hoped it was only a rash and sinful oath j
 
 NE W HA YEN COLONY, 1647. 285 
 
 some have been bored through the tongue, others 
 have been in the stocks, and their tongues in a cloven 
 stick ; but hoping this was not despiteful ly done, the 
 sentence of the court was, that he should be whipped, 
 and in the interim be kept in the marshal's hands. 
 
 (293.) 
 
 Sergeant Nash propounded whether it was the 
 court's mind that masters of watches should be freed 
 from walking the rounds and standing sentinel on the 
 Lord's days, but after some debate, the thing was 
 respited till another court. 
 
 William Preston, who was intrusted to look to the 
 shutting the meeting-house doors, was desired to keep 
 them constantly shut, and that they be opened upon 
 the Lord's days and lecture days before the first drum 
 is beat, and William Andrewes was desired so to 
 repair and order the doors that they may be opened 
 on the outside when unlocked and unbarred, and at 
 other times to shut fast and secure. 
 
 Robert Bassett was desired to beat both the first 
 and second drum, upon Lord's days and lecture days, 
 upon the meeting-house, that so those who live far off 
 may hear them the more distinctly, and he promised 
 so to do. (311.) 
 
 William Pert was warned to the court for taking 
 water-melons one Lord's day out of Mr. Hooke's lot ; 
 and Mr. Hooke complaineth that he hath often been 
 abused this way ; and since that time, his orchard 
 hath been robbed. 
 
 William Port's answer was that his master sent him 
 into the quarter and to see whether there were any hogs 
 within the fence, and he was bid by his master to 
 bring home a water-melon with him ; he being bid
 
 LAWS AND ORDERS OF 
 
 to go that way through Mr. Hooke's lot, after the 
 Sabbath, he took two water-melons ; he said it was 
 the first act of his in this kind and hoped it should 
 be the last. For his unrighteousness and profaneness 
 of his spirit and way, so soon thus to do after the 
 Sabbath, he was to be publicly corrected, although 
 moderately, because his repentance did appear. (325.) 
 
 It was propounded to the court to consider whether 
 it were not meet to make a law for restraining of 
 persons from their ordinary outward employments 
 upon any part of the Sabbath, and the rather because 
 some have of late taken too much liberty that way, 
 and have been called to answer for it in the particular 
 court. The court considering that it is their duty to 
 do the best they can that the law of God may be 
 strictly observed, did therefore order that whosoever 
 shall, within this plantation, break the Sabbath by 
 doing any of their ordinary outward occasions, from 
 sunset to sunset, either upon the land or upon the 
 water, extraordinary cases, works of mercy and 
 necessity being excepted, he shall be counted an 
 offender, and shall suffer such punishment as the 
 particular court shall judge meet, according to the 
 nature of his offence. (85.) 
 
 1648. James T was warned to this court to 
 
 answer for his contempt in not appearing the last 
 court ; he saith that he acknowledges he was served 
 with a warrant to appear at the last court, but did not, 
 but having a lighter-load of hay to empty, went about 
 that, without asking leave of any magistrate. 
 
 Thomas Barnes informed the court that he served a 
 
 warrant upon James T , two or three months since, 
 
 but he could not get him to appear, but hath always 
 shifted him off one way or another, but this he hath
 
 NEW HA YEN COLONY, 1G48-49. 287 
 
 to inform the court against him, that he, the said 
 James, stole a scythe which he left in the field, taking 
 it off from the snath and using it as his own, which 
 
 charge James T owneth and acknowledged it to 
 
 be true, and that he had slandered Thomas Barnes by 
 reporting that he did but take his scythe as he, the 
 said Barnes, had taken a grubbing axe of his, when as 
 
 Thomas Barnes had borrowed the axe of James T 
 
 as he now confesseth. Also Mr. Gibbard, the treas- 
 urer, informed the court that James T found a dead 
 
 wolf in the woods, and cut off the head, and brought 
 it to him to be paid for it, saying he had killed it by 
 setting a gun, and got a note of him to receive 15s for 
 it, and therein by lying deceived the town, whose 
 order is that those that kill wolves, (and not find them 
 dead,) should be paid for them; which lying and 
 cheating James T could not deny. 
 
 The sentence of the court is, that for his contempt 
 of the court in not obeying the warrants served, he 
 pay 40s fine to the town ; for the scythe that he make 
 double restitution, the scythe being valued at 4s ; for 
 his lying, cheating and slandering, that he be severely 
 whipped, and that he acknowledge the wrong he hath 
 done to Thomas Barnes in slandering of him, and 
 that he sit in the stocks as long as the weather will 
 permit with respect of mercy to him, that all that pass 
 by may see what manner of person he is. (418, 419.) 
 
 1649. The Governor informed the court that he 
 hath heard some complaints about the smallness of 
 bread that is made and sold in the town, and therefore 
 thinks that some course must be taken that it may be 
 sized, that the baker may have a due profit and the 
 buyer not wronged. It was enquired who had any 
 book that might give any light concerning the sizing
 
 288 LAWS AND ORDERS OF 
 
 of bread. Jno. Brockett said lie bad one, and was 
 desired to carry it to the governor who was desired to 
 prepare tbis matter against tbe particular court. (466,) 
 
 [Colony Records, vol. ii.] 
 
 1653. The deputies of Stamford acquainted tbe 
 court that there is in their town some that do work 
 great disturbance, professing they will pay no rates to 
 these common charges, because nothing is done 
 against the Dutch, and some saying they have been 
 in bondage a great while, but now they will have 
 their liberty, and being reproved for the same and 
 told they must be bound over to answer it here, 
 another answered, one and all. Wherefore the court 
 doth advise the deputies to carry it as prudently and 
 peaceably as they can and to gather up these rates 
 due, but if by fair means (for the court is not willing 
 to deal harshly in these times if it may be avoided) it 
 cannot be attained, but some in a stubborn way refuse 
 and grow boisterous in their spirits, working disturb- 
 ance and giving ill example to others, that then they 
 give notice thereof to the governor or deputy gov- 
 ernor, who are ordered by this court to send a warrant 
 from hence to bind such persons over to answer it at 
 the court of magistrates in October next. (24.) 
 
 It is ordered that a serious view be made in every 
 plantation in this jurisdiction, to see who have taken 
 the oath of fidelity and who have not, and that all 
 male persons from sixteen years old and upward,which 
 have not already taken it, whether children, servants 
 or Bojourners, as well as planters, do take the said 
 oath, and that at the general court in May next, a 
 certificate be brought from each plantation and pre- 
 sented that they have so taken it, or if any refuse,
 
 NE W HA YEN COL ONY, 1654-55. 289 
 
 their names are to be returned, but if the authority 
 of the place find any unfitness in any person by their 
 ignorance not understanding the nature of such an 
 ordinance, they may dispense with them a convenient 
 time for the better informing themselves, that the 
 name of God may not be taken in vain. (57.) 
 
 1654. It is ordered that upon the admittance of 
 any man as a planter into any plantation in this 
 jurisdiction, the fundamental laws and orders con- 
 cerning votes, &c., shall be read to them, and if 
 approved, the oath of fidelity shall be administered to 
 them, the plantation which is to receive them being 
 satisfied in other respects, by a satisfying certificate 
 from sufficent credible persons, of their good behavior 
 and conversation. (98.) 
 
 At a court of magistrates, Jan. 26, 1654-5 : Law- 
 ranee Corneliusson, a Dutchman, was called before 
 the court and told that he is charged with several great 
 miscarriages, in affronting the authority set up by this 
 jurisdiction at Milford, in a very high degree and 
 contemptuous manner, for when another Dutchman 
 who had been scandalously, and for himself danger- 
 ously, drunk, and the complaint of it brought to the 
 magistrate who sent the marshal for him, he, the 
 said Lawrance, answered he should not come then, 
 but when he listed ; whereupon the marshal returned, 
 but quickly after the man that was drunk came on 
 shore, and the marshal seized him and was carrying 
 of him before the magistrate, and the said Lawrance 
 followed, crying aloud after the marshal, " Stay, you 
 rogue, stay you rogue," and in the magistrate's house 
 carried it with high contempt before all present, put- 
 ting his hand to his mouth and pulling it back in a 
 13
 
 290 LAWS AND ORDERS OF 
 
 scornful manner, as if he would say, do your worst, I 
 care not for you ; and when the man should have an- 
 swered for himself, he interposed, would not suffer him 
 to speak, but bid the devil take him if he spake a word, 
 and after put him out of the door and bid him begone ; 
 and that none might follow him, he shut the door 
 and stood against it, and did utter several oaths with 
 cursing before the magistrate ; then the magistrate told 
 him he must now stay and answer, both for the 
 offender whom he had so rescued, and for his own mis- 
 carriages ; he then went away, and being sent for in, 
 would not come, but said he would be hanged and 
 drawn first, and he would as soon come before the 
 devil as before the magistrate ; and the marshal being 
 commanded to fetch him in, and, if he refused, to force 
 him, he refused to submit, and took his knife in his 
 hand and held it up and said, touch him who durst, and 
 offering to take a stick to make resistance, one struck 
 him and broke his head ; so they brought him back to 
 the magistrate, who, repeating his miscarriages to 
 him, he told the magistrate he lied, though the mar- 
 shal then present testified the truth of what the 
 magistrate said to his face ; then he demanded to see 
 the law against drunkenness and swearing, which being 
 read, he said, "This is the law of man, but not of 
 God;" and when the magistrate commanded the mar- 
 shal to take charge of him, he would not submit but 
 said, kill him, hang him, he would not go with him ; 
 and when the next day the court at Milf ord ( hearing 
 of these miscarriages), sent for him. he contemptu- 
 ously refused to come but said, kill him, hang him, 
 draw him with horses, he would not come ; wherefore 
 they referred it to the court of magistrates, which 
 thing he also desired ; and when he was gone from the
 
 NEW HA YEN COLONY, 1654-5. 291 
 
 magistrate, he asked those that were about him, 
 whether they knew the story of Samson's revenge upon 
 the Philistines how he tied firebrands betwixt the 
 tails of foxes and burnt their corn ? and bade them 
 remember it, as if he thought the English were 
 Philistines and he purposed a revenge; and in 
 further discourse, bidding them kill, hang him, &c., 
 he added he would rather be cast into the sea then 
 buried at Milford, his bones should not be inMilford, 
 repeating the story of Joseph, who would have his 
 bones carried out of Egypt, ao if Milford were as 
 Egypt to him ; and to defend the Dutchman's drunk- 
 enness, he professed himself to be a drunkard, and 
 asked the English about him if they were not so, 
 " Have rot you, and you, been drunk," adding that 
 at the Mannadoes [New York] they were not punished 
 for drunkenness, but used after they had been drunk 
 to say, 'God forgive us,' or 'be merciful to us,' 
 and that was enough he asked also what witnesses 
 they had against him, and when he was told they had 
 many, he answered, "Many false witnesses came in 
 against Christ." 
 
 His miscarriages being thus charged, he was told he 
 had liberty to answer for himself, and if he objected 
 against the truth of any of the particulars, proof was 
 
 ready He said he submits to the charge, for 
 
 he was in such a passion as he remembers not what 
 he did or spake, and is ashamed of it. 
 
 The said Lawrance was asked, if he had any occa- 
 sion given him that might cause him to carry it thus ; 
 he said, no, but God left him, and he is ashamed of it. 
 
 After which, the court considering how he had 
 contemned and trampled upon authority, disturbed 
 the peace of the jurisdiction (beside his slighting or
 
 292 LAWS AND ORDERS OF 
 
 censuring the English) ; that upon his earnest suit the 
 magistrates were now called from several plantations 
 at an unusual and inconvenient time to keep this 
 court ; that the marshal at Milford hath been put 
 upon much attendance and upon two journeys from 
 Milford hither, with other testimony, because he had 
 here, (beside what passed at Milford,) more than once 
 peremptorily denied some of his charges ; and that 
 the marshal at Newhaven, beside other attendance, 
 had been charged with his diet, lodging, <fec.; did by 
 way of sentence order, that Lawrance Corneliusson 
 pay as a fine to the jurisdiction, forty pounds, and 
 that he make a due and public acknowledgment of 
 his miscarriages, at Milford where they were commit- 
 ted, owning his sin and shame for it, which if not 
 performed to satisfaction there, he is to be sent back 
 to Newhaven and the court will further consider of it. 
 
 (124-6.) 
 
 [On the petition of the offender, presented Jan. 30th, setting 
 forth his inability to pay the fine, and professing penitence, the 
 court mitigated the penalty to 30 .] 
 
 1655. It is ordered that no tobacco shall be taken 
 in the streets, yards, or about the houses in any planta- 
 tion or farm in this jurisdiction, or without doors near 
 or about the town, or in the meeting-house, or body 
 of the train soldiers, or any other place where they 
 may do mischief thereby, under the penalty of six 
 pence a pipe or a time, which is to go to him that 
 informs and prosecutes ; which, if refused, is to be 
 recovered by distress ; in which case, if there be dif- 
 ference, it may be issued without a court by any mag- 
 istrate, or where there is no magistrate by any deputy 
 or constable ; but if he be a poor servant and hath not 
 to pay, and his master will not pay for him, he shall
 
 NEW HAVEN COLONY, 1655-6. 93 
 
 then be punished by sitting in the stocks one hour. 
 
 (148.) 
 
 1655. To prevent much inconvenience which may 
 grow by gaming, it is ordered that no person who, 
 either as an innkeeper or seller of strong liquors, wine 
 or beer, entertains strangers or others to lodge, or eat, 
 or drink, shall permit or suffer any to use the game 
 of shufneboard, or any other gaming,within his house 
 or limits, under the penalty of twenty shillings for 
 time so offending, arid whatever person or persons 
 shall so play or game in any such house, or place, or 
 in any other gaming house, where there is com- 
 mon resort to such play or gaming, shall forfeit 
 for every such offence five shillings, and whosoever 
 shall so play or game for money or money -worth, 
 shall further forfeit double the value thereof, one half 
 to the informer, and the rest to the plantation within 
 the limits whereof he so played or gamed. (155-6.) 
 
 1656. It is ordered that whosoever shall put or 
 kindle any fire in woods, grounds, yards, orchards, or 
 other place or places, lying in common or enclosed, so 
 as the same shall burn fences, buildings, or cause any 
 other damage in any season or manner not allowed 
 by authority in that plantation, or on the last day of 
 the week, or on the Lord's day, every such person 
 shall i ay all damages and half so much more for a 
 fine to the plantation, and if not able to pay shall be 
 corporally punished as the court shall judge meet. 
 
 But if any servant or servants, person or persons 
 in relation, or any other whether male or female, shall 
 wilfully, maliciously or by way of revenge, kindle 
 or put any fire into any corn, hay, straw, hemp, flax, 
 timber, hewed, sawn, or riven, heaps of wood, char- 
 coal, other goods or combustible matter, especially in
 
 294: LA WS AND ORDERS OF 
 
 the night or on the Lord's day, by means whereof any 
 dwelling house, barn, shed, or other buildings, hay, 
 corn, cattle, household goods, or other estate of what 
 kind soever may be endangered, burnt or destroyed, 
 (much more if the life or lives of any person or 
 persons shall be thereby lost or hazarded,) such 
 mischievous person or persons shall be proceeded 
 against, either by the court of magistrates, if the sin 
 be heinous or capital, as a presumptuous or malicious 
 offender or offenders against the fifth, sixth, or eighth 
 commandments, to be punished by death or otherwise 
 severely as the case may require, or by the plantation 
 court, if the miscarriage be of a lower nature, by cor- 
 poral punishment or paying double or treble damages, 
 but if the damage be great and the offender or offen- 
 ders not able to make such restitution, he or they 
 shall by sentence or order of the court of magistrates be 
 Bold for a servant or servants, either into these English 
 colonies or abroad, that due satisfaction (so far as may be 
 attained) be made, as the court considering the offence 
 with all the aggravating circumstances shall judge 
 meet.* (175, 176.) 
 
 1657. A complaint was brought from Stamford 
 of the excessive price of shoes and boots there, and 
 some instances were given, as six shillings for a pair 
 of shoes of the tens, and thirty shillings for a pair of 
 boots, as good as which may be bought here for 
 twenty shillings, which the court thought was great 
 oppression, and that some course should be taken 
 about it ; and therefore did now order, that those 
 shoemakers be informed that if betwixt this and tho 
 
 *This is the law which Peters caricatures, by : "Whosoever sets 
 a fire in the woods, and it burns a house, shall suffer death." Com- 
 pare the law concerning "Fire," in the code of 1655, (before, p. 222.)
 
 NE W HA YEN COL ONY, 1657. 295 
 
 court of magistrates in October next they do not give 
 satisfaction for what they have done amiss the time 
 past, and reform for time to come, that then they 
 attend the said court, and come prepared to answer 
 their miscarriages herein, and that those offended or 
 wronged in the town, &c., come prepared to charge 
 and prove. (215.) 
 
 It is ordered that no Quaker, Ranter, or other here- 
 tic of that nature, be suffered to come into, nor abide 
 in this jurisdiction, and if any such rise up among 
 ourselves that they be speedily suppressed and secured, 
 for the better prevention of such dangerous errors. (217.) 
 
 It was propounded that the court would think of 
 some way to further the setting up of schools, for the 
 education of youth in each plantation, for though 
 some do take care that way, yet some others neglect it, 
 which the court took into consideration, and seeing 
 that Newhaven hath provided that a schoolmaster be 
 maintained at the town's charge, and Milford hath 
 made provision in a comfortable way, they desire the 
 other towns would follow their example, and there- 
 fore did now order, that in every plantation where a 
 school is not already set up and maintained, forthwith 
 endeavors shall be used that a schoolmaster be pro- 
 cured that may attend that work, and what salary 
 shall be allowed unto such schoolmaster for his pains, 
 one third part shall be paid by the town in general as 
 other rates, the good education of children being of 
 public concernment, and the other two thirds by them 
 who have the benefit thereof, by the teaching of their 
 children. (219, 220.) 
 
 COURT OF MAGISTRATES, June, 1657. William 
 Meaker .entered an action of defamation against
 
 296 LAWS AND ORDERS OF 
 
 Thomas Mulleimer, and declared that several pigs of 
 Thomas Mullenner died, it seems in a strange way, 
 and he thought them bewitched, and said if any more 
 died he would use some means to make discovery, and 
 he did cut off the tail and ears of one and threw into 
 the fire ; his maid said he knew who he meant, good- 
 man Meaker ; he said he had heard something of him. 
 
 George Smith informed that himself is wrapt up in 
 the same case, and desires it may be considered, and 
 that he hath also charged him with milking of the 
 herd's cows, which is a great w r rong to him. 
 
 Thomas Mullenner said he knew not of any pig's 
 tail or ear burnt, yet said it was a means used in 
 England by some honest people to find out witches, 
 but if it was naught he desired to see it; wherein 
 he seems to grant the thing he denied ; and Mrs. 
 Mullenner did own that it may be the tail or ear 
 might be burned, but Robert Deny and Stephen 
 Feirson, servants to Thomas Mullenner, both afiimed, 
 that after some of the pigs had died in this 
 strange manner, their master said that he feared they 
 were bewitched, and if it went on he would try what 
 he could do to find it out, and when there was but one 
 left, and that sick, he brought the pig to the fire and 
 cut off the ear and tail and threw it into the fire, arid 
 after put the pig upon the fire till it was dead, and after 
 he fell into discourse of this again, and said that he 
 feared some of his neighbors are not very good, and 
 the maid said, she knew who he meant, goodman 
 Meaker ; he said that he had heard something of him, 
 and because he charged him with breaking open his 
 fence, therefore he hath done this to his pigs. 
 
 Mrs. Mullenner said she heard her husband say 
 so much as shows that he thought the pigs were
 
 NEW HAVEN COLONY, 1657. 297 
 
 bewitched, but she heard him not charge "William 
 Meaker nor any other man with it, and Thomas Mul- 
 lener owned that it was so in his thoughts, and that 
 he said if he lived among neighbors, or near neigh- 
 bors, he should think they were bewitched. 
 
 ******* 
 Many other debates passed, but in the issue what 
 had passed at Newhaven court before, about unright- 
 eousness in marking and working other men's cattle, 
 &c., were read, and upon a due consideration of all 
 together, this court declared, that they agree with 
 what Newhaven court then concluded, and therefore 
 that he put in security for his good behavior for the 
 future in these and the like cases, or remove himself 
 to some other place. The taking of which security is 
 referred to Newhaven court the third day of the next 
 week, and also the issuing this matter betwixt 
 William Meaker, George Smith, and him. They pro- 
 fessed now, it is not his estate they seek, but a refor- 
 mation and the clearing of their names, in which they 
 have been much wronged by him.* (224-26.) 
 
 Oct. 1657. William East was told there is a sad 
 fame spread abroad of his excessive drinking and 
 drunkenness, so that people as they go in the street 
 do say, that Sergeant East was drunk yesterday before 
 ten o'clock, and now he is drunk again to day already. 
 He said he dares not say he is clear, but is sorry lie 
 hath given cause for such reports.' He was told he 
 hath now a black eye, and whether it came not by 
 
 *It is noticeable, that this action was hrought, not for witchcraft, 
 but for defamation. Conjuration by pigs' tails would have been 
 accounted in England at this period " a most hideous witchery," 
 and the delinquent would doubtless have fared harder than Thomas 
 Mullenner did in New Haven ; nor would Meaker, the suspected 
 wizard, have escaped so easily. 
 
 13*
 
 298 LAWS AND ORDERS OF 
 
 some such course he best knows ; of which he said 
 nothing to clear himself, yet said he had some dis- 
 temper which fell into his eye. Some of Milford being 
 present, as Richard Baldwin, "William Fowler and 
 Steven Freman, were called to speak what they know 
 or have heard in the case ; but first Mr. Fenn, the 
 magistrate, said that he thinks he hath been twice 
 dealt with at Milford for drunkenness. (227.) 
 
 General Court, May, 1660. The court heing deeply 
 sensible of the small progress or proficiency in learn- 
 ing that hath yet been accomplished, in the way of 
 more particular town schools, of later years in this 
 colony, and of the great difficulty and charge to make 
 pay &c., for the maintaining children at the schools 
 or college in the bay, and that notwithstanding what 
 this court did order last year or formerly, nothing 
 hath yet been done to attain the ends desired, upon 
 which considerations and other like, this court for 
 further encouragement of this work doth now order, 
 that over and above the 40 per annum, granted the 
 last year for the end then declared, that 100 stock 
 shall be duly paid in from the jurisdiction treasury, 
 according to the manner and times agreed and expres- 
 sed in the court records, giving and granting that 
 special respect to our brethren at Newhaven, to be 
 first in imbracing or refusing the court's encourage- 
 ment or provision for a school, whether to be settled 
 at Newhaven town or not ; but if they shall refuse, 
 Milford is to have the next choice, then Guilford, and 
 so in order every other town on the main within the 
 jurisdiction have their liberty to accept or refuse the 
 court's tender, yet it is most desired of all that New- 
 haven would accept the business, as being a place 
 most probable to advantage the well carrying on of
 
 NEW HA YEN COLONY, 1660. 299 
 
 the school, for the ends sought after and endeavored 
 after thereby ; but the college ( after spoken of ) is 
 affixed to Newhaven ( if the Lord shall succeed that 
 undertaking). It is further agreed that all and every 
 plantation who have any mind to accept the proposi- 
 tions about the school, shall prepare and send in their 
 answer unto the committee chosen (of all the magis- 
 trates and settled elders of this jurisdiction, to order, 
 regulate and dispose, all matters concerning the school, 
 as the providing instruments and well carrying on of 
 the business, from time to time as they shall judge 
 best,) before the 24th of June instant, that so if any 
 plantation do accept, the committee may put forth 
 their endeavors to settle the business ; but if all refuse, 
 then it must be suspended until another meeting of 
 this General Court. 
 
 And for further encouragement of learning, and 
 the good of posterity in that way, Mr. John Daven- 
 port, pastor of the church of Christ at Newhaven, 
 presented a writing, (as before appears,) whereby and 
 wherewith he delivered up all his power and interest, 
 as a trustee by Mr. Hopkins, for recovering and 
 bestowing of all that legacy given by him, for the end 
 of furtherance to the settlement of a COLLEGE AT 
 KEWHAVEN ; he also propounded therewith, what he 
 apprehends hath been granted and set apart by the 
 town of Newhaven for the same end, with a request 
 that matters thereabout might be ordered and carried on 
 according to such propositions as are therein set down. 
 All which the general court took thankfully, both 
 from the donors and Mr. Davenport, and accepted the 
 trust and shall endeavor by God's help to get in the 
 said estate and improve it to the end it was given for. 
 
 By way of further answer to what was propounded
 
 300 LAWS AND ORDERS OF 
 
 by Mr. Davenport in his writing presented, the court 
 declared that it was their desire that the colony- 
 school may begin at the time propounded, and to that 
 end desire that endeavors may be put forth- by the 
 committee of magistrates and settled elders formerly 
 appointed for the providing a schoolmaster, &c., to 
 whom also they leave it to appoint a steward or 
 receiver, which steward or receiver they empower as 
 is propounded, and to settle a committee from among 
 themselves to issue emergent cases, and to take order 
 that a chest be provided wherein the writings may be 
 laid np that concern this business. The courj; further 
 declared that they do invest Mr. Davenport with the 
 power of a negative vote, for the reason and in the 
 cases according to the terms in his writing specified, 
 and that they shall be ready to confirm such orders 
 as shall be presented which in the judgment of the 
 court shall be conducible to the main end intended. 
 
 It is ordered for encouragement of such as shall 
 diligently and constantly (to the satisfaction of the 
 civil authority in each plantation) apply themselves 
 to due use of means for the attainment of learning, 
 which may fit them for public service, that they shall be 
 freed from payment of rates with respect to their 
 persons; provided, that if any such shall leave off or 
 not constantly attend those studies, they shall then 
 be liable to pay rates in all respects as other men are. 
 
 It is ordered that if the colony school shall begin 
 any time within the first half year from this court of 
 election, that 40 shall be paid by the treasurer for 
 this year, and if it shall begin at any time before the 
 election next, that 20 shall be paid by the treasurer 
 upon that account. (374-76.)
 
 VIII. 
 
 THE "BLUE LAW" FORGERIES OF PETERS. 
 
 Of the Rev. Sam. Peters and Vis veracious " General History of 
 Connecticut," enough has been said in the Introduction to thi 
 volume (pages 41-46). After giving some account of the "Domin- 
 ion of Hartford" where the Rev. Thomas Hooker and his associ- 
 ates, by infecting bibles, had, "to the eternal infamy of the Chris- 
 tian policy," contrived to spread the small-pox among the Indians, 
 and so "swept away the great Sachem Connecticote [ an imaginary 
 personage] and laid waste his ancient kingdom," Peters proceeds 
 to sketch the history of the " Dominion of New Haven." "This 
 Dominion, this tyrant of tyrants, adopted the Bible for its code of 
 civil laws, till others should be made more suitable to its circum- 
 stances :" but afterwards, "they gave themselves up to their own 
 inventions in making others, wherein, in some instances, they 
 betrayed such an extreme degree of wanton cruelty and oppression, 
 that even the rigid fanatics of Boston, and the mad zealots of 
 Hartford, put to the blush, christened them the Blue Laws" etc. 
 (p. 43). On page 63, he introduces his "sketch" of this code, as 
 follows : 
 
 "The laws made by this independent Dominion, 
 and denominated Blue-Laws by the neighbouring 
 Colonies, were never suffered to be printed ; but the 
 following sketch of some of them will give a tolerable 
 idea of the spirit which pervades the whole. 
 
 1. The Governor and Magistrates, convened in 
 general Assembly, are the supreme -power under 
 God of this independent Dominion.* 
 
 * The General Court (which in New Haven Colony was never 
 301
 
 302 THE "ELUE LAW" 
 
 2. From the determination of the Assembly no 
 appeal shall be made. 
 
 3. The Governor is amenable to the voice of the 
 people. 
 
 4. The Governor shall have only a single vote in 
 determining any question ; except a casting vote, 
 when the Assembly may be equally divided. 
 
 5. The Assembly ot the People shall not be dis- 
 missed by the Governor, but shall dismiss itself. 
 
 6. Conspiracy against this Dominion shall be 
 punished with death. 
 
 7. Whoever says there is a power and jurisdiction 
 above and over this Dominion, shall suffer death and 
 lose of property. 
 
 8. Whoever attempts to change or overturn this 
 Dominion shall suffer Death. 
 
 9. The judges shall determine controversies with- 
 out a jury. 
 
 10. No one shall be a freeman, or give a vote, 
 unless he be converted, and a member in full com- 
 munion of one of the Churches allowed in this Do- 
 minion.* 
 
 11. No man shall hold any office, who is not sound 
 
 denominated the "General Assembly'') consisted of the Governor, 
 Deputy Governor, and Magistrates, " and two deputies for each 
 plantation," chosen by the freemen ; "and nothing shall be conclu- 
 ded, and pass as an act of the General Court ( unless in cases ex- 
 pressly excepted,) but by the consent and vote of the major part of 
 the magistratesj together with the consent and vote of the greater 
 part of the Deputies." Fundamental Agreement; see, before, 
 pages!83, 186. 
 
 * The law only required membership "of some one or other ot 
 the approved churches of New England." See, before, page 180.
 
 FORGERIES OF PETERS. 303 
 
 in the faith, and faithful to this Dominion ; and who- 
 ever gives a vote to such a person, shall pay a fine of 
 JB1; for a second offence, he shall be disfranchised. 
 
 12. Each freeman shall swear by the blesssed God 
 to bear true allegiance to this Dominion, and that 
 Jesus is the only King. 
 
 13. No Quaker or Dissenter from the established 
 worship of this Dominion shall be allowed to give 
 a vote for the election of Magistrates, or any officer. 
 
 14. No food or lodging shall be afforded to a 
 Quaker, Adamite, or other Heretic.* 
 
 15. If any person turns Quaker, he shall be ban- 
 ished, and not suffered to return but upon pain of 
 death. 
 
 16. No Priest shall abide in the Dominion ; he 
 shall be banished, and suffer death on his retnrn.f 
 Priests may be seized by any one without a warrant. 
 
 17. No one to cross a river, but with an authorized 
 ferryman. 
 
 18. No one shall run on the Sabbath-day, or walk 
 in the garden or elsewhere, except reverently to and 
 from meeting. \ 
 
 * In another place ( p. 198 ), Peters says that entertainment of 
 Quakers, Anabaptists, or Adamites, was " punished for the first 
 and second offence with fines, and with death for the third." He 
 makes this statement in connection with what is perhaps the most 
 atrocious lie in his whole book which he professes to tell for the 
 purpose of "shewing the danger of admitting a wife to give evi- 
 dence against her husband, according to the Blue Laws." 
 
 f No Priest, &c. There was nothing like this in the code, but 
 New York had such a law, and Virginia forbade any popish priest 
 to remain in the province more than five days after notice, and 
 subjected every popish "recusant" to a heavy fine, on conviction. 
 
 J "In 1750, an episcopal clergyman, born and educated in Eng- 
 land, who had been in holy orders above twenty years, once broke
 
 304: THE "BL UE LA W " 
 
 19. No one shall travel, cook victuals, make beds, 
 sweep house, cut hair, or shave, on the Sabbath-day. 
 
 20. No woman shall kiss her child on the Sabbath 
 or fasting-day.* 
 
 21. The Sab.bath shall begin at sunset on Sat- 
 urday. 
 
 22. To pick an ear of corn growing in a neigh- 
 bour's garden, shall be deemed theft, f 
 
 their sabbatical law, by combing a discomposed lock of hair on the 
 top of his wig ; at another time, by making a humming noise, 
 which they called a whistling ; at a third time, by walking too 
 fast from church ; at a fourth by running into church when it 
 rained; at a fifth by walking in his garden, and picking a bunch of 
 grapes : for which several crimes he was complained of by the grand 
 jury, had warrants against him, was seized, brought to trial, and 
 paid a considerable sum of money." Peters, p. 305. It is needless 
 to add, that the " episcopal clergyman" and his trial, are as apocry- 
 phal as the "blue law" which he violated. 
 
 * No Woman shall kiss, etc. This reminds one of Josselyn's 
 abstract of an (imaginary) law of Massachusetts, about 1673 : "For 
 kissing a woman in the street, though in way of civil salute, 
 whipping, or a fine." Two Voyages to JV. England, p. 179. 
 
 John Taylor ("the Water Poet'') in his "Character of A Separa- 
 tist," mentions one precaution for the strict observance of the 
 Sabbath, which Peters forgot to add to his New Haven code : 
 "Upon the Sabbath, they'l noPhysick take, 
 Lest it should teorke, and so the Sabbath breake." 
 
 f The penalty for robbing a garden or orchard, or stealing fruit, 
 &c. was payment of double damages, and " such further fine and 
 punishment as the Court shall judge meet." See the code of 1G55, 
 (before, p. 197,) title "Burglary, and Theft." With this compare 
 the law of Virginia, 1610 - 12 : 
 
 "What man or woman soever shall rob any garden, public or 
 private, being set to weed the same, or wilfully pluck up therein 
 any root, herb, or flower, to spoil and waste or steal the same, or 
 rob any vineyard, or gather up the grapes, or steal any ears of 
 the corn growing, whether in the ground belonging to the same
 
 FORGERIES OF PETERS. 305 
 
 23. A person accused of trespass in the night shall 
 be judged guilty, unless he clear himself by his 
 oath. 
 
 24. When it appears that an accused has confed- 
 erates, and he refuses to discover them, he may be 
 racked.* 
 
 25. No one shall buy or sell lands without per- 
 mission of the selectmen. 
 
 26. A drunkard shall have a master appointed by 
 the selectmen, who are to debar him from the liberty 
 of buying and selling. 
 
 27. Whoever publishes a lye to the prejudice of his 
 neighbour, shall sit in the stocks, or be whipped fif- 
 teen stripes, f 
 
 28. No Minister shall keep a school. 
 
 29. Every rateable person who refuses to pay his 
 proportion to the support of the minister of the town 
 or parish, shall be fined by the Court 2, and 4 
 every quarter, until he or she pay the rate to the 
 Minister. 
 
 30. Men-stealers shall suffer death. 
 
 fort or town where he dwelleth, or in any other, shall be punished 
 with death.'' Laws for the Colony of Virginea, ( London, 1612,) 
 reprinted in Force's Tracts (vol. iii.), p. 17. 
 
 * Torture was much employed by the Dutch at New Amsterdam, 
 to extort confessions of crime and the betrayal of confederates ; 
 but it was never resorted to in New Haven or Connecticut. 
 
 f"The New Haven code [see, before, p. 239,] contained a law 
 against lying ; but it is not here correctly represented ; though it is a 
 little remarkable, that the author in this instance swerves less from 
 the fact than perhaps in the case of any other law in his whole list. 
 He must have felt a peculiar horror of that ordinance ; which cir- 
 cumstance probably fixed the terms of it more exactly in his mind." 
 Prof. Kingsley, Hist. Discourse, 107.
 
 306 THE ' 'SL UE LA W" 
 
 31. Whoever wears cloaths trimmed with gold, 
 silver, or bone lace, above two shillings by the yard, 
 shall be presented by the grand jurors, and fcke select- 
 men shall tax the offender at 300 estate. 
 
 32. A debtor in prison, swearing he has no estate, 
 shall be let out, and sold, to make satisfaction. 
 
 33. Whoever sets a fire in the woods, and it burns 
 a house, shall suffer death ; and persons suspected of 
 this iriine shall be imprisoned, without benefit of 
 bail.* 
 
 34. Whoever brings cards or dice into this Domin- 
 ion shall pay a fine of 5. 
 
 35. No one shall read Common-Prayer, keep Christ- 
 mas or Saints'-days, make minced pies, dance, play 
 cards, or play on any instrument of music, except the 
 drum, trumpet, and jews' -harp. 
 
 36. No Gospel Minister shall join people in mar- 
 riage. The Magistrates only shall join in marrriage, 
 as they may do it with less scandal to Christ's Church. 
 
 37. When parents refuse their children convenient 
 marriages, the Magistrates shall determine the point. 
 
 38. The selectmen, on finding children ignorant, 
 may take them away from their parents, and put them 
 into better hands, at the expense of their parents. 
 
 39. Fornication shall be punished by compelling 
 marriage, or as the Court may think proper. 
 
 40. Adultery shall be punished with death. 
 
 41. A man that strikes his wife shall pay a fine of 
 
 * " Whoever sets a fire," etc. See the law on this subject, in the 
 code of 1655, on page 222. The penalty was the payment of one 
 and a half the damage, or in default of payment, corporal punish- 
 ment at the discretion of the court.
 
 FORGERIES OF PETERS. 307 
 
 10 ; a woman that strikes her husband shall be pun- 
 ished as the Court directs. 
 
 42. A wife shall be deemed good evidence against 
 her husband. 
 
 43. No man shall court a maid in person, or by let- 
 ter, without first obtaining consent of her parents : 
 5 penalty for the first offence, 10 for the second ; 
 and for the third, imprisonment during the pleasure 
 of the Court. 
 
 44. Married persons must live together, or be im- 
 prisoned. 
 
 45. Every male shall have his hair cut round, 
 according to a cap."* 
 
 " Of such sort," remarks Peters, " were the laws 
 made by the people of New Haven, previous to their 
 incorporation with Saybrook and Hertford colonies 
 by the charter. They consist of a vast multitude, and 
 were very properly termed Blue Laws, i. e. bloody 
 Laws', for they were all sanctified with excommun- 
 ication, confiscation, fines, banishment, whippings, 
 cutting off the ears, burning the tongue, and death." 
 
 (pp. 69, 70.) 
 
 In another place (pp. 40-42,) he gives " a specimen of the tenets 
 established by Davenport " in the .New Haven church : 
 
 ' That all other Kings, besides Christ and his elected 
 People, are pestilent usurpers and enemies to God and 
 man : that all Vicars, Kectors, Deans, Priests, and 
 
 *Every male, etc. " When caps were not to be found, they 
 substituted the hard shell of a pumkin, which being put on the 
 head every Saturday, the hair is cut, by the shell, all round the 
 head." (Peters, p. 196.) "The pumpkin or pompion, is one of the 
 greatest blessings, and held very sacred, in New England. . . . 
 Its skin, or shell, serves lor caps to cut the hair (as already men- 
 tioned), and for very useful lanthorns." Ibid, 246.
 
 308 FORGERIES OF PETERS. 
 
 Bishops, are of the Devil ; are Wolves, petty Popes, 
 and antichristian Tyrants : . . . . that all things of 
 human invention in the worship of God, such as are 
 in the Mass-book and Common-Prayer, are unsavory 
 in the sight of God : . . . . that all good people ought 
 to pray always that God would raze the old Papal 
 foundation of episcopal government, together with the 
 filthy ceremonies of that anti-christian Church : that 
 every particular who neglects this duty, may justly 
 fear that curse pronounced against Meroz, Judg. v. 
 23 : .... that it is an heinous sin to be present when 
 prayers are read out of a book by aVicar or Bishop :" 
 &c.
 
 IX. 
 
 EARLY LAWS AND JUDGMENTS IN OTHER 
 AMERICAN COLONIES. 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 (UNDER THE DUTCH.) 
 
 CKtMES AND PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 "Judge Daly, in his valuable and interesting paper on the Judi- 
 cial organization of the State, says : ' Upon perusing the records 
 of New Amsterdam tribunals it is impossible not to be struck with 
 the comprehensive knowledge they display of the principles of 
 jurisprudence, and with the directness and simplicity with which 
 legal investigations were conducted. In fact, as a means of ascer- 
 taining truth and doing substantial justice, their mode of proceeding 
 was infinitely more effective than the technical and artificial system 
 introduced by their English successors.' The Dutch here were a 
 humane as well as a just people." The Old Stadt Huys of New 
 Amsterdam; a paper read before the New York Historical Society, 
 June 15th, 1875, by James W. Gerard; pp. 50, 61. 
 
 Most of the specimens here presented are taken from Dr. E. B. 
 O'Callaghan's "Calendar of Dutch Manuscripts" in the Secretary's 
 Office at Albany. To present these in their fairest possible light, 
 they are unaccompanied by any comments, except such as are sup- 
 plied by extracts from Mr. Gerard's historical monograph on "The 
 Old Stadt Huys of New Amsterdam," and by Judge Daly's remarks 
 on the directness and simplicity of Dutch legal proceedings. A 
 note or two from Mr. Brodhead's History of New York, contrasting 
 the Dutch with their bigoted neighbors of New England, will be 
 introduced further on. 
 
 Torture, in Criminal Prosecutions. 
 
 Oct. 5, 1639: Hendrick Jansen, gunner's mate of 
 309
 
 310 EARL T LA WS $c. 
 
 the ship Herring, from Bremen, charged with an 
 assault on the deputy fiscal, was subjected to torture, 
 "but he persisted in the lie." Calendar of Dutch 
 Mss., p. 69. 
 
 Nov. 22, 1641 : Jan Hobbesen, charged with theft 
 (stealing a sheet from a tavern) "persisting in denying 
 the charge, is put to the torture, after which he con- 
 fessed his guilt ;" is sentenced " to be whipped with 
 rods," and banished. Ibid., 77, 78. 
 
 May 31, 1646 : Hans Tymonsen, a ship's gunner, 
 "is asked to whom he sold the Company's powder, and 
 remaining obstinate, is ordered to be imprisoned, and 
 then subjected to torture if he do not confess." Ibid., 
 101. 
 
 Sept. 30, 1647: Michel Picquet, a Frenchman, 
 charged with slandering and threatening ex-director 
 Kieft and director Stuyvesant.. The opinion of Stuy- 
 vesant was, " that there being four witnesses in support 
 of the above charge, it is unnecessary to subject him 
 to torture". Ibid., 109, 113. [Picquet was sentenced 
 to 18 years imprisonment at hard labor, and perpetual 
 banishment.] 
 
 Aug. 24, 1654: A prisoner charged with burglary, 
 subjected to torture, by order of the Council, "in 
 order that he may discover his accomplices." Ibid., 140. 
 
 Dec. 6, 1663: Frans Jansen, charged with theft: a 
 motion that he be subjected to torture, to compel him 
 to answer certain interrogatories, was denied by the 
 council, because he " had already been once tortured, 
 and twice whipped, without eliciting any additional 
 information from him." Ibid., 256, 257. [He was 
 sentenced " to be severely flogged in public, and then 
 banished."]
 
 OF NEW YORK. 3H 
 
 Capital Offences. 
 
 1641. Jan, 17. Eight negroes who were accused of 
 the murder of another negro, pleaded guilty. The 
 Council sentenced the prisoners to draw lots, to deter- 
 mine who shall suffer death ; whereupon, the lot " by 
 God's providence " fell on Manuel Gerrit, " the giant " 
 who was sentenced to be hanged. Ibid., 74. 
 
 1644, July 7. Three soldiers tried by court martial, 
 for having (accidentally) killed a man, by the dis- 
 charge of a gun ; sentenced to be shot, but pardoned, 
 "such sentence having been pronounced only to make 
 an impression on them and others." Ibid., 89. 
 
 1646, June 25. Jan Creoli, a negro, convicted of 
 sodomy, the second offence ; sentenced "to be conveyed 
 to the place of public execution, and there choked to 
 death and then burnt to ashes." The Court base 
 their judgment on the ground that this crime is " con- 
 demned of God, Genesis, ch. 19 ; Levit., ch. 18, vv. 
 22, 29, as an abomination." Ibid., 103. 
 
 1660, June 17. A soldier, found guilty of the same 
 offence, sentenced to be stripped of his arms, his sword 
 broken at his feet, and then " to be tied in a sack and 
 cast into the river and drowned until dead." Ibid., 213. 
 
 Peculiar Penalties. 
 
 1646. A ship's chief-mate, for smuggling and theft, 
 and for an assault on the commissary, sentenced by the 
 Council, " to jump three times from the yard-arm, 
 to be whipped by all the crew, and immediately after- 
 wards turned out of the ship, with loss of three 
 month's wages." Ibid., 102. 
 
 1647, Nov. 15. Jonas Jonassen, a soldier, for rob- 
 bing hen-roosts and killing a pig, sentenced " to ride
 
 312 EARLY LAWS $c. 
 
 the wooden horse three days, from 2 p. M. till the con- 
 clusion of the parade, with a fifty pound weight tied 
 to each foot" Ibid., 114. 
 
 1648, March 3. An Englishman, guilty of forni- 
 c&tion, pardoned "on condition that \\zsawfircwood 
 one year for the "West India Company." Hid., 115. 
 
 1642, Aug. 14. The defendant in an action for 
 slander, is sentenced " to throw something in the box 
 for the poor" Ibid., 81. 
 
 1644, Nov. 25. Thomas Cornel, an Englishman, in 
 the service of the W. I. Company, tried for desertion, 
 and pleading guilty, was sentenced by the Council, 
 " to be conveyed to the place of execution, and there 
 fastened to a stake, and a ball fired over his head, as 
 an example to other evil doers" Ibid., 92. 
 
 1658, April 15. Nicholas Albertsen, for deserting 
 his ship, and his betrothed, after publication of the 
 banns, sentenced " to have his head shaved, then to be 
 flogged and have his ears bored, and to work two years 
 with the Company's negroes." Ibid., 194, 195. 
 
 1664, May 12. Jan Willemsen van Iselstein, for 
 abusive language and an insolent letter to the magis- 
 trates of Bushwyck, sentenced "to be fastened to a 
 stake at the place of public execution, with a bridle in 
 his mouth, rods under his arm, and a paper on his 
 breast with an inscription, 'Lampoon Writer, False 
 Accuser, and Defamer of Magistrates] and after- 
 wards banished, with costs." Ibid., 265. [The bearer 
 of the "insolent letter," for that offence and "for 
 using very indecent language" received a like sen- 
 tence.] 
 
 1664, July 29. Edward "Wells, found guilty of having 
 " asserted that Long Island was the King's territory,
 
 OF NEW YORK. 313 
 
 and that New Amsterdam -would soon become BO," 
 was sentenced to be tied to a stake, at the place of 
 execution," and a bridle put in his mouth, and to have 
 a paper fastened to his breast, inscribed with the words 
 'Disturber of the Public Peace,'' and to pay costs." 
 The sentence was afterwards commuted to a fine of 
 100 guilders. Ibid., 268. 
 
 Treatment of Slaves. 
 
 " Although slaves were held in New Amsterdam, they were 
 treated with great kindness, and allowed unusual license, and 
 could not be beaten, ad libitum, by their owners." Mr. J. W. Ger- 
 ard's paper on the The Old Stadt Huys t (read before the N. Y. Hist. 
 Society,) p. 51. 
 
 Nov. 17, 1639 : " At the requisition of the Attor- 
 ney General, it was declared by Gysbert Opdyck, 
 Commissary in Fort Hope, that he gave his black 
 boy, named Louis Barbese [Berbice ?] the pan to fry 
 cakes, and whereas the fire was too hot for the boy, 
 so Opdyck took the pan in his own hand, and placed 
 his knife in the hands of the black, then he com- 
 manded the boy to fetch a dish, who brought one very 
 unclean, on which Opdyck struck the black, who, to 
 evade it, tried to take hold of Opdyck, who thrusted 
 him away, so that the boy fell down on his left side, 
 when he kicked him with his feet. The boy then 
 went out of the door and fell down ; when Opdyck 
 discovered the knife, crooked as a hoop, and went to 
 look at the boy, who was wounded in his body under 
 the left arm, and died very suddenly." Dutch Kec- 
 ords (Translated), vol. ii. p. 72. 
 
 DEALINGS WITH DISSENTERS. 
 
 " When under the insania of religious sectarianism, the arm of 
 the civil government in New England, as has been remarked by 
 
 14
 
 314 EARLY LAWS $c. 
 
 Judge Story, was employed in support of the denunciations of the 
 Church,' the Island of Manhattan was a refuge for the oppressed." 
 Gerard's The Old Stadt Huys, pp. 46-7. 
 
 " There were doubtless some who emigrated merely to en- 
 large their estates. But there were many others, whose only mo- 
 tive for the change was the religious intolerance of their own 
 countrymen. They left New England to seek, in New Netherland, 
 'freedom to worship God.' Brodhead's History of New York, i. 
 334. 
 
 "If the Fatherland gave an asylum to self-exiled Puritans of 
 England, New Netherland as liberally sheltered refugees from the 
 intolerant governments on her eastern frontier." Ibid., 749. 
 
 1654. The Lutherans petitioned for permission 
 to worship in a church of their own, and to call a cler- 
 gyman. Director Stuy vesant refused, for the reason 
 that he was bound by his oath to tolerate openly no 
 other religion than the Reformed (Brodhead's Hist, 
 of N. Y., i. 581). The Lutherans were " not allowed 
 to call a minister, or to enjoy freedom of worship." 
 (Calendar of Dutch MSB., p. 279.) 
 
 1656. Proclamation against unauthorized Conven- 
 ticles : " To promote the glory of God, the increase 
 of the [Dutch] Reformed religion, and the peace and 
 harmony of the country," all preachers not having 
 been called thereto by lawful authority, are forbidden 
 to hold conventicles not in harmony with the estab- 
 lished religion as set forth by the Synod of Dort, " and 
 here in this land and in the Fatherland, and in other 
 Reformed churches observed and followed." Every 
 unlicensed preacher who violated this ordinance, 
 incurred a fine of 100 pounds Flemish, and every per- 
 son who should attend such a prohibited meeting, 
 became liable to a penalty of 25 pounds. Brodhead's 
 History, i. 617. 
 
 1658, April 16. The Rev. Johannes Ernestus
 
 OF NEW YORK. 
 
 Gutwater, a Lutheran minister, was ordered by the 
 council " to quit the province and return to Holland." 
 Calendar of Dutch Mss., 195. 
 
 1659, Feb. 13. The Directors order that Lutherans 
 shall not be allowed the public exercise of their relig- 
 ion. Ibid., 287. 
 
 Baptists. 
 
 1656, Nov. 8. The sheriff of Flushing, Wm. Ilal- 
 let, removed from office, fined 501. Flemish, and 
 banished, and to remain in prison till his fine and 
 costs are paid, for allowing Baptist conventicles in 
 his house. Ibid., 177. 
 
 William Wickendam, for officiating as a gospel 
 minister, at Flushing, without authority, fined 100Z. 
 Flemish, and banished, and imprisoned until his fine 
 and costs are paid.* Ibid., 177. 
 
 Quakers. 
 
 1657, August. Two English Quakers arrested and 
 imprisoned at New Amsterdam, for public preaching. 
 When discharged, they with other Quakers who had 
 come in the same ship, left for Rhode Island, where 
 (wrote Dominie Megapolensis) "all kinds of scum 
 dwell, for- it is nothing else than a sink for New 
 England." Brodhead, i. 636. 
 
 1657. Robert Hodgson, a Quaker, arrested at 
 
 *" Last year a fomenter of error came there. He was a cobbler 
 from Rhode Island, in New England, and stated that he was com- 
 missioned by Christ. He began to preach at Flushing, and then 
 went with the people into the river and dipped them. This becom- 
 ing known here [at New Amsterdam], the Fiscal proceeded thither 
 and brought him along." Letter of Aug. 5, 1657, from the Rev. 
 Messrs. Megapolensis and Drisius to the classis of Amsterdam; 
 in O'Callaghan's Doc. Hist, of New York, iii. 71.
 
 316 EARLY LAWS $c. 
 
 Heemstede (L. I.) and committed to the dungeon of 
 Fort Amsterdam. Sentenced by the Council to pay 
 a fine of 600 guilders, or to labor two years at a wheel- 
 barrow, in company with a negro. On his refusal to 
 work, when chained to the barrow, he was beaten by 
 a negro with a tarred rope, till he fell down. Finally, 
 after frequent whippings, he was banished from the 
 province. IT>id., 636. 
 
 1657. Proclamation against Quakers. Yessels 
 bringing any Quaker into the province, were to be 
 confiscated, and every person who should entertain a 
 Quaker for a single night was to be fined 50 pounds. 
 Ibid., 637. 
 
 1658. John Tilton,town clerk of Gravesend (L. I.), 
 fined 12 pounds Flemish, for giving a lodging to a 
 woman of " the abominable sect called Quakers." 
 Ibid., 188. 
 
 1658, Jan. 1. The (English) magistrates and inhab- 
 itants of Flushing, L. I., arrested and tried, for having 
 presented to the Council a remonstrance against the 
 proclamation against Quakers. Calendar of Dutch 
 Mss., 187. 
 
 1661. Henry Townsend, of Jamaica, fined 25 
 pounds for attending Quaker meetings. Samuel 
 Spicer, a Quaker, fined 12Z. John Til ton and John 
 Townsend, Quakers, banished the province. Ibid., 
 220, 224. 
 
 1662. Another proclamation against the public ex- 
 ercise of any religion but the Dutch Reformed, " in 
 houses, barns, ships, woods, or fields," under penalty 
 of 50 guilders; double for the second offence ; quad- 
 ruple for the third, with other correction at the dis- 
 cretion of the court. BrodJiead, i. 706.
 
 OF NEW YORK. 317 
 
 1662, Sept. John Browne, of Flushing, a Quaker, 
 fined 25. for lodging Quakers, and holding meet- 
 ings of " that abominable sect." (Oct.) John and 
 Mary Tilton for frequenting conventicles, and Michal 
 Spicer and her son Samuel, for harboring Quakers and 
 distributing Quaker pamphlets, were ordered to leave 
 the province before Nov. 20th. Calendar, p. 240. 
 
 1663. Jan. 9th, John Bowne, refusing to pay his 
 fine, after three months' imprisonment, was sentenced 
 to be transported from the province, "in the first ship 
 ready to sail." [Like Roger Williams, he was cast out 
 " in the dead of winter."] JBrodhead, i. 706. 
 
 Support of the Ministry. 
 
 1662, May 25. Levy of execution granted against 
 the inhabitants of Heemstede, L. I., who had refused 
 to pay their tax for support of a minister. Calendar, 
 237. 
 
 (NEW YORK UNDER THE ENGLISH.") 
 "The spirit of peace and good will that reigned in New Amster- 
 dam still breathed benignly over the city changed in name, and 
 stamped it then, as now, imperial, not only in commerce, but in 
 humanity." The Old Stadt Ifuys, p. 44. 
 
 Proclamation against Presbyterian Preachers. 
 
 1707. "Whereas I am informed that one Mackennan 
 [Rev. Francis Makemie] and one Hampton [Rev. 
 John Hampton ], two Presbyterian Preachers who 
 lately came to this City, have taken upon them to 
 preach in a private house, without having obtained 
 any license for so doing, which is directly contrary 
 to the known laws of England ; and being likewise 
 informed, that they are gone into Long Island, with 
 intent there to spread their Pernicious Doctrine and
 
 318 EARLY LAWS $c. 
 
 Principles, to the great disturbance of the Church 
 by law Established, and of the Government of this 
 Province : You are therefore hereby required and 
 commanded to take into your custody the bodies of 
 the said Mackennan and Hampton, and them to bring 
 with all convenient speed before me, at Fort Anne 
 in New York. And for so doing, this shall be your 
 sufficient Warrant. Given under my hand, at Fort 
 Anne, this 21st day of January, 1706-07. 
 
 COKKBUBY. 
 
 To Thomas Cardale Esqr. High Sheriff 
 of Queen's County," etc. 
 
 [The Rev. Messrs. Makemie and Hampton, who 
 stopped a few days in New York, on their way to 
 New England, had preached, the one in a private 
 house in the city, the other at Newtown, L. I. Under 
 the foregoing warrant from the Governor, both were 
 arrested, and imprisoned nearly two months, before 
 being admitted to bail. Mr. Makemie was tried, in 
 June, 1707, and acquitted by the jury, but the Court 
 compelled him to pay for the costs of prosecution 
 and expenses, about 300 dollars. See "A Narrative 
 etc., of the Prosecution of Mr. Francis Makemie, for 
 Preaching one Sermon at the City of New York," 
 reprinted in Force's Tracts, vol. 4.] 
 
 Ministers paid and Churches ~built "by Taxation. 
 
 1693. Whereas Prophaneness and Licentiousness 
 hath of late overspread this Province, for want of a 
 settled ministry, whereby the Ordinances of God 
 may be duly administered, etc., Enacted, That in 
 each of the cities and counties hereafter named, there 
 be called, induced, and established one good and
 
 OF NEW YORK. 319 
 
 sufficient Protestant Minister, within one year after 
 the date of this act. 
 
 And for the encouragement of the Ministers, there 
 shall be paid to them, respectively, as follows : for 
 the city and county of New York, 100 pounds per 
 annum ; for the two precincts of "Westchester, 100 
 pounds ; for the county of Richmond, 40 pounds, in 
 country produce at money price ; for the two pre- 
 cincts of Queen's county, 120 pounds to each, etc. 
 
 The Justices, Yestryrnen, and Churchwardens, or 
 a majority of them, shall lay a reasonable tax on the 
 respective cities, counties, parishes, or precincts, for 
 the maintenance of the Minister and Poor of their 
 respective places. 
 
 A roll of the tax so made shall be delivered to the 
 respective constables, with a warrant signed by any 
 two Justices of the Peace, empowering them to levy 
 the same, and on default of payment to distrain and 
 sell by out-cry, and pay the same into the hands of 
 the Churchwardens, etc. 
 
 1699. Enacted, that the Trustees of any Town, or 
 any Persons chosen by a majority of the freeholders, 
 shall have power once a year to make a yearly rate 
 for the erecting a public edifice, or church for the 
 worship of God, or for a town-house, or gaol, for the 
 use of the respective town or place where the same is 
 wanting. 
 
 The tax and rate to be laid and levied in the same 
 manner as other public taxes are laid. 
 
 On the refusing or neglect of payment, the money to 
 be levied by distress, by warrant from a Justice of the 
 
 Peace. 
 
 Against Jesuits and Romish Priests. 
 
 1699. All Jesuits, Seminary Priests, Missionaries,
 
 320 EARL Y LA WS $c. 
 
 or ecclesiastical persons, made or ordained by any 
 power or jurisdiction derived or pretended from the 
 Pope, or See of Rome, now residing or being within 
 this Province, must depart therefrom on or before 
 the first day of November, 1700. If any such con- 
 tinue, remain, or come into the Province after the 
 said first of November, he shall be deemed an incen- 
 diary, a disturber of the public peace, an enemy of 
 the true Christian Religion, and shall stiff er perpetual 
 imprisonment. 
 
 If any such person being actually committed, shall 
 break prison and escape, he shall be guilty of felony, 
 and, if retaken, shall die as a felon. 
 
 Persons receiving, harbouring, succouring, or con- 
 cealing any such person, and knowing him to be 
 such, shall forfeit the sum of 200 pounds, half to the 
 King and the other half to the prosecutor, shall be 
 set in the Pillory three days, and find sureties for 
 their good behavior, at the discretion of the Court. 
 
 Any Justice of the Peace may cause any person 
 suspected to be of the Romish clergy, to be apprehen- 
 ded, and if he find cause may commit him or them, in 
 order to a trial. 
 
 Any person without warrant may seize, apprehend, 
 and bring before a magistrate any person suspected 
 of the crimes above named, and the Governor with 
 the Council may suitably reward such person as they 
 shall think fit.
 
 OF VIRGINIA. 321 
 
 VIRGINIA. 
 
 The following are from the "Articles, Laws, and Orders, Divine, 
 Politique, and Martial, for the Colony in Virginia: first established 
 by Sir Thomas Gates, Knight, Lieutenant-General, the 24th of May, 
 1610. Again exemplified and enlarged by Sir Thomas Dale, Knight, 
 Marshall, and Deputie Governour, the 22d of June, 1611." 
 
 3. That no man blaspheme God's holy name, upon 
 pain of death ; or use nnlawfull oaths, taking the 
 name of God in vain, curse, or ban, upon pain of 
 severe punishment for the first offence so committed, 
 and for the second, to have a bodkin thrust through 
 his tongue ; and if he continue the blaspheming of 
 God's holy name, for the third time so offending he 
 shall be brought to a martial court, and there receive 
 censure of death for his offence. 
 
 6. Every man and woman duly twice a day, upon 
 the first tolling of the bell, shall, upon the working 
 days, repair untp the church, to hear divine service, 
 upon pain of losing his or her day's allowance, for 
 the first omission ; for the second, to be whipt, and 
 for the third, to be condemned to the galleys for six 
 
 months Every man and woman shall repair in 
 
 the morning to the divine service and sermons preached, 
 upon the Sabbath day, and in the afternoon to divine 
 service, and Catechising, upon pain for the. first fault 
 to lose their provision and the allowance for the 
 whole week following ; for the second, to lose the said 
 allowance and also to be whipt ; and for the third to 
 suffer death. 
 
 12. No manner of person whatsoever shall dare to 
 
 detract, slander, calumniate, or utter unseemly and 
 
 unfitting speeches against his Majesty's Honourable 
 
 Council for this Colony, ... or against the zealous 
 
 14*
 
 322 EARL Y LA WS $c. 
 
 endeavors and intentions of the whole body of Adven- 
 turers for this pious and Christian Plantation, .... 
 upon pain, for the first time so offending, to be whipt 
 three several times, and upon his knees to acknowledge 
 his offence and to ask forgiveness upon the Sabbath 
 day in the assembly of the congregation ; [for the 
 second offence, to be condemned to the galleys for 
 three years, and for the third, to suffer death.] 
 
 22. There shall no man or woman, launderer, or 
 launderess, dare to wash any unclean linen, drive 
 bucks, or throw out the water or suds of foul clothes, 
 in the open street, within the palisadoes, or within forty 
 foot of the same, nor rench [rinse] and make clean any 
 kettle, pot, or pan, or such like vessel, within twenty 
 foot of the old well or new pump, .... upon pain of 
 whipping and further punishment, as shall be thought 
 meet, by the censure of a martial Court. 
 
 LAWS AND ACTS OF ASSEMBLY. 
 CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 1643. " Be it also enacted and confirmed, etc., That 
 what person or persons soever shall feloniously kill a 
 tame hogg, being none of his owne, and being thereof 
 lawfully convicted, shall suffer as a felon " [i. e. death]. 
 Hen ing's Statutes at Large, i. 244. 
 
 [In November, 1647, this penalty was mitigated to 
 a fine of 2000 Ibs. of tobacco, or two years' penal ser- 
 vitude. Ibid., 351.] 
 
 1662. The Court, in every county, " shall cause 
 to be sett up a pillory, a pair of stocks, and a whip- 
 ping-post, neere the court-house, and a ducking stoole 
 in such a place as they shall think convenient, that 
 such offenders as by the laws are to suffer by any of 
 them may be punished according to their demeritts."
 
 OF VIRGINIA. 323 
 
 Any court failing to execute this order, within six 
 months, was to be fined 5000 Ibs. of tobacco. Ibid-., 
 ii. 75. 
 
 1662. Whereas oftentimes many brabbling women 
 often slander and scandalize their neighbours, for 
 which their poore husbands are often brought into 
 chargeable and vexatious suites, and cast in greate 
 damages : Be it therefore enacted, etc., That in actions 
 of slander occasioned by the wife as aforesaid, after 
 judgment passed for damages, the woman shall bepun- 
 ished by ducking and if the slander be so enormous 
 as to be adjudged at a greater damage than 500 Ibs. 
 of tobacco, then the woman to suffer a ducking for 
 each jive hundred pounds adjudged against the hus- 
 band, if he refuse to pay the tobacco. Ibid., ii. 166-67. 
 
 1662. Taking advantage of the law that " every 
 woman servant having a bastard, shall serve two years " 
 after the expiration of her original term, " some dis- 
 solute masters have gotten their maids with child," so 
 as to retain them longer in service ; whereupon, an 
 act was passed, providing that 
 
 " Women servants got with child by their masters, 
 shall, after their time expired, be sold by the Church- 
 wardens for two years, for the good of the parish." 
 Ibid., 167. 
 
 AGAINST NONCONFORMISTS AND DISSENTERS. 
 
 [The Kev. Thomas W. Coit, D.D., remarks on the 
 contrast the early legislation of Virginia presents to 
 the exclusiveness and intolerance of Puritanism in 
 New England. "How different," he writes, "the 
 
 Erinciple with which Episcopal Virginia commenced 
 er career, viz, 'universal suffrage and equality'! 
 . . . Well may Mr. Burk say of the noble State
 
 324: EARLY LAWS $c. 
 
 whose history he has undertaken. . . . Yirginia, 
 separated as it were from the whole world, heard 
 the voice of liberty like sweet music in her wilds." 
 Puritanism, pp. 463-4. 
 
 "With this glowing eulogy, compare the plainer 
 prose of an illustrious son of Yirginia, Thomas Jef- 
 ferson : 
 
 " The first settlers of [Yirginia] were emigrants 
 from England, of the English church, just at a point 
 of time when it was flushed with complete victory 
 over the religions of all other persuasions. Possessed, 
 as they became, of the powers of making, administer- 
 ing, and executing the laws, they shewed equal intoler- 
 ance in this country with their Presbyterian brethren 
 who had emigrated to the northern goverment . . . 
 Several acts of the Yirginia Assembly, of 1659,. 
 1662, and 1693, had made it penal in parents to refuse 
 to have their children baptized ; had prohibited the 
 unlawful assembling of Quakers ; had made it penal 
 for any master of a vessel to bring a Quaker into the 
 State : had ordered those already here, and such as 
 should come thereafter, to be imprisoned till they 
 should abjure the country, provided a milder penalty 
 for the first and second return, but death for their 
 third. If no capital executions took place here, as 
 did in New England, it was not owing to the moder- 
 ation of the church, or spirit of the legislature, as 
 may be inferred from the law itself ; but to historical 
 circumstances which have not been handed down to 
 us." Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, 1788, p. 167.] 
 
 March, 1623-24. "Whosoever shall absent him- 
 self from divine service any Sunday, without an allow- 
 able, excuse, shall forfeit a pound of tobacco, and he 
 that absenteth himself a month shall forfeit 50 Ibs. of 
 tobacco." Hening's Statutes at Large, i. 123. 
 
 Marcht 1642-3. "For the preservation of the puri- 
 tie of doctrine and unitie of the church, It is enacted, 
 that all ministers whatsoever that shall reside in this
 
 OF VIRGINIA. 325 
 
 Colony are to be conformable to the orders and con- 
 stitutions of the Church of England, and the lawes 
 therein established, and not otherwise to be admitted 
 to teach or preach publickly or privately. And that 
 the Governour and Counsel do take care that all non- 
 conformists, upon notice of them, shall be compelled to 
 depart the Colony with all conveniencie." Ibid., i. 
 277. 
 
 1645-46. [By an act of June, 1641, continued by 
 act of February, 1644, all ministers were required to 
 " preach in the forenoon and catechize in the afternoon 
 of every Sunday," under a forfeiture of 500 Ibs of 
 tobacco :] Be it now further enacted, that all masters 
 of families upon warning given by the ministers, . . 
 . . do cause their children and servants to repaire to 
 the places appointed, to be instructed and catechized, 
 upon the like penalty, . . . unless sufficient cause be 
 shewn to the contrary." Ibid., i. 312. 
 
 1661. No minister shall be allowed to officiate in 
 this Country, but such as produce to the governor a 
 testimonial, that he hath received his ordination from 
 some Bishop in England, and shall then subscribe to 
 be conformable to the Orders and Constitutions of the 
 Church of England. Mercer's Abridgment, (1737,) 
 177. 
 
 1652. All persons inhabiting in this country, having 
 no lawful excuse, shall every Sunday resort to their 
 Parish Church or Chapel, and there abide orderly 
 during the Common-Prayer, Preaching, and Divine 
 Service, upon the penalty of being fined 50 Ibs. of 
 Tobacco by the county court. 
 
 This act shall not extend to Quakers or other 
 recusants who totally absent themselves, but they
 
 326 EARL Y LA WS, $c. 
 
 shall be liable to the penalty imposed by the Statute, 
 23 Elizabeth, viz. 20 sterling for every month's 
 absence. 
 
 1695. Any person of full age, absent from divine 
 service at his or her parish Church or Chapel, the 
 space of one month, (except such protestant Dissen- 
 ters as are excepted by the Act of Parliament of 
 "William and Mary,) to be fined five shillings, or 50 
 pounds of Tobacco ; and on refusal to make present 
 payment, or give sufficient caution for payment 
 thereof, to receive, on the bare back, ten lashes, well 
 laid on. Mercer, p. 209. 
 
 Against Papists. 
 
 1641.- ["Popish recusants" may not exercise the 
 places of secret counsellors, register, commissioners, 
 surveyor, or sheriff, under forfeiture of 1000 Ibs. of 
 Tobacco.] 
 
 1643. [The assembly directs the above statute to 
 be duly executed, and enacts:] 
 
 " That it should not be lawful, under the penalty 
 aforesaid, for any popish priest that shall hereafter 
 arrive, to remain above five days after warning given 
 by the governor, or commander of the place where he 
 or they shall be, if wind and weather hinder not his 
 departure." Hening, i. 268, 269. 
 
 1705. Popish recusants convict, negroes, mulattoes, 
 Indian servants, and others, not being Christians, 
 shall not be received as witnesses, in any case 
 whatsoever. Mercer, 93. 
 
 Against Quakers. 
 
 March, 1660. "An Act for the suppressing of 
 the Quakers." "Whereas there is an unreasonable
 
 OF VIRGINIA. 327 
 
 and turbulent sort of people, commonly called Quakers, 
 who contrary to law do dayly gather together unto 
 them unlawful assemblies and congregations of people, 
 teaching, and publishing lies, miracles, false visions, 
 prophecies, and doctrines [etc.] . . . .To prevent and 
 restrain which mischiefe, 
 
 "It is enacted. That no master or commander of 
 any shipp or other vessell do bring into this Collonie 
 any person or persons called Quakers, under the 
 penalty of 100 sterling .... All such Quakers as 
 have been questioned or shall hereafter arrive shall 
 be apprehended wheresoever they shall be found and 
 they be imprisoned without baile or mainprize till 
 they do abjure this country or putt in security with 
 all speed to depart the. Collonie and not to return 
 again. [If they " dare to presume to return," they 
 are to be proceeded against and punished "as con- 
 temners of the laws," and caused to depart the country]. 
 And if they should the third time be so audacious 
 and impudent as to return hither, to be proceeded 
 against as felons " [i. e. to be punished with death]. 
 Hening, i. 532. 
 
 1662. Quakers or other recusants who totally absent 
 themselves from the Parish Church, shall be liable to 
 a penalty of 20 sterling for every month's absence. 
 And all Quakers assembling in unlawful Conven- 
 ticles shall be fined, every man so taken, 200 pounds 
 of Tobacco for every such time of meeting. 
 
 1663. If Quakers, or other Separatists whatsoever, 
 in this Colony assemble themselves together to the 
 number of five or more, of the age of sixteen years 
 or upwards, under the pretence of joining in ^.religious 
 worship not authorized in England or thw country, 
 the parties so offending being thereof lawfully convict
 
 328 EARL Y LA WS, $c, 
 
 by verdict, confessions, or notorious evidence, shall 
 for the first offence forfeit 200 Ibs. of tobacco ; for 
 the second, 500 Ibs of tobacco; and for the third 
 offence, the offender being convict as aforesaid shall 
 be banished the colony of Virginia. 
 
 Every master of a ship or vessel that shall bring in 
 any Quakers to reside here, after July 1st next, shall 
 be fined 5000 Ibs. of tobacco. 
 
 Any person inhabiting this country, entertaining 
 any Quaker in or near his house, to preach or teach, 
 shall for every time of such entertainment be fined 
 5000 Ibs. of tobacco. 
 
 Miscellaneous Enactments. 
 
 1662. "An Aot prohibiting the importation of 
 unnecessary Commodities. "Whereas the lowe prices 
 of tobacco will hardly supply the urgeing and pressing 
 
 necessities of the country, etc Be it enacted, 
 
 that no strong drink of what sort soever, nor silke 
 stuffe in garments or in peeces (except for whoods 
 and scarfes), nor silver or gold lace, nor bone lace of 
 silk or thread, nor ribbands wrought w r ith silver or 
 gold in them, shall be brought into this country to 
 sell, after the first of February next ; under penalty 
 of confiscation of the said goods by the seller to the 
 governor, to be exported, and the value thereof by 
 the buyer to that good commonwealth-man that shall 
 discover it." Hening, ii. 18. 
 
 [This law is crossed with a pen on the AIS. record, and Mr. 
 Jefferson " conjectured it was negatived by the governor." 
 Ibid., note.] 
 
 1661. Ordered, that the order of the quarter-court 
 the 27th of March, 1661, prohibiting Roger Partridge 
 and Elizabeth his wife, to keep any maid servant, for
 
 OF VIRGINIA. 
 
 the tearme of three yeares, be by this Assembly 
 confirmed and ratified. Ibid., 35. 
 
 1632, Sept. " Mynisters shall not give themselves 
 to excess in drinking or ryott, spending their tyme 
 idelie by day or night, playinge at dice, cards, or any 
 other unlawfull game, but at all tymes convenient 
 they shall heare or reade somewhat of the holy 
 scriptures, or shall occupie themselves with some other 
 honest studies, or exercise, always doing the things 
 which shall apperteyne to honestie, and endeavour to 
 profitt the church of God, having always in mynd 
 that they ought to excell all others in puritie of life, 
 and should be examples to the people to live well and 
 Christianlie." Hening, i. 183. 
 
 1632, Sept. " Because of the low price of Tobacco 
 at present, it is further graunted and ordered, that 
 there shall be likewise due to the Mynisters, from the 
 first day of March last past, for and during the term of 
 one whole year next ensueinge, the twentyeth calfe, 
 the twentyeth kidd of goates, and the twentyeth 
 pigge, throughout all the plantations is this Colony," 
 etc. Ibid., 183. 
 
 1734. "When any Free Indian shall be tried for 
 Murder or other Felony, any free Indian may be 
 examined, without oath, upon the trial, for or against 
 the criminal. " If it shall appear to the Court that 
 such witness hath given false testimony, the Court, 
 without further trial, shall order such witness to have 
 one ear nailed to the Pillory, and there to stand an 
 hour, then to have that ear cut off; and the other 
 nailed to, and cut off, at the expiration of another 
 hour." Mercer's Abridgment, 1737, p. 30.
 
 330 EARLY LAWS, $c. 
 
 MARYLAND. 
 
 The charter of Maryland, granted to a Koman Catholic subject, 
 by a protestant king moved by " a laudable zeal for extending 
 the Christian religion," guaranteed the protection of Christianity as 
 professed by the Church of England. It conferred the authority to 
 enact, with the assent of the freemen, such laws as were "not re- 
 pugnant, but agreeable, to the jurisprudence and rights of the realm 
 of England," and expressly provided that no construction of it 
 should be made whereby the Christian religion, or the allegiance 
 due to the Crown, should suffer any diminution. The planters and 
 their posterity were declared to be " entitled to the liberties of 
 Englishmen, as if they had been born within the kingdom." Before 
 the coming of Leonard Calvert in 1634, a protestant settlement had 
 been established (at Kent Island) within the bounds of the Mary- 
 land patent, and of those who accompanied him in the first emigra- 
 tion " by far the larger number were Protestants " (Bancroft, 
 cent, ed., i. 185). At the first assembly of the freemen, it was en- 
 acted " that offenders, in all murders and felonies, shall suffer the 
 same pains and forfeitures as for the same crimes in England." 
 The third assembly, in Feb. 1638-9, adopted a provisional code of 
 laws, in which was incorporated the declaration (from Magna 
 Charta) that "Holy church within this province shall have all her 
 rights and liberties," but, as Chalmers observes, "what the fran- 
 chizes of the church of Maryland were do not appear, and probably 
 the wisest of her doctors would have been puzzled to tell." In 1676, 
 this act was confirmed, as a perpetual law. So long as the pro- 
 prietary was of a different religion from that professed by a great 
 majority of the people, mutual toleration was a necessity. When 
 puritanism was in the ascendant in England, and the abrogation 
 of Lord Baltimore's charter was urged upon the Parliament, he ap- 
 pointed a protestant governor of Maryland and bound him, by his 
 official oath, not " directly to trouble, molest or discountenance 
 any person whatsoever in the said province, professing to believe in 
 Jesus Christ; and, in particular, no Roman Catholic," etc. ; and in 
 April, 1649, the assembly, composed of Roman Catholics and Pro- 
 testants, passed an act establishing the religious freedom of all 
 Christians, but imposing the penalty of death for blasphemy, and 
 the denial or reproach of the Holy Trinity, or any of the three 
 persons thereof, and a fine of 5 for speaking reproachfully against 
 the Blessed Virgin or the apostles. Of the earliest laws of Mary- 
 land few have been preserved. The abstracts here given are from 
 revisions of 1699 and 1700.
 
 OF MARYLAND. 331 
 
 Blasphemy, Swearing, <&c. 
 
 1649, 1699. If any person whatsoever inhabiting 
 this Province shall blaspheme, that is, curse God, deny 
 our Saviour to be the Son of God, or deny the Holy 
 Trinity, or the Godhead of any of the three Persons, 
 or the Unity of the Godhead, or shall utter any re- 
 proachful words or language concerning the Holy 
 Trinity, or any of the three Persons thereof, he or she 
 shall for the first offence be bored through the tongue, 
 and fined 20 sterling, to the king, or if the party 
 hath not an estate sufficient to answer the sum, then 
 to suffer six months' imprisonment. For the second 
 offence, he or she shall be stigmatized in th*e forehead, 
 with the letter B, and fined 40 sterling, (&c.) or be 
 imprisoned for one year. And for the third offence, 
 he or she so offending and thereof legally convicted, 
 shall suffer death, with confiscation of all their goods 
 and chattels to the king. 
 
 If any person prophanely swear or curse, in the 
 hearing of any one justice of peace, or head officer of a 
 town, or that shall be thereof convicted by the oath of 
 one witness before any one justice or other head officer, 
 or by confession of the party, he shall forfeit 5 sh. 
 sterling to the king. 
 
 Ordinaries and Inns. 
 
 1699. Every ordinary-keeper that shall demand or 
 take above 10 Ibs. of tobacco for a gallon of small 
 beer, 20 Ibs. of tobacco for a gallon of strong beer, 4 
 Ibs. of tobacco for a night's lodging in a bed, 12 Ibs. of 
 tobacco for a peck of Indian corn or oats, 6 Ibs. of 
 tobacco for a night's grass for a horse, 10 Ibs. of tobacco
 
 332 EARL Y LA WS, $c. 
 
 for a night's hay or straw, shall forfeit for every such 
 offence 500 Ibs. of tobacco. 
 
 No inhabitant of this Province shall sell without 
 license any cider, quince drink, or other strong liquor, 
 to be drunk in his or her house, upon penalty of 1000 
 Ibs. of tobacco for every conviction. 
 
 No ordinary-keeper shall refuse to credit any person 
 capable of giving a vote for election of delegates in 
 any county, for any accommodations by him vended, to 
 the value of 400 Ibs. of tobacco, under the penalty of 
 400 Ibs. of tobacco. 
 
 No ordinary-keeper within this Province, during 
 the time of his keeping ordinary, shall be elected to 
 serve as a deputy or representative in the General 
 Assembly. 
 
 JKeligion. 
 
 1700. The Book of Common Prayer and adminis- 
 tration of the Sacraments, with other rites and cere- 
 monies of the Church of England etc., shall be sol- 
 emnly read by all ministers in the churches and 
 other places of worship in this Province. 
 
 In every parish where any minister or incumbent 
 shall reside, no justice or magistrate shall join any 
 persons in marriage under the penalty of 5000 Ibs. of 
 tobacco, to the king. 
 
 For the encouragement of able ministers etc., 
 instead of tithes, a tax or assessment of 40 Ibs. of 
 tobacco per poll shall be yearly levied upon every tax- 
 able person in every parish in this Province. Which 
 said assessment shall always be paid to the ministers 
 of every parish, etc.
 
 OF MASSACHUSETTS. 333 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 The founders of Connecticut borrowed most of their laws and 
 judicial proceedings from Massachusetts. Their legislation was 
 certainly not more "blue" than that of the Bay Colony, their pen- 
 alties were not more severe, nor more rigorously exacted. The 
 following orders and sentences of the Massachusetts Court of 
 Assistants and General Court (before the establishment of the 
 " Body of Liberties " in 1640) are extracted from the printed Colony 
 Records, Vol. I. 
 
 Sept. 1630. It is ordered by this present Court, 
 that Thomas Morton, of Mount Wolliston, shall pres- 
 ently be sett into the bilbowes, and after sent prisoner 
 into England, by the shipp called the Gifte, no we 
 returning thither; that all his goods shalbe seazed 
 upon to defray the charge of his transportation, 
 payment of his debts, and to give satisfaction to the 
 Indians for a cannoe hee unjustly tooke away from 
 them ; and that his howse, after the goods are taken 
 out, shalbe burnt downe to the ground in the sight 
 of the Indians, for their satisfaction, for many wrongs 
 hee hath done them from tyme to tyme. 
 
 It is ordered, that noe person shall plant in any 
 place within the lymittsof this Pattent, without leave 
 from the Governor and Assistants, or the major parte 
 of them. 
 
 It is ordered, that all Eich : Cloughe's strong water 
 shall presently be seazed upon, for his selling greate 
 quantytie thereof to severall men's servants, which 
 was the occasion of much disorder, drunckenes, and 
 misdemeanour. 
 
 Nov. 1630. It is ordered, that John Baker shalbe 
 whipped for shooting att f owle on the Sabboth day, 
 etc.
 
 334: EARL Y LAWS, $c. 
 
 March, 1631. Mr. Thomas Stoughton, constable of 
 Dorchester, is fyned 5 for takeing upon him to 
 marry Clement Briggs and Joane Allen, and to be 
 imprisoned till hee hath paid his fyne. 
 
 It is ordered, that if any person within the lymitts 
 of this Pattent doe trade, trucke, or sell any money, 
 either silver or golde, to any Indian, or any man that 
 knowes of any that shall soe doe and conceales the 
 same, shall forfeit twenty for one. 
 
 Nich. Knopp is fyned 5 for takeing upon him to 
 cure the scurvey, by a water of noe worth nor value, 
 which he soldo att a very deare rate, to be imprisoned 
 till hee pay his fine or give securitye for it, or else to 
 be whipped ; and shalbe lyable to any man's action of 
 whome he hath receaved money for the said water. 
 
 It is likewise ordered, that all persons whatsoever 
 that have cards, dice, or tables in their howses, shall 
 make away with them, before the nexte Court, under 
 paine of punishment. 
 
 June, 1631. It is ordered, that noe man within 
 the limitts of this jurisdiction shall hire any person, 
 for a servant for lesse time than a yeare, unles hee be 
 a setled housekeeper ; also, that noe person whatso- 
 ever shall travell out of this Pattent, either by sea or 
 land, without leave from the Governor, Deputy Gov- 
 ernor, or some other Assistant, under such penalty as 
 the Court shall thinke meete to inflict. 
 
 It is ordered, that Phillip Ratliffe shalbe whipped, 
 have his eares cutt off, fyned 40, and banished out 
 of the lymitts of this jurisdiction, for uttering mal- 
 litious and scandulous speeches against the govern- 
 ment and the church of Salem, etc., as appeareth by a 
 particular thereof, proved upon oath.
 
 OF MASSACHUSETTS. 335 
 
 Sept. 1631. It is ordered, that Henry Lynn shalbe 
 whipped and banished the plantation before the 6th 
 day of October nexte, for writeing into England falsely 
 and mallitiously against the government and execu- 
 tion of justice here. 
 
 It is ordered, that Josias Plastowe shall (for stealeing 
 4 basketts of corne from the Indians) returne them 8 
 basketts againe, be fined 5, and hereafter to be called 
 by the name of Josias, and not Mr., as formerly hee 
 used to be, * and that Willm. Buckland and Tho. 
 Andrewe shalbe whipped for being accessary to the 
 same offence. 
 
 April, 1632. Tho. Knower was sett in the bilbov es 
 for threatning the Court that, if hee should be pun- 
 isht, hee would have itt tryed in England whither hee 
 was lawfully punished or not. 
 
 August, 1632. It is ordered, that the remainder of 
 Mr. Allen's stronge water, being estimated about 2 
 gallands, shalbe delivered into the hands of the dea- 
 cons of Dorchester, for the benefit of the poore there, 
 for his selling of it dyvers tymes to such as were 
 drunke with it, hee knowing thereof. 
 
 * This judgment has often been pointed to as a choice specimen 
 of puritan jurisprudence. Hutchinson (Hist, of Mass., i. 384) cites 
 it, amongst others, to show that the sentences of the early Massa- 
 chusetts courts were "adapted to the circumstances of a large 
 family of children and servants ; " and he remarks, that the colonists 
 were careful that no title or appellation should be given where it 
 was not due, etc. The true explanation of the sentence passed on 
 Plastowe is this: "Master" was the title of a gentleman, and 
 gentlemen were exempt from corporal punishment. "Mr. "Plas- 
 towe was fined for stealing, while his accomplices were- whipped, 
 The Court deprived him of his safeguard by reducing him to plain 
 " Josias."
 
 336 EARLY LAWS, $c. 
 
 Sept. 1632. It is ordered, that Eobert Shawe 
 shalbe severely whipt, for wicked curseing, eweareing, 
 justifyeing the same, and gloryeing iu it, as hath been 
 proved by oath. 
 
 It is ordered, that Richard Hopkins shalbe severely 
 whipt, and branded with a hott iron on one of his 
 cheekes, for selling peecesand powder and shotttothe 
 Indeans. Hereupon it was propounded if this offence 
 should not be punished hereafter by death. 
 
 Tobacco. 
 
 Oct. 1632. It is ordered, that noe person shall take 
 any tobacco publiquely, under paine of punishment ; 
 also that every one shall pay Id. for every time hee is 
 convicted for takeing tobacco in any place, and that 
 any Assistant shall have power to receave evidence 
 and give order for the levyeing of it, as also to give 
 order for the levyeing of the officer's charge. This 
 order to begin the 10th of November next. 
 
 Sept. 1634:. Yictualers, or keepers of an Ordinary, 
 shall not suffer any tobacco to be taken in their howses, 
 under the penalty of 5s. for every offence, to be payde 
 by the victuler, and 12<#. by the party that takes it. 
 
 Further, it is ordered, that noe person shall take 
 tobacco publiquely, under the penalty of 2s. 6^., nor 
 privately, in his owne house, or in thehowse of another, 
 before strangers, and that two or more shall not take 
 it togeather, anywhere, under the aforesaid penalty 
 for every offence. 
 
 March, 1635. It is further ordered, that noe person 
 whatsoever shall either buy or sell any. tobacco within 
 this jurisdiction after the last of September nexte,
 
 OF MASSACHUSETTS. 337 
 
 under the penalty of 10s. a pound, and soe propor- 
 tionably for more or lesse, to be paide by buyer and 
 seller, and that in the meane tyme noe person shall 
 buy or sell any tobacco att a higher price then it shalbe 
 valued att by the Governor for the tyme being, arid 
 two other, whome hee shall please to chuse, under the 
 penalty aforesaid. 
 
 Nov. 1637. All former laws against tobacco are 
 repealed, and tobacco is sett at liberty. 
 
 Sept. 1638. The [General] Court, finding that 
 since the repealing of the former laws against tobacco, 
 the same is more abused then before, it hath there- 
 fore ordered, that no man shall take any tobacco in 
 the feilds, except in his journey, or at meale times, 
 upon paine of I2d. for every offence ; nor shall take 
 any tobacco in (or so near) any dwelling house, barne, 
 corne, or hay rick, as may likely indanger the fireing 
 thereof, upon paine of 10s. for every offence ; nor shall 
 take any tobacco in any inne or common victualing 
 house, except in a private roome there, so as neither 
 the master of the same house nor any other guests 
 there shall take offence thereat ; which if they do, then 
 such person is fourthwith to forbeare, upon paine of 
 2s. 6d. for every offence. 
 
 Noe man shall kindle fyre by gunpowder, for take- 
 ing tobacco, except in his journey, upon paine o.f 12d. 
 for every offence. 
 
 April, 1633. It is ordered, that if any swine shall, 
 in fishing time, come within a quarter of a mile of the 
 stadge att Marble Harbour, that they shalbe f orfected 
 to the owners of the said stadge, and soo for all other 
 stadgcs within their lymitts. 
 15
 
 338 EARLY LAWS, $c. 
 
 Sept. 1633. John Sliotswcll is lined 405. for dis- 
 tempering bimselfe with drinke att Aggawam. 
 
 Roberte Coles is fined 10, and enjoyned to stand 
 with a white sheete of paper on his back, wherein A 
 DRUNKARD shalbe written in greate letters, and to stand 
 therewith soe longe as the Court thinks meete, for 
 abuseing himselfe shamefully with drinke, .... and 
 other misdemeanour. 
 
 Capt. John Stone for his outrage committed in 
 confronting aucthority, abuseing Mr. [Roger] Lud- 
 lowe both in words and behavour, assalting him, and 
 calling him a Just as, &c., is fined 100, and prohibi- 
 ted comeing within this pattent without leave from 
 the goverment, under the penalty of death. 
 
 Pay of Mechanics and Labourers. 
 
 Oct. 1633. It is ordered, that maister carpenters, 
 sawers, masons, clapboard-ryvers, brick elayers, tylars, 
 joyners, wheelewrights, mowers, &c., shall not take 
 above %s. a day, finding themselves dyett, and not 
 above 14e. a day if they have dyett found them, under 
 the penalty of 5s., both to giver and receaver, for 
 every day that there is more given and receaved. 
 Also, that all other inferior w r orkemen of the said 
 occupations shall have such wages as the constable 
 of the said place, and two other inhabitants that hee 
 shall chuse, shall appoynct. 
 
 Also, it is agreed, that the best sorte of labourers 
 shall not take above ISd. a day if they dyett them- 
 selves, and not above S<7. a day if they have dyett 
 found them, under the aforesaid penalty both to giver 
 and receaver. Likewise, that the wages of inferior la- 
 bourers shalbe referd to the constable and two others, 
 as aforesaid.
 
 OF MASSACHUSETTS. 339 
 
 Maister taylours shall not take above 12<?. a day 
 and the inferiour sorte not above Sd., if they be dyefced, 
 under the aforesaid penalty ; and for all other worke 
 they doe att home, proportionably, and soe for other 
 worke that shalbe done by the greate, by any other 
 artificer. 
 
 Further, it is ordered, that all workcmen shall worke 
 the whole day, allowing convenient tyrne for food and 
 rest. This order to take place the 12th of this present 
 moneth. 
 
 It is further ordered, that noe person, howsehoulder 
 or other, shall spend his time idly or unproffltably, 
 under paine of such punishment as the Court shall 
 thinke meeteto inflicte ; and for this end it is ordered, 
 that the constable of every place shall use spetiall 
 care and diligence to take knowledge of offenders in 
 this kinde, espetially of common coasters,* unprofita- 
 ble fowlers, and tobacco takers, and to present the 
 same to the two nexte Assistants, whoe shall have 
 power to heare and determine the cause, or, if the 
 matter be of importance, to transferr it to the Court. 
 
 March, 1C34. John Chapman is fined 20$. for sell- 
 ing boards at 8s. per 100, contrary to an order of 
 Court, and is remitted upon promise of 300 of 4 inch 
 plankc towards the Sea Fort. 
 
 Tymothy Hawkins and John Yauhan fined 205. a 
 peece for mispending their ty me in company keepeing, 
 drinkeing stronge water, and selling other, contrary to 
 an order of Court. 
 
 *" Coasters" or " cursetors " (i.e. " cursitors ") ; vagranta, 
 vagabonds.
 
 340 EARLY LAWS, &c. 
 
 It is ordered, that Roberte Coles, for drunckenes by 
 him committed att Rocksbury, sluilbe disfranchized, 
 weare aboute his necke, and soe [as] to liange upon 
 his outward garment, a D, made of redd cloath, and 
 sett upon white ; to contynue this for a yeare, and not 
 to leave it off att any tyrne when hee comes amongst 
 company, under the penalty of 40s. for the first offence, 
 and 5 the second, and after to be punished by the 
 Court as they thinke meete : Also, hee is to weare 
 the D outwards ; and is enjoyned to appeare att the 
 nexte Generall Court, and contynue there till the 
 Court be ended. [In May, 1634, this sentence was 
 remitted, upon the submission of the offender and 
 testimony of his good behavior.] 
 
 Aug. 1634. It was witnessed upon oath, that James 
 Rawlens tooke ISc?. a day, and meate and drinke, for 
 ten dayes' worke, for one of his servants, for weeding 
 corne, contrary to an order of Court, and therefore is 
 to pay 5*. for every day hee hath soe transgressed. 
 
 Price of Meals. 
 
 Sept. 1634. It is ordered, that noe person that 
 keepes an Ordinary shall take above Qd. a meale for a 
 person, and not above Id. for an ale qnarte of beare, 
 out of meale tyme, under the penalty of 10s. for every 
 offence, either of dyet or beare. 
 
 fashions of Dress. 
 
 Sept. 1634. The Court, takeing into consideration 
 the greate, superfluous, and unnecessary expences 
 occasioned by reason of some newe and immodest 
 fashions, as also the ordinary weareing of silver, golde, 
 and silke laces, girdles, hatbands, etc, hath therefore
 
 OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 ordered that noe person, either man or woman, shall 
 hereafter make or buy any apparell, either woollen, 
 silke, or lynnen, with any lace on it, silver, golde, 
 silke, or threed, under the penalty of forfecture of 
 such cloathes, etc. 
 
 Also, that noe person, either man or woman, shall 
 make or buy any slashed cloathes, other than one 
 slaslie in each sleeve and another in the backe ; also, 
 all cuttworks, imbroidered or needleworke capps, 
 bands, and rayles, are forbidden hereafter to be made 
 and worne, under the aforesaid penalty ; also, all gold 
 or silver girdles, hattbands, belts, ruffs; beaver hatts, 
 are prohibited to be bought and worne hereafter, 
 under the aforesaid penalty, etc. 
 
 Moreover, it is agreed, if any man shall judge the 
 weareing of any the forenamed particulars, newe 
 fashions, or long haire, or anything of the like nature, 
 to be uncomely or prejudicial! to the common good, 
 and the party offending reforme not the same upon 
 notice given -him, that then the nexte Assistant, being 
 informed thereof, shall have power to bind the party 
 soe offending to answer it at the nexte Courte, if the 
 case soe requires : 
 
 Provided, and it is the meaneingof this Court, that 
 men and women shall have liberty to weare out such, 
 apparell as they are nowe provided of (except the 
 immoderate greate sleeves, slashed apparell, immode- 
 rate greate rayles, longe wings, etc.). This order to 
 take place a fortnight after the publishing thereof. 
 
 Bullets, a Legal Tender. 
 March. 1635. It is ordered, that muskett bulletts,
 
 34:2 EARLY LAWS, $c. 
 
 of a full bore, shall passe currantly for a farthing a 
 peece ; provided that noe man be compelled to take 
 above 12d. att a tyme, iii them. 
 
 Absence from Church. 
 
 Whereas complainte hath bene made to this Court 
 that dyvers persons within this jurisdiction doe usually 
 absent themselves from church meeteings upon the 
 Lord's day, power is therefore given to any two Assis- 
 tants to heare and sensure, either by fyne or impris- 
 onment (att their discretion), all misdemeanours of 
 that kinde committed by any inhabitant within this 
 jurisdiction, provided they exceede not the fine of 5s. 
 . for one offence. 
 
 Wages and Prices. 
 
 Sept. 1635. Whereas two former lawes, the one con- 
 cerning the wages of workmen, the other concerning 
 the prices of commodyties, were for dyvers good 
 considerations repealed this present Court, nowe, 
 for avoydeing such mischeifes as may followe there- 
 upon by such ill-disposed persons as may take liberty 
 to oppresse and wronge their neighbours, by takeing 
 excessive wages for worke or unreasonable prizes for 
 such necessary merchandizes or other commodyties as 
 shall passe from man to man, it is therefore nowe 
 ordered, that if any man shall offend in any of the 
 said cases against the true intent of this lawe, hee 
 shalbe punished by fyne or imprisonment, according 
 to the quallity of the offence, as the Court upon lawfull 
 tryall and conviction shall adjudge. 
 
 Excessive Profits censured. 
 Oct. 1635. Josuah Huyes hath forfeit 5$. for
 
 OF MASSACHUSETTS. 343 
 
 knyves, and 4s. 6d. for a sythe, which hee solde for 
 above 4d. in the shilling proffitt. 
 
 Courts to observe the Laws of God. 
 
 May, 1636. The Governor, Deputy Governor, 
 Tho. Dudley, John Haynes, Richard Bellingham, 
 Esqrs., Mr. Cotton, Mr. Peters, and Mr. Shepheard are 
 intreated to make a draught of lawes agreeable to the 
 word of God, which may be* the Fundamentalls of 
 this Commonwealth, and to present the same to the 
 nexte Generall Court. And it is ordered, that in the 
 meane tyme the magistrates and their assosiates shall 
 proceede in the Courts to heare and determine all 
 causes according to the lawes now established, and 
 where there is noe law, then as neere the lawe of 
 God as they can ; and for all busines out of Court for 
 which there is noe certaine rale yett sett downe, those 
 of the standing counsell, or some two of them, shall 
 take order by their best discretion, that they may be 
 ordered and ended according to the rule of God's 
 word, and to take care for all military affaires till the 
 nexte Generall Court. 
 
 Restraining the Tongue. 
 
 Sept. 1636. Robert Shorthose, for swearing by the 
 bloud of God, * was sentenced to have his tongue put 
 into a cleft stick, and to stand so by the space of 
 haulfe an houre. 
 
 Elisabeth, the wife of Thomas Aplcgate, was cen- 
 sured to stand with her tongue in a cleft stick, for 
 sweareing, raileing, and revileing. 
 
 * ' Odsblood, or 'Sllood, was an oath often heard in England, 
 among the profane, at this period.
 
 344 EARL Y LA WS, $c. 
 
 Against Lace. 
 
 Oct. 1636. That no person, after one month, shall 
 make or sell any bone lace, or other lace, to bee worne 
 upon any garment or linnen, upon paine of 5s. the 
 yard for every yard of such lace so made or sould, or 
 set on ; neither shall any taylor set any lace upon any 
 garment, upon payne of 10*. for every offence ; pro- 
 vided that binding or small edging laces may bee 
 used upon garments of linnen. 
 
 The unmarried to be cared for. 
 
 Dec. 1636. It is ordered, that all townes shall take 
 care to order and dispose of all single persons and 
 inmates with their towne, to service, or otherwise ; 
 and if any be greived at the order of a towne, the 
 parties to have liberty to appeale to the Governor and 
 Counsell or the Courte. 
 
 A Solemn Admonition. 
 
 June, 1637. - Benjamin Hubberd was solemly 
 admonished of his failing, for being in company with 
 James Browne and the rest) and often drinking of the 
 strong-water bottle with them, and not reproving 
 them. 
 
 Price of Liquors and of Meals at Inns, regulated. 
 
 Nov. 1637. Whereas it hath appeared unto this 
 Court, upon many sad complaints, that much drunk- 
 ennes, waste of the good creatures of God, mispence of 
 precious time, and other disorders have frequently 
 fallen out in the inns and common victualing houses 
 within this jurisdiction, whearby God is nmch dis- 
 honoured, the profession of religion reproached, and
 
 OF MASSACHUSETTS. 345 
 
 the welfare of this commonwelth greatly impaired, 
 and the true use of such houses (being the necessary 
 releefe of travellers) subverted ; for redresse hearof 
 it is now ordered, that after the last day of this 
 present month, it shall not bee lawf nil for any person 
 that shall keepe any such inne or common victualing 
 house, to sell or have in their houses any wine or 
 strong waters, nor any beare, or other drinke, other 
 than such as may and shall be sould for one penny 
 the quart, at the most .... And it is further ordered- 
 that no common brewer shall sell or utter to any inn 
 or common victualing house, within this jurisdiction, 
 any beare or other drinke of any stronger size than 
 such as may and shalbe affoarded at the rate of 8A. 
 the barrell, upon paine of 20 for every offence 
 against this order. 
 
 And whereas complaint hath been also made that 
 diverse poore people, who would willingly content 
 themselves with meane dyot, are forced to take such 
 dyotas is tendered them at 12d. the meale or more, it 
 is now ordered, that every keeper of such inn or 
 common victualing house shall sell and alowe unto 
 every of their guests such victuals as they shall call 
 for, and not force them to take more or other than 
 they desire, bee it never BO meane and small in quan- 
 tity, and shall affoard the same and all other dyot at 
 reasonable prizes, upon paine of such fine as the 
 Court shall inflict, according to the measure and 
 quantity of the oifence. 
 
 Against Cakes and Buns. 
 
 It is ordered, also, that no person shall sell any cakes 
 or buns, either in the markets or victualing houses, or
 
 346 EARLY LAWS, $c. 
 
 elsewhere, upon paine of 10*. fine; provided that 
 this order shall not extend to such cakes as shalbee 
 made for any buriall, or marriage, or such like spetiall 
 occasion. 
 
 A Female Practitioner restrained. 
 
 March, 1638. Jane Hawkins, the wife of Richard 
 Hawkins, had liberty till the beginning of the third 
 month, called May, and the magistrates (if shee did 
 not depart before) to dispose of her ; and in the meane 
 time shee is not to meddle in surgery, or phisick, drinks, 
 plaisters, or oyles, nor to question matters of religion, 
 except with the Elders for satisfaction. 
 
 Swearing punished. 
 
 June, 1638. Robert Bartlet, being presented for 
 cursing and swearing, was censured to have his 
 tongue put in a cleft stick. 
 
 John Smith of Meadford, for swearing, being peni- 
 tent, was set in the bilboes. 
 
 March, 1639. John Hogges for swearing [by] 
 God's foote, and cursing his servant, wishing " a poxo 
 of God take you," was lined 5. 
 
 Extortion censured. 
 
 June, 1639. Edward Palmer, for his extortion, 
 taking 1. 13s. Id. for the plank and woodwork of 
 Boston stocks, is fined 5. and censured to bee set an 
 houre in the stocks. This was remitted to 10 sh.
 
 BLUE LAWS OF ENGLAND, 
 
 IN THE REIGN OF JAMES THE FIRST. 
 
 " In determining what kind of men our fathers were, we are to 
 compare their laws, not with ours, but with the laws which they 
 renounced." Something has been said in the Introduction to this 
 volume, of English criminal law at the time of the colonization of 
 New England. A few extracts from, and abstracts of, English 
 statutes in force in the reign of James the First may be grouped 
 here, to refresh the memory ot those who incline to believe that 
 penalties for dissent, fines for absence from church and for non- 
 observance of stated fasts, regulations of the hours of labor and 
 wages of artisans, laws against tippling and card-playing, and 
 against idleness and vagrancy, above all, laws for the punishment 
 of witchcraft and sorcery, were peculiar to puritan legislation in 
 New England. 
 
 PENALTIES OF .NONCONFORMITY AND "RECUSANCY." 
 
 [By the Statute of 35 Elizabeth, c. 1 ; If any above 
 the age of sixteen shall be convicted to have absent- 
 ed themselves above a month from Church, without 
 any lawful cause, to have impugned the Queen's 
 authority in causes ecclesiasticall, or to have persuaded 
 others to be present at any unlawful assemblies, 
 conventicles, or meetings under color or pretence of any 
 exercise of religion, or to have themselves willingly 
 joined in or been present at such conventicles or 
 meetings, they shall be committed to prison, and 
 there remain until they shall conform themselves, and 
 make open submission. And if within three months 
 after such conviction, they refuse to conform and 
 make public confession and submission, they shall, 
 being thereunto required by a Justice of the Peace, 
 in open assise or sessions, abjure the realm forever, 
 
 347 "
 
 348 BLUE LAWS 
 
 and shall thereupon depart the Realm, at such Port 
 and at such time as the said Justices shall appoint. 
 If any such offender shall refuse to make such abju- 
 ration, or to depart at the time appointed, or shall 
 return into any part of the Kealm, without special 
 license, such offender shall be adjudged a, felon and 
 shall suffer as in case of felony, without benefit of 
 clergy.] 
 
 No Kecusant convict shall at anie time after the end 
 of this session of Parliament (1605), practise the Com- 
 mon Law of this Realme, as a counsellor, clerke, 
 attorney, or solicitor in the same, nor shall practise 
 the Civil Law, as advocate, or proctor, nor practise 
 Phisicke, nor exercise or use the trade or art of an 
 Apothecarie, nor shall bee Judge, Minister, Clerke, or 
 Steward, of or in any Court, or keepe anie Court, nor 
 shall bee Register, or Town Clerke, or other minister 
 or officer in anie court, nor shall beare anie office or 
 charge, as Captaine, Lieutenant, Corporall, Serjeant, 
 Ensigne-bearer, or other office in campe, troupe, band, 
 or company of Souldiers, nor shall be Captaine, 
 Master, Govern our, or beare anie office or charge, of 
 or in anie Shippe, Castle, or Fortresse of the King's 
 majestic, his hey res and successors, but be utterly 
 disabled for the same ; and every person offending 
 herein shall also forfeit for everie such offence, one 
 hundred pounds. 
 
 No Popish recusant convict, nor any having a wife 
 being a popish recusant convict, shall at any time 
 after the. end of this session of Parliament, exercise 
 any pnblique office or charge in the Commonwealth, 
 but shall be utterly disabled to exercise the same by 
 himselfe, or by his deputie.
 
 OF ENGLAND. 349 
 
 Everie Popish recusant, which is or shall be con- 
 victed of Popish recusancie, shall stand and be 
 reputed to all intents and purposes disabled, as a 
 person lawfully and duely excommunicated, and as 
 if hee or shee had been so denounced and excom- 
 municated, according to the lawes of this Realine, 
 untill hee or shee so disabled shall conforme him or 
 herselfe, and come to Church, and heare Divine 
 Service, and receive the Sacrament of the Lorde's 
 Supper, according to the laws of this Eealme, and 
 shall also take the oath prescribed, etc. 3 James 
 I., c. 5. 
 
 PENALTIES FOE NOT GOING TO CHUECH. 
 
 All and everie person or persons inhabiting within 
 this Realme, or any other the Queene's Majestie's 
 dominions, shall diligently and faithfully, having noe 
 lawfull or reasonable excuse to bee absent, endevour 
 themselves to resort to the Parish Church or Chappell 
 accustomed, or upon reasonable let thereof, to some 
 usuall place where Common Prayer, and such Service 
 of God shall bee used, in such time of let, upon everie 
 Sunday, and other dayes ordayned and used to be 
 kept as Holy dayes : and then and there to abide 
 orderly and soberly, during the time of the Common 
 Prayer, preachings, or other Service of God there to 
 be used and ministred, upon payne of punishment 
 by the censures of the Church ; and also, upon 
 payne that everie person so offending shall forfeit for 
 everie such offence twelve pence, to be levyed by the 
 Churchwardens of the Parish, where such offence shall 
 be done, to the use of the pore of the same parish. 
 1 Eliz., c. 2. [Re-enacted, 3 James I., c. 4, with 
 the addition that if the Churchwarden cannot levy
 
 350 BLUE LAWS 
 
 the penalty by distress and sale of the goods of 
 the offender, a Justice of the Peace shall commit 
 such offender to prison, until payment be made.] 
 
 Everie person above the age of sixteene yeres, which 
 shal not repaire to some Church, Chappell, or usuall 
 place of Common Prayer, but forbeare the same, 
 contrarie to the tenor of a Statute [above recited] 
 made in the first yeare of her Majestie's raign for 
 uniformitie of Common prayer, and being thereof 
 lawfully convicted, shall forfeit to the Queene's Maj- 
 estie, for every moneth after the end of this Session 
 of Parliament, which he or she shall so forbeare, 
 twenty pounds of lawfull English money. And that 
 over and besides the said forfeitures, everie person 
 so forbearing by the space of twelve moneths, as 
 aforesaid, shal, for his or her obstinacie, after Certifi- 
 cat thereof in writing made into the Court commonly 
 called the King's Bench, etc., be bound with two 
 sufficient suerties, in the summe of two hundred 
 pounds at the least, to the good behaviour, and so to 
 continue bound, untill such time as the persons so 
 bound doe conforme themselves, and come to the 
 
 Church, etc And that everie person which 
 
 shall forfeit any summes of money by vertue of this 
 Act, and shall not be able, or shall faile to pay the 
 same within three moneths after judgment thereof 
 given, shall be committed to prison, there to remaine, 
 untill he have paid the said summes, or conforme 
 himselfe to go to church, and there doe as is afore- 
 said. 23 Eliz. c. 1. 
 
 Everie such offender in not repairing to Divine 
 Service, but forbearing the same, contrarie to the said 
 Estatute [above recited], as hath beene heretofore
 
 OF ENGLAND. 351 
 
 convicted for such offence, and hath not made submis- 
 sion, and been coiuformable, according to the true 
 meaning of the said Estatute, shall without any other 
 indictment or conviction, pay into the receipt of the 
 said Exchequer, all such suimnes of money, as accord- 
 ing to the rate of twentie pounds for everie moneth, 
 sithence the same conviction, doe yet remaine un- 
 payed. . . . And shall also for everie moneth after 
 such conviction, without any other indictment or 
 conviction, pay into the receipt of the Exchequer 
 aforesaid, at two times in the yeare, that is to say, in 
 everie Easter Terme and Michaelmas Terme, as much 
 then as shal remain unpaid, after the rate of twentie 
 pounds for every month after such conviction. 
 
 And if default shall be made in any part of paiment 
 aforesaid, contrarie to the forme herein before limited : 
 that then, and so often, the Queene's Majestic shall 
 and may, by proces out of the said Exchequer, take, 
 seise, and enjoy all the goods, and two parts as well 
 of all the lands, tenements, and hereditaments, leases 
 and farmes of such offender, .... leaving the third 
 part onely of the same lands, (etc.) to and for the 
 maintenance and reliefe of the sume offender, his 
 wife, children, and familie. 28 Eliz., c. 6. [Re-en- 
 acted, 3 James I., c. 4, with an additional provision, 
 that the King may " refuse the penaltie of 20. a 
 month, though it be tendered readie to be payed ac- 
 cording to the law," and may, instead, "seize and 
 take to his owne use, and the uses, intents, and pur- 
 poses hereafter limited, two parts in three parts of 
 the lands etc. of the offender, to be held to his own 
 uses, till such offender shall conform," &c.] 
 
 Everie person and persons which shall willingly
 
 352 BLUE LAWS 
 
 maintaine, retaine, relieve, Tteepe, or harbour in Iris or 
 their Louse, any servant, sojourner, or stranger, who 
 shall not goe to, or repayre to some Church, or 
 Chappell, or nsuall place of Common Prayer, to 
 heare Divine Service, but shall BO forbeare the same 
 by the space of one moneth together, not having a 
 reasonable excuse, etc., shall forfeit tenne pounds for 
 everie moneth that hee, shee, or they shall so relieve, 
 etc., such servant, sojourner, or estranger, in his or 
 their house. 3 James I., c. 4. 
 
 If any person or persons, body politiqiue or cor- 
 porate, shall keepe or maintaine any Schoolemaster 
 which shall not repaire to Church, as is aforesaid, or 
 be allowed by the Bishop or Ordinarie of the Dio- 
 cesse where such Schoolemaster shall be so kept, shall 
 forfeit and lose for everie moneth so keeping him, ten 
 pounds .... And such Schoolemaster or Teacher 
 presuming to teach, contrarie to this Act, and being 
 thereof lawfully convict, shall bee disabled to bee a 
 teacher of youth, and shall suffer imprisonment with- 
 out baile or mainprise for one yeare. 23 Eliz., c. 1. 
 
 [By the act of 1 James L, c. 4, every person was 
 forbidden to keep a school or be a Schoolmaster, out 
 of the Universities or Colleges of this Realm, " except 
 in some publique or free Grammar School, or in some 
 such nobleman's or noblewoman's or gentleman's or 
 gentlewoman's house, as are not Recusants," with- 
 out a special license from the Archbishop, Bishop, 
 or guardian of the Spiritualities of the diocese, under 
 pain of forfeiture, by employer and teacher, of forty 
 shillings for every day he shall so offend. 
 
 AGAINST EATING MEAT ON FISH-DAYS, AND IN LENT. 
 
 1564. From and after the Feast of Pentecost next 
 
 coinming, it shall not be lawfull to any person or
 
 OF ENGLAND. 353 
 
 persons within this Kealme, to eate any flesh upon 
 any dayes now usually observed as Fish dayes, or 
 upon any Wednesday now newly limited to be ob- 
 served as fish-day, upon paine that everie person 
 offending herein shall forfeit three pound for everie 
 time he or they shall offend, or else suffer three monetfis 
 close imprisonment without baile or maineprise. 
 5 Eliz., c. 5. [In 1594, the penalty for eating meat 
 on a fish day was abated to twenty shillings or one 
 month's close imprisonment. 35 Eliz., c. 7.] 
 
 1603. No butcher, or other person, whether he 
 be licenced or not licenced to kill flesh, shall from 
 henceforth at any time in the time of Lent, kill, 
 or dress, to the intent to put to sale, any oxe or 
 oxen, beeves, beevets, hogges, calves, ramme, eswes, 
 orwethers, except oxen or beeves for victualling of 
 shippes into forraine parts, and except all flesh to 
 be killedthree days next before Easter yearely, upon 
 paine to forfeit and lose the saip oxen, beeves, etc. so 
 killed or dressed contrary to this statute, or the value 
 of them. 
 
 And every taverner, innkeeper, keeper of everie 
 common tabling house, common cooke, common tipler, 
 or alehouse keeper, offending at anytime hereafter 
 in the dressing of anie flesh victuall, contrary to the 
 statute of Anno 5 Elizabethae, or contrary to this 
 statute, shall not only forfeit all the said flesh so 
 dressed, but also the penaltie imposed by the same 
 Statute of Anno 5 Elizabethan, for every offence to be 
 committed, after the feast of Saint Michaell the Arch- 
 angell next comming." 1 James I., ch. 29. 
 
 DRUNKENNESS ; ALEHOUSES, &c. 
 [If any Inne-keeper, Victualler, or Alehouse-keeper
 
 354: BLUE LAWS 
 
 permit or suffer any person, dwelling in the same 
 town, to sit tipling in his house, he shall forfeit ten 
 shillings for every such offence. 1 James I., c. 9.] 
 
 If any Inne-keeper, Alehouse keeper, or Victualler, 
 shall at anie time utter or sell lesse than one full ale 
 quart of the best beere or ale for a penny, and of the 
 small, two quarts for a penny, then everie such inne 
 keeper etc. shall forfeit for every such offence, being 
 duly prooved. twenty shillings [to the use of the poor 
 of the Parish.] Id. 
 
 [Any person who shall remain or continue drinking 
 or tipling in any inne, victualing house, or alehouse, 
 being in the same towne etc., shall forfeit for every 
 such offence three shillings fourpence, to the use of 
 the poor ; and if unable to pay, shall be set in the 
 stocks four hoiirs. For a second offence, he shall be 
 bound with two sureties, in the sum of ten pounds, to 
 good behavior. 4: James I., c. 5. 
 
 [Every person convicted of drunkenness shall for- 
 feit, for every such offence, five shillings ; and if un- 
 able to pay, shall be set in the stocks six hours. Id. 
 
 PLAYS AND GAMES. 
 
 Be it also enacted, etc. : That no manner of artificer 
 or craftsman, of any handicraft or occupation, hus- 
 bandman, apprentice, labourer, servant at husbandry, 
 journeiman or servant of artificer, mariners, fisher- 
 men, watermen, or any serving-man, shall, from the 
 feast of the Nativitie of St. John Baptist [now next 
 comming], play at the Tables, Tennis, Dice, Gardes, 
 Bowles, Closh, Coyting, Legating, or any other un- 
 lawfull game, out of Christmasse, under the pain of 
 twenty shillings, to be forfeit for every time, and 
 in Christmasse, to play at any of the said games in
 
 OF ENGLAND. 355 
 
 their masters' houses or in their masters' presence. 
 And also, that no manner of person shall at anie time 
 play at any bowle or bowles, in open places, out of 
 his garden or orchard, under the paine of every time 
 so offending, to forfeit five shillings eight pence. * * * 
 Provided also, and be it enacted, etc. : That it shall be 
 lawf nil for every Master to licence his or theyr servant 
 to play at cardes, dice, or tables, with their said master, 
 or with any other gentleman repairing to their said 
 master, openly in his or theyr house, or in his or theyr 
 presence, according to his or theyr discretion. 33 
 Hen. VIII., c. 9. 
 
 Be it also enacted, etc. : That no manner of person 
 or persons, of what degree, qualitie or condition 
 soever hee or they be, by himselfe, factour, deputy, 
 servant, or other person, shall for his or theyr gaine, 
 lucre or living, keepe, have, holde, occupie, exercise, 
 or maintaine any common house, alley, or place of 
 bowling, coiting, closh, cailes, halfe bowle, tennis, 
 dicing, tables, or carding, or any other manner of game 
 prohibited by any statute heretofore made, or any 
 unlawful! new game now invented or made, or any 
 other new unlawful! game hereafter to be invented, 
 etc., upon paine to forfeit and pay for every day 
 keeping, having, or maintaining, or suffering any 
 such game to be had, etc., contrary to the form and 
 effect of this Statute, forty shillings. Id. 
 
 BEGGARS AND VAGRANTS. 
 
 All persons calling themselves Scholars, going 
 about begging; all seafaring men, pretending losses 
 of their ships or goods on the sea, going about the 
 Oountrie begging ; all idle persons going about in any 
 Countrey, either begging or using any subtill craft or
 
 356 BLUE LAWS 
 
 unlawful games and playes, or fayning themselves to 
 have knowledge in Physiognomic, Palmistrie, or 
 other like craf tie science, etc. ; all persons that be, or 
 utter themselves to be proctors, procurers, patent- 
 gatherers, or collectors for gaoles, prisons, or hos- 
 pitals; all fencers, b'eare-wards, common Players of 
 Enterludes, and minstrels, wandering abroad (other 
 than players of eriterludes belonging to any Baron of 
 this Realm or any other honorable person of greater 
 degree, etc.} ; all jugglers, tinkers, pedlers, and petty 
 
 chapmen, wandering abroad ; all persons 
 
 delivered out of gaoles, that begge for their fees, or 
 otherwise travell begging ; all such persons as shall 
 wander abroad begging, pretending losses by fire, or 
 otherwise, etc., etc.) shall bee taken, adjudged, and 
 deemed, Rogues, Vagabondes, and sturdie Beggers. 
 
 [If any such persons shall be taken begging, va- 
 grant, wandering, or misordering him or herself, he or 
 she shall by the appointment of any Justice of Peace, 
 constable, head-borough or tithing man, "be stripped 
 naked from the middle upwards and shall be openly 
 whipped until his or her body be bloody, and shall be 
 forthwith sent from parish to parish," the nearest way, 
 to the place of their birth, or where they last dwelt. If 
 the place of birth or last residence cannot be discovered, 
 he or she is to be committed to the House of Correc- 
 tion or the common goal, and there set to work, and 
 so to continue for one year or until placed in service.] 
 39 Eliz., c. 4. 
 
 [Such rogues as appear to be dangerous to the in- 
 ferior sort of people or otherwise be such as will not 
 be reformed of their rogueish course of life, shall be 
 banished, and conveyed beyond the seas, or adjudged 
 perpetually to the Gallies of the Realm. If a rogue
 
 OF ENGLAND. 357 
 
 BO banished shall return, without license, he shall 
 suffer death as a felon. Id.] 
 
 For that the said rogues having no marke upon them 
 to be knowne by, notwithstanding such judgement of 
 banishment may returne etc. and so escape the due 
 punishment, etc. ; for remedie whereof bee it or- 
 dayned and enacted : That such rogues as shall bee 
 adjudged [by two Justices of the Peace] as aforesaid 
 incorrigible or dangerous, shall also by the judge- 
 ment of the same Justices etc. be branded in the left 
 shoulder, with an hot burning yron, of the breadth of 
 an English shilling, with a great Roman II upon the 
 yron, and the branding upon the shoulder to be so 
 thoroughly burned, and set on upon the skinne and 
 flesh, that the letter R be scene, and remayne for a 
 perpetual marke upon such rogue during his or her 
 life, etc. 
 
 If any rogue so punished shall offend againe, in 
 begging or wandering contrary to the Statute, the 
 party so offending shall be judged a felon, and shall 
 suffer [death] as in cases of felonie, without benefit 
 of clergie. 1 James I., c. 7.* 
 
 * This law continued in force till the reign of Queen Anne. 
 "Every cruelty short of scalping," says Burn, " was practised on 
 the English poor," even after the enactment of the Law of Settle- 
 ment in 16G2. "Whipping continued to be a favorite remedy for 
 poverty. By an Act passed, not in the reign of Hengist or Canute, 
 but of George the Second, ' a woman delivered of a child in a parish 
 to which she docs not belong, was liable to public whipping and 
 six months' imprisonment.' In George the Third's time, an Act 
 provides, ' that no justice of the peace shall order any vagrant to 
 be conveyed by a pass [to the place of his settlement,] who has 
 not been whipped, or imprisoned for at least seven days' (32 Geo. 
 III., c. 45). Certificates of the whipping, produced as a title to 
 relief, are still among the records of our parishes. Is there " asks
 
 358 BLUE LAWS 
 
 LABORERS, ARTISANS, &c. 
 
 All Artificers and Laborers, being hired for wages 
 by the day or weeke, shall, betwixt the midst of the 
 months of March and September, be and continue at 
 their worke, at or before five of the clocke in the 
 morning, and continue at worke, and not to depart, 
 untill betwixt seven and eight of the clocke at night 
 except it be in the time of breakefast, dinner, or 
 drinking, the which time at the most shall not exceede 
 above two houres and a halfe in the day : that is to say, 
 at every drinking one halfe houre, for his dinner one 
 houre, and for his sleepe, when he is allowed to sleepe 
 (the which is from the midst of May to the midst of 
 August) halfe an houre at the most, and at everie 
 breakefast one halfe houre : 
 
 And all the said labourers between the midst of 
 September and the middest of March, shall be and con- 
 tinue at their worke from the spring of the day in the 
 morning, untill night of the same day, except it be in 
 time before appointed for breakefast and dinner, upon 
 paine to lose and forfeit one penny for every houre's 
 absence, to be deducted and def aulked out of his wages 
 that should so offend. 5 Eliz., c. 4. 
 
 [The same act provides, that none that take work 
 "in great, in task, or in gross" (by the job) shall 
 leave the same before it be quite finished, except for 
 non-payment of his wages, the Queen's service, or 
 other lawful cause, under pain of a month's imprison- 
 ment and forfeiture of 5 to the party aggrieved, 
 besides costs and damages. 
 
 an English historian anything in Canciani [Laws of the Barba- 
 rians] more revolting to the instincts of freemen, or more surely 
 proving the degradation of the people ? " Phillimore's History of 
 the Reign of George the Third, p. 90.
 
 OF ENGLAND. 359 
 
 And that Wages of laborers, artificers, and others, 
 shall be yearly assessed, in each county, by the sheriff 
 and justices of peace ; and that none shall give greater 
 wages than those so fixed, under penalty of 5 and 
 ten days' imprisonment, and any laborer convicted of 
 taking greater wages shall suffer twenty-one days' 
 imprisonment.] 
 
 CONJURATIONS, ENCHANTMENT, AND WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 1615. Be it enacted, ete. : That if any person or 
 persons, after the feast of S. Michael the Archangell 
 next comming, shall use, practise, or exercise any Invo- 
 cation or Conjuration of any evill and wicked Spirit, 
 or shall consult, covenant with, entertaine, employ, 
 feede or reward any evill and wicked Spirit, to, or for 
 any intent or purpose, or take up any dead man, 
 woman, or child, out of his, her, or their grave, or 
 any other place, where the dead body resteth, or the 
 skinne, bone, or any other part of any dead person, to 
 be imployed or used in any manner of Witch-craft, 
 Sorcerie, Charme, or Inchantment, or shall use, prac- 
 tise or exercise any Witch-craft, Inchantment, Charme, 
 or Sorcerie, whereby any person shall be killed, des- 
 troyed, wasted, consumed, pined, or lamed, in his or 
 her body, or any part thereof: That then every such 
 offender or offenders, their ayders, abbetors, and coun- 
 sellors, being of any the said offences duly and lawfully 
 convicted and attainted, shall suffer paines of death, 
 as a felon, or felons, and shall lose the priviledge and 
 benefit of clergie, and sanctuarie. 
 
 And further, to the intent that all manner of prac- 
 tise, use, or exercise of Witchcraft, Enchantment, 
 Charme, or Sorcerie should be from henceforth utterly 
 avoided, abolished, and taken away, Beit enacted etc.,
 
 360 BLUE LAWS OF ENGLAND. 
 
 That if any person or persons shall from and after the 
 said feast of St. Michael the Archangellnext comming, 
 take upon him or them by Witchcraft, Inchauntment, 
 Charme, or Sorcerie, to tell or declare in what place 
 any Treasure of Gold or Silver should or might bee 
 found or had in the earth, or other secret places, or 
 where goods or things lost or stolen should be found, 
 or become, or to the intent to provoke any person to 
 unlawfull Love, or whereby any Cattell or Goods of 
 any person shall be destroyed, wasted, or impaired, 
 or to hurt or destroy any person in his or her bodie, 
 although the same be not effected and done : That 
 then all and every such person or persons so offending, 
 and being thereof lawfully convicted, shall for the 
 said offence suffer imprisonment by the space of one 
 whole yeare, without bayle or mainprise, and once in 
 every quarter of the said yeare shall, in some market 
 towne upon the market day, or at such time as any 
 Fayre shall bee kept, there stand openly upon the 
 Pillory by the space of sixe hours, and there shall 
 openly confesse his or her error and offence. 
 
 And if any person or persons being once convicted 
 of the same offences, as is aforesaid, doe eftsoonea 
 perpetrate and commit the like offence, that then 
 everie such offender being of any the sayde offences 
 the second time lawfully and duely convicted and at- 
 tainted, as is aforesaid, shall suffer paines of death as 
 a felon, or felons, and shall lose the beiiefite and priv- 
 iledge of Clergie and Sanctuarie. 1 James I., ch. 12.
 
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