On presentment by the grand jury[583] or voluntarily confessions were made by wives and husbands before the court; and these documents contain evidence of the close relation
CASES OF FORNICATION BEFORE MARRIAGE IN THE COUNTY COURT OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASS., 1649-86 [EXCEPT 1663-71]
During the same period these records contain five cases of fornication by single persons.
1. Fine only 15 married couples £20 (together) 1 " " £5 " 3 " " £4 " 6 " " £3 " 2 " " 40s. " 3 " "
2. Fine or stripes _a_) Fine 10 " " £1 (together) 5 " " £6 " 1 " " £4 " 3 " " £3 " 1 " " 50s. (wife) 1 _b_) Stripes 10 " 20 6 husbands 0 wives 15 1 " 0 " 10 3 " 10 "
3. Stripes only 15 1 " (the wife 50s. or whipped)
4. Confessions and petitions 3 married couples
existing between the colonial church and state. On October 31, 1671, for instance, Christopher Wheaton and Martha his wife were sentenced in Boston to make an acknowledgment "in publique at Hull to y^e Satisfaction of y^e Congregation, & pay twenty Shillings fine," on pain of being whipped ten stripes each by the constable.[584] An elaborate "church confession," found among the Middlesex Files, would seem to prove that in another case the decree of the court was obeyed; and that the written acknowledgment made before the congregation was returned to the court for record.[585]
[Footnote 583: See the long petition and confession of Samuel and Elizabeth Manning, who had been presented by the grand jury of Middlesex. It is expressed in perfervid pious phrase, much like the "church confession" presently referred to: _MSS. Files of the County Court of Middlesex_, June, 1664.]
[Footnote 584: _MSS. Records of the County Court of Suffolk_, 22. There was another sentence of this kind at the same session of this court.]
[Footnote 585: See the acknowledgment of Samuel Wright and Lydea his wife beginning: "for as much as wee are heere called to confese our sine before God and his people wee doe therefore heere accnowlidg that wee haue sined in that wee haue brokne the seuenth comandmente in neglecting of our deuty therein required and comitinge the sine forbiddene: to the dishonour of God and Scandalizinge of the gospel;" and so on in scriptural phrase to the extent, in the author's copy, of a large typewritten page: _MSS. Files of the County Court of Middlesex_, Oct., 1664.]