November 30, 1630, Sir Richard Saltonstall was fined £5, for whipping two persons without the presence of another assistant, as required by law; while Bartholomew Hill was whipped for stealing a loaf of bread, and John Baker suffered the same penalty for shooting at wild fowl on the Sabbath Day. And so continues the record of intermingled punishment and legislation.
The struggling communities that had planted themselves along the shores of the Massachusetts Bay largely had refused to conform to the rules and ordinances of the English Church. If the records of the Quarterly Courts are studied it will be seen that the settlers also failed to obey the rules and laws laid down by the magistrates of their own choosing. To be sure there were large numbers of indentured servants and the rough fishermen along the coastline have always been unruly. Much also may be attributed to the primitive and congested life in the new settlements. Simple houses of but few rooms and accommodating large families, surely are not conducive to gentle speech or modesty of manners nor to a strict morality. The craving desire for land holding, and the poorly defined and easily removed bounds naturally led to frequent actions for trespass, assault, defamation, slander and debt. The magistrates exercised unusual care in watching over the religious welfare of the people and in providing for the ministry. It has been stated frequently that in the olden times everyone went to church. The size of the meetinghouses, the isolated location of many of the houses, the necessary care of the numerous young children, and the interesting side lights on the manners of the times which appear in the court papers, all go to prove that the statement must not be taken literally. Absence from meeting, breaking the Sabbath, carrying a burden on the Lord's Day, condemning the church, condemning the ministry, scandalous falling out on the Lord's Day, slandering the church, and other misdemeanors of a similar character were frequent. A number of years before the Quakers appeared in the Colony it was no unusual matter for some one to disturb the congregation by public speeches either in opposition to the minister or to some one present. Zaccheus Gould, a very large landholder, in Topsfield, in the time of the singing the psalm one Sabbath afternoon sat himself down upon the end of the table about which the minister and the chief of the people sat, with his hat on his head and his back toward all the rest of them that sat about the table and although spoken to altered not his posture; and the following Sabbath after the congregation was dismissed he haranged the people and ended by calling goodman Cummings a "proud, probmatical, base, beggarly, pick thank fellow." Of course the matter was ventilated in the Salem Court.