Strange & Curious Punishments Puritan Style

From New York Times Article October 17, 1886 And Archival History, Court Documents and Genealogy

After some research on the names and events I am posting what I have found from sources from the archives.

From Boston Police History
 
1639---Edward Palmer was employed to build stocks (a place in which to set criminals for punishment); when completed, he presented his bill for his services. The bill was thought to be exorbitant, and Edward Palmer got placed in his own stocks and was fined five pounds.

From Prospect: Or, View of the Moral World, Volume 1 By Elihu Palmer

Extracts from the Ancient Records of Massachusetts. 

Edward Palmer, for his extortion in taking two pounds ; thirteen shillings and four penee, for the wood work of Boston stocks, is fined four pounds, and ordered to be set one hour in the flocks.

From Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 56, Number 108, 25 December 1886 — PUNISHING SCOLDS. [ARTICLE]

From Every Day Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony By George Francis Dow

Her name was Mary Oliver and her criminal record begins in June, 1638. Governor Winthrop relates: "Amongst the rest, there was a woman in Salem, one Oliver, his wife, who had suffered somewhat in England by refusing to bow at the name of Jesus, though otherwise she was conformable to all their orders. She was (for ability of speech, and appearance of zeal and devotion) far before Mrs Hutchinson, and so the fitter instrument to have done hurt, but that she was poor and had little acquaintance. She took offense at this, that she might not be admitted to the Lord's supper without giving public satisfaction to the church of her faith, etc., and covenanting or professing to walk with them according to the rule of the gospel; so as upon the sacrament day she openly called for it, stood to plead her right, though she were denied; and would not forbear, before the magistrate, Mr. Endecott, did threaten to send the constable to put her forth. This woman was brought to the Court for disturbing the peace in the church, etc., and there she gave such peremptory answers, as she was committed till she should find sureties for her good behavior. After she had been in prison three or four days, she made means to the Governor and submitted herself, and acknowledged her fault in disturbing the church; whereupon he took her husband's bond for her good behavior, and discharged her out of prison. But he found, after, that she still held her former opinions, which were very dangerous, as, (I) that the church is the head of the people, both magistrates and ministers, met together and that these have power to ordain ministers, etc. II That all that dwell in the same town, and will profess their faith in Christ Jesus, ought to be received to the sacraments there; and that she was persuaded that, if Paul were at Salem, he would call all the inhabitants there saints. (III) That excommunication is no other but when Christians withdraw private communion from one that hath offended." September 24, 1639, this Mary Oliver was sentenced to prison in Boston indefinitely for her speeches at the arrival of newcomers. She was to be taken by the constables of Salem and Lynn to the prison in Boston. Her husband Thomas Oliver was bound in £20 for his wife's appearance at the next court in Boston.

Governor Winthrop continues: "About five years after, this woman was adjudged to be whipped for reproaching the magistrates. She stood without tying, and bore her punishment with a masculine spirit, glorying in her suffering. But after (when she came to consider the reproach, which would stick by her, etc.) she was much dejected about it. She had a cleft stick put on her tongue half an hour for reproaching the elders."

March 2, 1647-8, Mary Oliver was fined for working on the Sabbath day in time of public exercise; also for abusing Capt. Hathorne, uttering divers mutinous speeches, and denying the morality of the Sabbath. She was sentenced to sit in the stocks one hour next lecture day, if the weather be moderate; also for saying "You in New England are thieves and Robbers" and for saying to Mr. Gutch that she hoped to tear his flesh in pieces and all such as he was. For this she was bound to good behavior, and refusing to give bond was sent to Boston jail, and if she remained in the court's jurisdiction was to answer to further complaints at the next Salem Court.
It appears from depositions that she went to Robert Gutch's house in such gladness of spirit that he couldn't understand it, and she said to some there, not members, "Lift up your heads, your redemption draweth near," and when reminded what she already had been punished for, she said that she came out of that with a scarf and a ring.
November 15, 1648, Mary Oliver for living from her husband, was ordered to go to him before the next court, and in December she brought suit against John Robinson for false imprisonment, taking her in a violent manner and putting her in the stocks. She recovered a judgment of 10s. damages. The following February Mary Oliver was again presented at Court for living from her husband, and in July, having been ordered to go to her husband in England by the next ship, she was further enjoyed to go by the next opportunity on penalty of 20 li.
November 13, 1649, Mary Oliver was presented for stealing goats, and a month later she was presented for speaking against the Governor, saying that he was unjust, corrupt and a wretch, and that he made her pay for stealing two goats when there was no proof in the world of it. She was sentenced to be whipped next lecture day at Salem, if the weather be moderate, not exceeding twenty stripes. Capt. William Hathorne and Mr. Emanuel Downingwere to see the sentence executed. At the same court George Ropes complained that Mary Oliver kept away a spade of his and she was fined 5s.
February 28, 1649-50, Mary Oliver thus far had escaped the second whipping, for at her request Mr. Batter asked that her sentence be respited, which the Court granted "if she doe go into the Bay with Joseph Hardy this day or when he goeth next into the Bay with his vessell" otherwise she was to be called forth by Mr. Downing and Capt. Hathorne and be punished. If she returned, the punishment was to hold good.
The next day Mary Oliver's fine was remitted to the end that she use it in transporting herself and children out of this jurisdiction within three weeks. And there ended her turbulent career in the town of Salem, so far as the Court records show.

From The Olden Time Series, Vol. 5: Some Strange and Curious Punishments Gleanings Chiefly from Old Newspapers of Boston and Salem, Massachusetts Author: Henry M. Brooks

We here record a curious affair which took place in the State of Georgia in the year 1811. At the Superior Court at Milledgeville a Mrs. Palmer, who, the account states, "seems to have been rather glib of the tongue, was indicted, tried, convicted, and, in pursuance of the sentence of the Court, was punished by being publicly ducked in the Oconee River for—scolding." This, we are told, was the first instance of the kind that had ever occurred in that State, and "numerous spectators attended the execution of the sentence." A paper copying this account says that the "crime is old, but the punishment is new," and that "in the good old days of our Ancestors, when an unfortunate woman was accused of Witchcraft she was tied neck and heels and thrown into a pond of Water: if she drowned, it was agreed that she was no witch; if she swam, she was immediately tied to a stake and burnt alive. But who ever heard that our pious ancestors ducked women for scolding?" This writer is much mistaken; for it is well known that in England (and perhaps in this country in early times) the "ducking-stool" was resorted to for punishing "scolds." This was before the days of "women's rights," for there is no record of any man having been punished in this way.

For More see Marquis Eaton's essay  Punitive Pain and Humiliation

 

From Bilboes, Brands, and Branks-Colonial Crimes and Punishments by James A. Cox

In the early seventeenth century, Boston's Roger Scott was picked up for "repeated sleeping on the Lord's Day" and sentenced to be severely whipped for "striking the person who waked him from his godless slumber."

From The Sabbath in Puritan New England: Chapter 6  The Tithingman and the Sleepers

Another over-watchful Newbury "awakener" rapped on the head a nodding man who protested indignantly that he was wide-awake, and was only bowing in solemn assent and approval of the minister's arguments. Roger Scott, of Lynn, in 1643 struck the tithingman who thus roughly and suddenly wakened him; and poor sleepy and bewildered Roger, who is branded through all time as "a common sleeper at the publick exercise," was, for this most naturally resentful act, but also most shockingly grave offense, soundly whipped, as a warning both to keep awake and not to strike back in meeting.

Add tidbit: 

Obadiah Turner, of Lynn, gives in his Journal a sad, sad disclosure of total depravity which was exposed by one of these sudden church-awakenings, and the story is best told in the journalist's own vivid words:--

"June 3, 1616.--Allen Bridges hath bin chose to wake ye sleepers in meeting. And being much proude of his place, must needs have a fox taile fixed to ye ende of a long staff wherewith he may brush ye faces of them yt will have napps in time of discourse, likewise a sharpe thorne whereby he may pricke such as be most sound. On ye last Lord his day, as hee strutted about ye meeting-house, he did spy Mr. Tomlins sleeping with much comfort, hys head kept steadie by being in ye corner, and his hand grasping ye rail. And soe spying, Allen did quickly thrust his staff behind Dame Ballard and give him a grievous prick upon ye hand. Whereupon Mr. Tomlins did spring vpp mch above ye floore, and with terrible force strike hys hand against ye wall; and also, to ye great wonder of all, prophanlie exclaim in a loud voice, curse ye wood-chuck, he dreaming so it seemed yt a wood-chuck had seized and bit his hand. But on coming to know where he was, and ye greate scandall he had committed, he seemed much abashed, but did not speak. And I think he will not soon again goe to sleepe in meeting."

From A History of Baptists  By Thomas Armitage

Quite likely those sinners, of the Gentiles, John Wood, Joseph Bednap and Roger Scott, were all present. Wood had been tried, February 19th, 1646, for 'professing Anabaptist sentiments and withholding his children from baptism;' Rednap had broken the law in usually 'departing from the congregation at the time of administering the seal of baptism;' [Felt, Ecc. Hist., ii, p. 46] and 'Scott was that drowsy sinner who was tried by the Court, February 28th, 1643, for common sleeping at the public exercise upon the Lord's day, and for striking him that waked him and was 'severely whipped' for the same in the ensuing December. This deponent saith not whether he really was at Witter's, or, if so, whether he wanted a quiet nap unaroused by a pugnacious Puritan Dogberry; perhaps he thought that a stirring Baptist sermon was just the novelty to keep him wide awake on that Sunday and in that particular place.

From Some strange and curious punishments edited by Henry Mason Brook

The whipping-post and stocks were discontinued in Massachusetts early in the present century. On the 15th of January, 1801, one Hawkins stood an hour in the pillory in Court Street (now Washington Street), Salem, and had his ear cropped for the crime of forgery, pursuant to the sentence of the Supreme Court.

From  Curious Punishments of Bygone Days  By Alice Morse Earle

From New England's Cruel and Unusual Punishments by Robert Ellis Cahill

Salem, 1801, "Hawkins, for Forgery, stood for one hour in the pillory and had his ears cropped.
Another over-watchful Newbury "awakener" rapped on the head a nodding man who protested indignantly that he was wide-awake, and was only bowing in solemn assent and approval of the minister's arguments. Roger Scott, of Lynn, in 1643 struck the tithingman who thus roughly and suddenly wakened him; and poor sleepy and bewildered Roger, who is branded through all time as "a common sleeper at the publick exercise," was, for this most naturally resentful act, but also most shockingly grave offense, soundly whipped, as a warning both to keep awake and not to strike back in meeting.

Add tidbit: 

Obadiah Turner, of Lynn, gives in his Journal a sad, sad disclosure of total depravity which was exposed by one of these sudden church-awakenings, and the story is best told in the journalist's own vivid words:--

"June 3, 1616.--Allen Bridges hath bin chose to wake ye sleepers in meeting. And being much proude of his place, must needs have a fox taile fixed to ye ende of a long staff wherewith he may brush ye faces of them yt will have napps in time of discourse, likewise a sharpe thorne whereby he may pricke such as be most sound. On ye last Lord his day, as hee strutted about ye meeting-house, he did spy Mr. Tomlins sleeping with much comfort, hys head kept steadie by being in ye corner, and his hand grasping ye rail. And soe spying, Allen did quickly thrust his staff behind Dame Ballard and give him a grievous prick upon ye hand. Whereupon Mr. Tomlins did spring vpp mch above ye floore, and with terrible force strike hys hand against ye wall; and also, to ye great wonder of all, prophanlie exclaim in a loud voice, curse ye wood-chuck, he dreaming so it seemed yt a wood-chuck had seized and bit his hand. But on coming to know where he was, and ye greate scandall he had committed, he seemed much abashed, but did not speak. And I think he will not soon again goe to sleepe in meeting."

From A History of Baptists  By Thomas Armitage

Quite likely those sinners, of the Gentiles, John Wood, Joseph Bednap and Roger Scott, were all present. Wood had been tried, February 19th, 1646, for 'professing Anabaptist sentiments and withholding his children from baptism;' Rednap had broken the law in usually 'departing from the congregation at the time of administering the seal of baptism;' [Felt, Ecc. Hist., ii, p. 46] and 'Scott was that drowsy sinner who was tried by the Court, February 28th, 1643, for common sleeping at the public exercise upon the Lord's day, and for striking him that waked him and was 'severely whipped' for the same in the ensuing December. This deponent saith not whether he really was at Witter's, or, if so, whether he wanted a quiet nap unaroused by a pugnacious Puritan Dogberry; perhaps he thought that a stirring Baptist sermon was just the novelty to keep him wide awake on that Sunday and in that particular place.

From Some strange and curious punishments edited by Henry Mason Brook. The whipping-post and stocks were discontinued in Massachusetts early in the present century. On the 15th of January, 1801, one Hawkins stood an hour in the pillory in Court Street (now Washington Street), Salem, and had his ear cropped for the crime of forgery, pursuant to the sentence of the Supreme Court.
OTHER BLOG to check out
The Hanging of Goodwife Knapp in 1653

Is it really the House of the Seven Gables? Perhaps, perhaps not. Either way the Turner-Ingersoll mansion in Salem breathes New England history

A Wonderful Travel & Historical Share from Elwood P. Dowd (and a few pics added by Melissa)

 http://www.thehistorytrekker.com/travel-photographer/new-england/is-it-really-the-house-of-the-seven-gables-perhaps-either-way-the-turner-ingersoll-mansion-in-salem-breathes-new-england-history

The House of the Seven Gables, Salem, Massachusetts

“Halfway down a by-street of one of our New England towns stands a rusty wooden house, with seven acutely peaked gables, facing towards various points of the compass, and a huge, clustered chimney in the midst. The street is Pyncheon Street; the house is the old Pyncheon House; and an elm-tree, of wide circumference, rooted before the door, is familiar to every town-born child by the title of the Pyncheon Elm.”

From the perspective of the twenty-first century, we can breathe easier in a way, knowing that the victims of the Salem witch hunts were innocents. Yet for many of us there’s still an underlying feeling that there was a darkness there beyond the natural. Even though those hanged in Salem were wrongly accused, it feels as though there had to be witches there all the same.

I can only presume that this was even more true in the mid-nineteenth century, when Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote the book. Hawthorne hints at magic and witchcraft in Salem in Gables, drawing back only slightly from his earlier penned short story, Young Goodman Brown, which specifically relates a tale of Salem witchcraft. Which is curious, considering he added a W to his name to distance himself from his great-grandfather, who served as judge in the witch trials. Hawthorne must certainly have know the hanged were innocent, and yet the darkness hung on in his mind.
As a result, there’s a dark undercurrent in the reader’s mind at the mention of Salem, and only slightly less so when thinking of seventeenth century New England as a whole. That Hawthorne’s writing has helped define New England during that period, no doubt keeps the aura alive.
“So much of mankind’s varied experience had passed there,—so much had been suffered, and something, too, enjoyed,—that the very timbers were oozy, as with the moisture of a heart. It was itself like a great human heart, with a life of its own, and full of rich and sombre reminiscences.”

The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Gardens at The House of the Seven Gables in Salem, Massachusetts.

Mention the House of the Seven Gables and what comes to mind is usually Hawthorne’s novel, the story of a once prosperous New England family, whose influence is dwindled by time, whose decay is reflected in the home they’ve lived in for generations.

For over a century now, an ancient house sitting at the end of Turner Street in Salem, facing out to sea and now known as the House of the Seven Gables has been promoted as the actual house that inspired Hawthorne, despite the author’s assurances that no single house fits the bill. Hawthorne writes in his introduction to the book, “He would be glad, therefore, if-especially in the quarter to which he alludes-the book may be read strictly as a Romance, having a great deal more to do with the clouds overhead than with any portion of the actual soil of the County of Essex.”

And yet people throng to the House of the Seven Gables, whose administration hesitantly makes the claim for the inspiration, and what they come away with is far more than the setting of a book.

Dining Room at The House of Seven Gables, part of Captain Turner’s original structure.

The House of the Seven Gables, more properly known as the Turner-Ingersoll mansion was begun in 1667, under the watch of Captain John, Turner, a prominent Salem sea captain.

Mayflower John Turner was a passenger, along with his two sons, on the 1620 voyage

What Turner built was a two-and-a-half story home in the post medieval style, consisting of two rooms, two gothic gables and a massive central fireplace – a home considered quite impressive for the day. His son, John Turner II also went to sea, built up the family fortune, and expanded the family home. His son, John Turner III, who had a home of his own just down the road, loyalist sympathies which cost him dearly in the Revolution, and a fondness for cards and horses managed to blow the family fortune and lose the home, now greatly expanded in size and gables, and sporting an Edwardian look.
The House of the Seven Gables was purchased by Samuel Ingersoll,

another wealthy Salem sea captain. Ingersoll had improved his fortune by marrying Susannah Hathorne, perhaps lacking in the looks department but endowed with a huge dowry. Ingersoll’s uncle Nathaniel owned Ingersoll’s Ordinary, a tavern which sat next to the meetinghouse in Salem Village during the witch trials of 1692 which also still stands. The tavern saw a lot of action during the witch hunts, and picked up a lot of business.
Ingersoll caught typhoid fever and died at sea in 1804, spreading the disease to his only son who died as well, and so the house went to his daughter, Susannah. Susannah the daughter and Susannah the mother lived in the House of the Seven Gables, which had once more been remodeled, this time removing some of the gables. The elder Susannah was the granddaughter of John Hathorne, one of the judges at the Salem witch trials, and the great-grandfather of Nathaniel Hawthorne, the writer. Nathaniel and the younger Susannah became great friends though by the time he became a regular in the Ingersoll home, the gables had dwindled to three.

Portrait of Susannah Ingersoll at the House of the Seven Gables. 

Susannah led the young Nathaniel throughout the house, pointing out the changes in architecture over the years, and even hauled him up into the dusty attic to show him the beams and evidence of the six gables formerly there, and it is thought that it was through her descriptions that Hawthorne came up with the description of the home in the book.
Susannah was a woman far ahead of her time, and was already a property owner by the time she inherited the Turner-Ingersoll mansion. She was active in marketing the produce from her farm in nearby Danvers, was politically active and a staunch anti-slavery advocate. A secret staircase in the Turner-Ingersoll mansion was long believed to have been used by the underground railroad, but this has been disproven. Susannah became a spinster, but adopted a child by the name of Horace Connolly.
When Susannah died in 1858, the second wealthiest woman in Salem, the house and her fortune went to Horace, who once more gave the old place a facelift, prior to blowing the family fortune. Horace’s main contribution to history appears to be relating a story of two lovers to Nathaniel Hawthorne, who later told it to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,

who put it to verse in the poem Evangeline.
Henry Upton became the next owner, and was responsible for making the very public claim that the house was the very same that been the inspiration for Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables. An accomplished musician, composer and music teacher, Upton seemingly also had a flair for promotion, and began giving tours of the house for a quarter a pop to those interested in its literary history. Ida, his daughter had a knack for delicate painting on fine china, and began a line of souvenirs which was sold in a newly constructed replica of Hepzibah’s cent shop, attached to the Turner street side of the house.

Interior of the Cent Shop of Hepzibah Pincheon at the House of the Seven Gables.

The next owner, another feisty Salem woman named Caroline Osgood Emmerton who took over the house in 1908, saw that the success the Uptons had in promoting the property could be put to funding philanthropic causes. Emmerton, in consultation with Joseph E. Chandler, a noted Boston architect specializing in historic reconstructions, stripped the house down to the basics and then restored it to as close as possible to its 17th century, post medieval root, and added a seventh gable to the design, bringing it in line with the book.
Emmerton had the sea in her blood, or at least in her bank account via a fortune inherited from her grandfather, another prominent sea captain. Philanthropy was certainly in her genes as well, and she decided to take the family’s work a step further by starting The House of the Seven Gables Settlement Association in 1910. The settlement provided services for new immigrants to Salem, who were primarily Polish and eastern European. They provided language instruction, vocational training, how to keep a home, health care for babies and education for the children. In addition to training in basic skills, the home became the setting for pageants and historical reenactments to give immigrants a better idea of American history.
Emmerton also took to creating a real settlement by moving historic buildings onto the property, essentially saving them from the threat of the wrecking ball. The Retire-Becket House, built 1655 houses the museum’s store on the ground floor, well-stocked with items related to the House of the Seven Gables, Hawthorne’s novel and Salem/Massachusetts history. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s birthplace, built in 1750 was moved to the property in 1958, and is also open for tours. The Hooper-Hathaway House, built 1682 is an architectural treasure, exhibiting details of first period, Jacobian and Colonial Revival styles. The Counting House, dating from 1830 is a fine example of the type of building used by sea captains to inventory their wares following long sea journeys, and helps educate people about the nautical history of Salem.

The Nathaniel Hawthorne House, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Birthplace, c. 1750. 

Then there’s the House of the Seven Gables, or the Turner-Ingersoll mansion itself, open for tours as well. Emmerton went to great pains to reflect Hawthorne’s novel in the home, going as far as adding mannequins and furnishings to certain rooms which might have inspired scenes in the novel. While the exterior of the house is restored to its 1720 appearance, the interior is designed with 1840 in mind, to give visitors what they’re looking for, the setting for the book. Hepzibah’s Cent Shop has been recreated, including the same wares sold in the fictional version. In the attic you can see as Hawthorne did, the details of the original 1667 construction as well as the cozy room which would have been that of Clifford Pyncheon, the mysterious and elderly brother of the book. The second floor contains the office of Colonel Pyncheon, where the old coot met his grim and grisly fate. A trio of mannequins in another room give the visitor a quick tour of women’s fashion from the 18th to twentieth century, reflecting the era of the women of The House of the Seven Gables.

The Judge’s Study, The House of Seven Gables, Turner-Ingersoll Mansion, 

Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts.

The house is decorated in painstaking detail, with both original period items as well as to the letter perfect reproductions. It’s not just a museum dedicated to Hawthorne’s book, but perhaps more important, to the life of those who made their fortunes from the sea in 19th century Salem.
The House of the Seven Gables is also a testament to strong women, particularly Caroline Osgood Emmerton, whose philanthropic work continues to this day under those famous gables, decades after her death.

Caroline Osgood Emmerton

Bearing silent witness to the lives that have transpired in this house, just beyond the beautifully manicured gardens is the sea, where the wealth which flowed through these rooms found its way to Salem from around the globe. My favorite memory from the House of the Seven Gables came not from the house itself, but standing outside one autumn evening in the dark of night, as a tropical storm rolled up the coast from the south, listening to the chains of nearby vessels tolling mournful against their steel masts. The ocean is always there, whether viewed through the windows or the scent wafting through the gardens and permeating the ancient wood of the house. The House of the Seven Gables has been a presence on Salem’s waterfront almost from the beginning, a presence which thanks to Hawthorne’s novel has spread throughout the world, and for many, is the embodiment of New England itself.

Visit The House of the Seven Gables site.
View images from The House of the Seven Gables at History and Haunts
Check out this virtual tour of The House of the Seven Gables by the Distracted Wanderer. She obviously took better notes than I did.
A Field Guide to Salem, Massachusetts from History and Haunts