[543] Revision of 1702, 73; Acts and Laws (New London, 1715), 74-76; ibid. (New London, 1750), 145; ibid. (New Haven, 1769), 145; ibid. (New London, 1784), 136.
[544] This case is in MSS. Records of the Superior Court of Judicature (1740-42), fol. 264. From the Suffolk Files (360-66, 557) Davis, The Law of Adultery, 13, 14, quotes the warrant of the sheriff for the execution; and also a notice of the case from the Boston Weekly News-Letter of Thursday, Feb. 10, 1743, stating that the daughter Elizabeth, with whom the crime was committed, had absconded.
[545] The five cases are as follows: (1) Salem, Oct. 28, 1729: Peter Harding, tailor, for having carnal knowledge with his daughter; gallows an hour, thirty-nine stripes, and capital I; MSS. Records of the Superior Court of Judicature (1725-30), fol. 274. (2) Worcester, Sept. 19, 1752: Jonathan Fairbanks, husbandman, and Sarah Armstrong, his wife's daughter; Jonathan sentenced as above, except twenty stripes: ibid. (1752-53), fol. 181. (3) Springfield, Sept. 24, 1754: Joseph Severance and Eunice Classon, his wife's sister; Joseph sentenced as above, except thirty stripes. (4) Eunice, particeps criminis in the preceding case, receives the same sentence, except twenty stripes: ibid. (1755-56), fol. 341. (5) Cambridge, Aug. 7, 1759: Judah Clark and Huldah Dudley, his wife's daughter; Huldah sentenced as above, except thirty stripes: ibid. (1757-59), 655.
[546] Goodwin, Pilgrim Republic, 599, 600.
[547] Cotton Mather, in his life of Danforth, says: "After his Contraction, according to the old usage of New England, unto the virtuous daughter of Mr. Wilson (whereat Mr. Cotton preached the sermon), he was married unto that gentle-woman, in the year 1651."—Mather, Magnalia, IV, c. 3, § 6, Vol. II, 50. Cf. Dexter, Congregationalism, 458 n. 166, who cites also a statement in Mather's Ratio, 112; likewise Winthrop, Hist. of New England, II, 382 n. 2, whose mistake has already been mentioned. Compare Earle, Customs and Fashions, 68 ff., who gives the "texts" of some of the betrothal sermons.
[548] Conn. Col. Rec., I, 47, 48.
[549] Shirley, "Early Jurisprudence of New Hamp.," Procds. New Hamp. Hist. Soc. (1876-84), 308.
[550] Goodwin, Pilgrim Republic, 600; cf. Plym. Col. Rec., XI, 172.
[551] Shirley, loc. cit., 308.
[552] Whitmore, Col. Laws of Mass. (1660-72), 55, 128; Conn. Col. Rec., I, 77; New Haven Col. Rec., II, 577; Trumbull, Blue Laws, 60, 200.