Thus "old bachelors," though rare in early New England, were looked upon with disfavor. They were regarded almost as "suspected criminals."[456] Connecticut "in 1636 would not allow any young unmarried man to keep house."[457] A special order of the town of Windsor was necessary, in 1682, to permit "Isaac Sheldon and Samuel Rockwell to keep house together, 'so they carry themselves soberly and do not entertain idle persons to the evil expense of time by day or night.'"[458] Hartford taxed "lone-men" twenty shillings a week "for the selfish luxury of solitary living."[459] Even in the eighteenth century a general statute of Connecticut, under the same penalty of twenty shillings a week, forbade any "house-keeper" or "master of a family," without "allowance of the selectmen," to give "entertainment or habitation" to a single person; and "such Bourders, Sojourners, and Young persons" are required to "attend to the Worship of God" in the families where they live and "to be subject to the domestick Government of the same," or else forfeit five shillings for every breach of the law.[460] In Rhode Island in one instance "single persons of three months' residence paid five shillings, while the 'rate of faculties and personal abilities' was left at the discretion of the assessors."[461] According to a New Haven law, in order to "suppress inconvenience" and disorders inconsistent with the "mind of God in the fifth commandment," single persons, not in service or dwelling with their relatives, are forbidden to diet or lodge alone; but they are required to live in "licensed" families; and the "governors" of such families are ordered to "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."[462]
Similar measures were adopted by the other colonies. The law of Plymouth provides that "wheras great Inconvenience hath arisen by single persons in this Collonie being for themselues and not betakeing themselues to live in well Gourned famillies. It is enacted by the Court that henceforth noe single person be suffered to liue by himselfe or in any family but such as the Celectmen of the Towne shall approue of; and if any person or persons shall refuse or neglect to attend such order as shalbe giuen them by the Celectmen; that such person or persons shalbe sumoned to the Court to be proceeded with as the matter shall require."[463] "Whereas," runs a statute of Massachusetts, "there is a loose and sinful custom of going or riding from town to town, ... oftimes men and women together, upon pretence of going to lectures, but it appears ... merely to drink and revel in ordinaries and taverns, which is in itself scandalous, and it is to be feared a notable means to debauch our youth and hazard the chastity of those that are drawn fourth thereunto: for prevention whereof," it is ordered "that all single persons who merely for their pleasure take such journeys ... shall be reputed and accounted riotous and unsober persons, and of ill behavior ... and shall be committed to prison for ten days, or pay a fine of forty shillings for each offence," unless they can "give bonds and sufficient sureties for good behavior in twenty pounds."[464] Earlier it was decreed that the "Select men of every Town, in the several precincts, and quarters where they dwel, shal have a vigilant eye over their brethren and neighbours, to see, first that none of them shall suffer so much barbarism in any of their families, as not to endeavour to teach, by themselves or others, their children & apprentices, so much learning, as may enable them perfectly to read the english tongue & knowledg of the Capital laws." Once a week children and apprentices are to be catechised "in the grounds and principles of Religion," or at least taught "some short orthodox catachism without book;" and they are to be bred and brought up "in some honest Lawfull calling ... profitable for themselves and the Common-wealth," if their parents or masters "will not, or cannot train them up in learning to fitt them for higher imployments." If parents and masters neglect their duty, "whereby children & servants become rude, stubborn & unruly, the sayd Select men with the help of two Magistrates or the next County Court for that Shire, shall take such children or apprentices from them," and until they come of age place them with persons who will more strictly look after their government as the law directs.[465] It was further enacted that every town shall order and dispose to service or otherwise all "single persons and inmates" within its borders, anyone feeling aggrieved thereby "to have Liberty to appeale to the next County Court."[466]
These laws were not wholly a dead letter, as shown by the judicial records. Thus on April 2, 1672, "Thomas Henshaw and Thomas Hall, singlemen, being convicted of living from under family government ... , are ordered forthwith to submit themselves" to such government "and to appear at the next court and bring with them certificate thereof."[467] Nevertheless complaint is made that the town officers are negligent. In 1668 the legislature directs the clerk of each shire court to send "to the Constables of the Towns" within the shire an order which they are "enjoyned faithfully to execute." In the preamble it is recited that the neglect of the laws, "as by sad experience from Court to Court abundantly appears, doth occasion much sin and prophaness to increase among us, to the dishonour of God, and the ensnaring of many Children and Servants, by the dissolute lives and practices of such as do live from under Family Government, and is a great discouragement to those Family Governours, who conscientiously endeavour to bring up their Youth in all Christian nurture, as the Laws of God and this Common wealth doth require: These are therefore ... to require you to acquaint the Select men of your Town, that the Court doth expect and will require, that the said Laws be accordingly attended... : and you are also required to take a list of the names of those young persons ... who do live from under Family Government, viz., do not serve their Parents or Masters, as Children, Apprentices, hired Servants, or Journey men ought to do, and usually did in our Native Country, being subject to their commands and discipline."[468]
The manuscript files of Middlesex show that lists[469] of delinquent single persons were taken by the constables as required; and that some of them were summoned to appear before the court. Following is the "answer" of Robert Williams, whose name is in the list given in the margin:
"I do desire to liue under family gouernment and haue so desired euer sinc my time was out with my master that I liued with and all the time sinc commited myself into mens housis of good report as neer as I could and do desir to walk inofenciue to all men and furder I do hop that the men which I do work with will say as I do if the honered court will desir it indeed I am not a saruant yet do submit myself to family ordor I [will] do as a saruant what els the honered court would haue me do mor I hope I shall be willing to obay the finil power."[470]
In a society where marriages were formed very early, girls often wedding at sixteen or less, and where widows were wooed almost at the bier of the dear departed,[471] it is perhaps not surprising if "old maids" were ridiculed and sometimes despised. A woman became an "antient maid" at twenty-five.[472] In an often quoted passage of his Life and Errors, John Dunton thus praises a woman who remained single, not from "necessity," but from "choice," and who knew that time is a "dressing-room for Eternity, and therefore reserves most of her hours for better uses than those of the Comb, the Toilet, and the Glass":
"It is true an old (or super-annuated) maid in Boston is thought such a curse as nothing can exceed it (and look'd upon as a dismal spectacle); yet she, by her good-nature, gravity, and strict virtue, convinces all (so much as the fleering Beaus) that it is not her necessity, but her choice, that keeps her a Virgin. She is now about thirty years (the age which they call a Thornback), yet she never disguises herself, and talks as little as she thinks of Love. She never reads any Plays or Romances, goes to no Balls, or Dancing-match, as they do who go (to such Fairs) in order to meet with Chapmen. Her looks, her speech, her whole behaviour, are so very chaste, that but once (at Governor's Island, where we went to be merry at roasting a hog) going to kiss her, I thought she would have blushed to death."[473]
But bachelors and "thornbacks" were not the only people who caused the lawmaker anxiety. He kept a sharp eye on married persons living away from their mates. An act of the Massachusetts general court, in 1647, after reciting that diverse married persons are living in the jurisdiction, whose wives or husbands are in England or elsewhere, and who are guilty of making love to women, of attempting marriage or even attaining it, or are under "suspition of uncleannes"—the vice which seems to have sorely vexed the good people of those days—and all of whom are a great dishonor to God and a reproof to religion, commonwealth, and church—orders that every such person shall be incontinently sent back "by ye first oportunity of shiping," unless present on transient business or to "make way" for the family to come over.[474] Such complaints were by no means groundless and the courts were often called upon to execute the law. Under the circumstances bigamy was easily committed, though not always permanently concealed. On December 3, 1639, the pretended marriage of James Luxford was declared void; "all that hee hath" was given to his victim; and he himself was fined, set in the stocks, and ordered "sent away to England by the first opportunity."[475] In 1644 the "marriage of John Richardson to Elizabeth Frier was annulled upon proof that he had a former wife living in England."[476] Henry Jackson—whose case seems to justify the act of 1647—was presented in 1672-73 "for lying, in saying he was single and attempting marriage with several," though since confessing that he has a wife beyond the sea; "for living from under family government; and for carrying a fire brand at night near a hay stack;" on all of which counts, we are prepared to hear, he got twenty stripes, had to pay costs, and was ordered away to "England by the next ship."[477]
More numerous are the cases of "living apart." For example in 1637 the general court decreed that Isaac Davies should be sent home to his wife in England.[478] Three years later "Willi Wake" in like manner was advised to seek his consort.[479] Edward Iron in 1651 "upon promise to take some effectual course to send for his wife now in England" was "granted liberty to abide in the country until the next return of ships." Should his attempt fail, then he was "ordered to depart out of this jurisdiction by the next opportunity."[480] For similar absence from his spouse James Underwood in 1654 was fined at Salem.[481] In 1663 for the same offense Christopher Blake was presented by the grand jury of Suffolk, although in his petition he avers that for three years he had "been desirous of getting his wife across but she refused to come;" and that he had never "presented himself as a single man, but always openly manifested the true state of his condition." Accordingly the general court ordered the prosecution "stayed for a year."[482] In 1671 Paul Hall, presented in the same county, "appeared and declared he was informed his wife was dead." The court, being skeptical, commanded him to "repair to the last place of her abode or bring in a certificate of her death."[483] Delinquent wives were looked after with equal vigilance. In 1668 the constable of Boston is ordered to summon "before the county court two women and one man for living apart from their spouses contrary to law."[484] A presentment of Sarah Pickering failed in 1674 because she produced evidence that her husband had renounced her.[485] Even when both partners were in the jurisdiction the law was not less harshly administered. On June 17, 1672, for "disorderly living apart," Michael Smith and wife, "inhabitants of Charlestoun" were "admonished and ordered to pay costs."[486] The case of "Abr. Hagborne" in 1663 is more remarkable. Although he had come to the colony twenty-two years before; had lived contentedly with his wife for fourteen or fifteen years until she "did depart" for England; had sent for her to return home and provided for her transportation, "whereby the innocence of Living Apart is on your peticoners part;" and "had no idea the law against living apart would apply to the known settled inhabitants, brethren and freemen whose wives unnaturally desert them;" yet the county court "was pleased to require him to depart the Countrie & to repayre vnto his wife." So he "humbly petitions" the general court that he may not be compelled to return to England and that he may "not be put vpon [religious] temptacoñs or aboue his strength or any kind of iniun[~cc]on [injunction] of going to Serue other Gods;" but may be "allowed to continue his Abode here ... vnder the Shadow of that happie Gouernment in Co[=m]onwealth and Churches ... those few days of his pilgrimage that remayne." A gracious answer, it is perhaps needless to add, was the meet reward of so just and so skilful a prayer.[487]
In like spirit single women and wives in the absence of their husbands were forbidden to "lodge any inmate or sojourner," except with the approval of the selectmen or other magistrates.[488] Of course, these were pioneer days. The peace of the settlements was probably disturbed by loose and riotous adventurers, outcasts from the society of the Old World. Doubtless these measures, aside from religious motives, were in some degree useful police ordinances; as were also those prohibiting the husband from beating his wife, and the wife from striking her spouse.[489]