According to the judgment of Stiles, bundling "came nearest to being a universal custom from 1750 to 1780." Contrary to the popular view,[573] it appears to have been confined to the more humble and less cultivated classes; "to those whose limited means compelled them to economize strictly in their expenditure of firewood and candle-light."[574] No evidence has yet been produced showing that it made its appearance in the main centers of New England civilization.
Though bundling could arise only in a comparatively rude state of society, it seems in itself to have been neither very vicious nor very immoral. Yet manifestly it was easily capable of abuse. Under dangerous conditions it might readily degenerate into coarseness and vice. Such conditions were not wanting throughout the colonial era. The general tone of sexual morality was not high. The laws and usages already presented, which in effect invited transgression on the part of engaged lovers, afforded a constant temptation.[575] Bundling thus has its chief moral significance as an adjunct of pre-contract which must be held responsible for a very large share of the sexual misconduct revealed in the judicial records. Before the general court of Plymouth the cases of "uncleanness" after contract and before marriage are very numerous. According to Goodwin, they averaged one a year; and this appears to be a conservative estimate. By actual count the records of that colony, for the twenty-eight years between 1633 and 1661, show at least twenty-four sentences for ante-nuptial offenses, chiefly after betrothal; while during the seventeen years following 1661 there are not less than forty-one such judgments. Members of some of the most illustrious families of New England were guilty of indiscretions in this regard.[576] In several of the early cases the husband was publicly whipped in view of the wife, who sat near in the stocks.[577]
The manuscript records of two counties of Massachusetts for a portion of the seventeenth century appear to demonstrate that such "miscarriages" before complete wedlock were not less frequent in the Bay Colony.[578] A thorough analysis of the records of the county court of Suffolk, covering the ten years 1671-80, brings to light twenty of these cases, while during the same period there are forty-three instances of transgression by "single women."[579] Now, it is important to remember that the statutes of Massachusetts, unlike those of Plymouth, do not discriminate between the offenses of single persons and those committed with each other by espoused lovers.[580] The question therefore arises as to whether the custom of pre-contract—for pre-contract was not established by law in that province—can be held in any way accountable for these facts. A comparison of the penalties imposed in the two classes of cases, as exhibited in Tables I and II, shows that an affirmative answer must be given. The sins of betrothed persons are in general punished with far less rigor than those of single men and women. Thus twenty-one out of forty-three single women, and eight out of thirteen single men, are sentenced to stripes alone, nineteen of them receiving each from fifteen to forty lashes;
TABLE I
Cases of Fornication before Marriage in the County Court of Suffolk County, Mass., 1671-80
| 1. Fine only | 3 | married | couples |
| £5 (both) | 1 | " | " |
| £3 " | 1 | " | " |
| 40s. " | 1 | " | " |
| 2. Fine and confession before the congregation or stripes | 2 | " | " |
| 3. Fine or stripes | 15 | " | " |
| a) Fine— | |||
| £5 (both) | 3 | " | " |
| £4 " | 3 | " | " |
| £3 " | 1 | " | " |
| 50s. " | 1 | " | " |
| 40s. " | 7 | " | " |
| b) Stripes— | |||
| 20 | 2 husbands | 0 wives | |
| 15 | 12 " | 2 " | |
| 10 | 1 " | 13 " |
TABLE II
Cases of Fornication by Single Persons in the County Court of Suffolk County, Mass., 1671-80
The most noticeable feature of these cases is the tendency on the part of single men to confess the crime and accept punishment, besides becoming bound as putative fathers. All the convictions for fornication are by confession or pleading guilty.