USA > Massachusetts > Commonwealth history of Massachusetts, colony, province and state, volume 2 > Part 33
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52
MURDOCK, KENNETH B .- Increase Mather; the foremost American Puritan (Cambridge, Harvard Univ. Press, 1925)-Chaps. XIII-XV deal with the relation of the Mathers to politics, and chap. XVI treats of New England witchcraft.
NORDELL, PHILIP G .- "Cotton Mather in Love" (Harper's Magazine, Vol. CLIII, pp. 566-572, 1926)-An article on Cotton Mather and his family relationships, interesting as a modern and sympathetic presenta- tion of the subject.
PEABODY, WILLIAM B. O .- "Life of Cotton Mather" (Jared Sparks, Library of American Biography, 10 vols., Boston, Hilliard, Gray, 1839)-See Vol. VI, pp. 163-350.
POOLE, WILLIAM FREDERICK .- "Cotton Mather and Salem Witchcraft" (North Am. Review, 1869, Vol. CVIII, pp. 337-397)-A reply to Up- ham's attacks on Mather's relation to the witchcraft excitement.
QUINCY, JOSIAH .- The History of Harvard University (2 vols., Cambridge, John Owen, 1840).
QUINT, ALONZO H .- "Cotton Mather" (Congregational Quarterly, 1859, Vol. I, pp. 233-264)-Eulogy of Mather, with valuable material on his work as a minister.
354
COTTON MATHER
RILEY, ISAAC W .- American Philosophy, the Early Schools (N. Y., Dodd, Mead, 1907).
ROBBINS, CHANDLER .- A History of the Second Church, or Old North, in Boston (Published by a Committee of the Society, Boston, 1852)-See pp. 67-115 for a sketch of Mather, and an estimate of his character.
SIBLEY, JOHN L .- Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard Uni- versity (3 vols., Cambridge, Sever, 1873-1885)-See Vol. III, pp. 6-158, for an excellent brief biography of Mather, and the best printed bibliography of his writings.
SPRAGUE, WILLIAM B .- Annals of the American Pulpit (9 vols., N. Y., 1857-1869)-Vol. I, pp. 189-195, contains a brief sketch of Mather.
TUTTLE, JULIUS H .- "The Libraries of the Mathers" (Am. Antiquarian Society, Proceedings, New Series, Vol. XX, pp. 269-356, Worcester, 1910) .- Admirable study of the books owned by the Mathers.
UPHAM, CHARLES W .- Salem Witchcraft (2 vols., Boston, Wiggin & Lunt, 1867)-Offers much discussion, often neither accurate nor sound, of Cotton Mather's relation to Salem witchcraft.
UPHAM, CHARLES W .- "Salem Witchcraft and Cotton Mather" (Historical Magazine, 1869, Vol. XVI, pp. 129-219)-Part of a long controversy with W. F. Poole.
WALKER, WILLISTON .- "The Services of the Mathers in New England Religious Development" (Am. Society of Church History, Papers, Series I, Vol. V, pp. 61-85, N. Y., 1913).
WENDELL, BARRETT .- Cotton Mather, the Puritan Priest (Cambridge, Harvard Univ. Press, 1926)-The best biography.
CHAPTER XII
EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY WOMEN (1689-1750)
BY AMY HEWES Professor of Economics, Mount Holyoke College
PERIOD BETWEEN SETTLEMENT AND REVOLUTION
The story of woman's part in any civilization is not an independent narrative. It is part and parcel of that civiliza- tion and can be discovered only by penetrating the different layers of economic and social life. It requires also a study of the political structure and the spirit of the age as expressed in its art and philosophy. The story of chivalry is falsely told when it is made to stand out as a bright thread running across a dark background of ignorance and brutality, an exotic flower, by some strange magic blossoming in a foreign land. Neither its beauty nor its subtle poison could have developed from other soil than that in which it was actually rooted.
Similarly, both the active and the passive rôles of the early eighteenth century women in New England show them to have been true daughters of the colonies where new forms of social life were taking shape. At this time the women of France were finding a place for themselves in a subtle and sophisticated society. They succeeded in making of the art of politeness and manners a spectacle so brilliant that their more serious-minded sisters in England were stimulated to imitate them and to make their drawing-rooms centers in which feminine influence might penetrate the affairs of state. But the women in corresponding classes in far-away New England were playing very different rôles because they be- longed to a much simpler and far less secure economic organi- zation, one which for the first time was permitting them to
355
356 EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY WOMEN
lift their attention from responsibilities for the immediate future, and to become conscious of the new society.
Because the Puritans migrated by families, women were present from the first and the heroic tasks of pioneer days were theirs to perform. Women's work, in the earliest days, included anything and everything which needed to be done; and there was little opportunity to debate whether a particular task was fitting for a woman. But the eighteenth century brought easier living in which actual comfort was to be found. Benjamin Franklin, writing in 1743, described the "first drudgery of settling new colonies" as "pretty well over." After a hard struggle the colonists had won a foothold on the continent which enabled them to provide themselves with homes in which they could enjoy privacy and convenience and the leisure necessary for a social life of more freedom. Revolution and war were soon to lay other and unaccustomed strains upon both men and women; but before these new responsibilities were assumed, there was an interval of about two generations during which time the beginnings of a distinctly American manner of life were made. Many of the English manners and customs had faded from memory in situations which offered little opportunity for their practice. New conditions necessitated the weaving of new social tradi- tions by men and women who had never seen England.
THE HOUSEHOLD
The changing standard of living is conspicuous in the architecture of the houses over which the women presided. The interiors of these houses and the life that was lived there have been so faithfully and so affectionately pictured by Mrs. Alice Morse Earle, that reading one of her many delightful books is almost the equivalent of a visit in a colonial home. We see them at the beginning of the period furnished with rude but picturesque utensils. The kitchen fireside, with its many ingenious arrangements, its shining pewter and bright strings of red and yellow peppers and pumpkins hanging overhead, must have been the center of the family life. The food was served from scooped-out wooden trenchers and
357
THE HOUSEHOLD
oftentimes two persons shared the same dish. Forks were still a luxury at the end of the first quarter of the century.
The household equipment of a young country bride is found in a list of articles which Mindwell Lyman had for her "set- ting out" when in the year 1720 she married John Montague, Jr., of Hadley. The most important articles with which she opened her new house were these :
"7 chairs, and one great chair
Pillion and Pillion Cloth
Spinning Wheel, flyers, & Spindle & quill
Pr Andirons, Slice and tongs Trammel, Warming Pan
Frying pan, Iron Kettle Iron Pot, Brass Kettle
7 pewter platters
6 pewter plates, Tin pan
3 Basons, Salt cellar, 7 porringers dram cup and ten tumblers
Vinegar Earthen jug & other Earthen
2 wooden bowls, 3 dishes, 3. platters & 10 trenchers
Looking glass & drinking glass
Trunk, 4 Cushons
Feather bed, bolster, pillows & beers
Coverlids, Curtains & Valence
4 prs. pillow beers, 6 napkins, 2 table cloths, 8 towels & a cupboard cloth
11 sheets"
This modest wedding outfit may be contrasted with the more elegant list of articles which in the same year Judge Samuel Sewall, whose diary furnishes us with intimate details of the life of his day, ordered from England for his daughter, Judith. A portion of the order included the following items :
"Curtains & Vallens for a Bed with Counterpane
Head Cloth and Tester made of good yellow waterd worsted camlet with Trimming well made and Bases if it be the Fash- ion. Send also of the Same Camlet & Trimming as may be enough to make Cushions for the Chamber Chairs.
A good fine large Chintz Quilt well made.
A true Looking Glass of Black Walnut Frame of the New-
358 EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY WOMEN
est Fashion if the Fashion be good, as good as can be bought for five or six pounds.
A Duzen of good Black Walnut Chairs fine Cane with a Couch.
A Duzen of Cane Chairs of a Different Figure and a Great Chair for a Chamber; all black Walnut.
One good large Warming Pan bottom and cover fit for an Iron handle.
A Brass Hearth for a Chamber with Dogs Shovel Tongs & Fender of the newest Fashion (the fire is to ly upon Iron)
A duzen of good Ivory-hafted Knives and Forks."
Tea and coffee were practically unknown at the beginning of the century in Massachusetts, though two dealers were licensed to sell tea "in publique" in Boston in 1690. At first it was sold like medicine by the apothecaries. It must have been in fairly general use by 1740 in Boston, for the ladies there are reported as gathering for tea drinking and "indulg- ing every little piece of gentility and neglecting the affairs of their families with as good a grace as the finest ladies in London."
DRESS
The richer dress of the women in the eighteenth century furnishes further evidence of changing standards and tastes. It is described in 1740 as not less gay than that worn in Eng- land at the same time. The most striking feature in women's dress were the immense hoops which spread the skirts "like a fishing smack under full sail." A good deal of the clothing for the well-to-do women was imported from England. The correspondence of Mr. Thomas Amory in 1724 contains an order for a "good fine fashionable riding hood, or a cloak with a hood to it, embroidered." Wigs, which had caused the Puritans much uneasiness earlier, became common by 1740; and we find, even before the end of the seventeenth century, the frequent mention of hair powder.
The portrait studies of John Singleton Copley give vivid records of the costly dress of some of the wealthy members of provincial society. Among the works of this artist is a por- trait of Mercy Otis Warren, a description of whose costume is given by a modern writer as follows: "Her head dress is of
359
DRESS
white lace, trimmed with white-satin ribbons. Her robe is of dark-green satin, with a pompadour waist, trimmed with point lace. There is a full plait at the back hanging from the shoulders, and her sleeves are also of point lace. White illu- sion trimmed with point lace, and fastened with a white-satin bow, covers her neck. The front of the skirt and of the sleeves are elaborately trimmed with puffing of satin."
Fashions were advertised not by the fashion-plate but by doll-models imported from England and clothed in the latest mode. In the New England Weekly Journal of July 2, 1733, appears the following notice :
"To be seen at Mrs. Hannah Teatts Mantus Maker at the head of Summer Street Boston a Baby drest after the newest Fashion of Mantues and Night Gowns & Everything belong- ing to a dress. Latilly arrived on Captain White from Lon- don, any Ladies that desire to see it may come or send, she will be ready to wait on 'em, if they come to the House it is Five Shilling & if she waits on 'em it is Seven Shilling."
An inventory of Madam Elizabeth Gedney's possessions in 1738 attributes the following articles to her :
"14 Shifts [chemises] £ 8.4
9 handkerchiefs & 13 petticoats £10.7
1 "suit of dark flowered silk" £ 8.0
1 striped lustering gown £ 7.0
1 velvet hood, a lustering do
2 silk aprons, all £ 1.4"
Further evidence of luxury of dress, and a side-light upon feminine occupation, may be found in an advertisement of the Boston News Letter of August 27, 1716.
"This is to give notice, That at the House of Mr. George Brownell, late School-Master in Hanover Street, Boston, are all sorts of Millinery Works done; making up Dresses and flowering of Muslin, making of furbelow'd Scarfs, and Quilt- ing and cutting of Gentlewomen's Hair in the newest Fashion; and also young Gentlewomen and Children taught all sorts of fine works, as Feather-work, Filigre, and Painting on Glass . Turkey-work for Handkerchiefs . . . and short Aprons upon Muslin; artificial Flowers work'd with a needle."
360
EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY WOMEN
A long road had been traveled in the century since the Puri- tan abhorrence of the extravagance of English dress had caused the passage of sumptuary laws by the Massachusetts General Court !
AMUSEMENTS OF WOMEN
Dancing was becoming a popular amusement, but the chil- dren in families where the Puritan tradition was still strong were not allowed to share in this form of entertainment. Public concerts in Boston began in the early part of the eighteenth century. Mrs. Earle reports that the first public concert which she has found recorded was advertised in the New England Weekly Journal of December 15, 1732: "This is to inform the Publick That there will be a Consort of Music Perform'd by Sundry Instruments at the Court Room in Wings Lane near the Town Dock on the twenty-eighth of this Instant December; Tickets will be deliver'd at the Place of Performance at Five Shillings each Ticket. N. B. No Person will be admitted after Six." Much of the music in New Eng- land before the year 1800 consisted in modification of the Puritan psalmody, and there is little doubt but that the music of these early concerts was of this monotonous type.
Although a freer life was developing, evidence is wanting to indicate that there was for the women much contact with the European literature and arts of the eighteenth century. The number of spinnets advertised for sale before 1750 seems to show that they were fairly common in the homes of the prosperous. Judge Sewall (who confesses to a "passion for music") writes as early as 1690 of his wife's "virginalls," but Mrs. Earle doubts whether Madam Sewall ever played anything gayer than long-meter psalm tunes.
The new society had not yet found its social forms nor sufficient leisure or opportunity to give attention to the fine arts. The generation which was held by the superstition and fear that lurked behind the horror of the Salem witchcraft had not yet achieved that freedom for the human spirit for which the first settlers searched.
According to Puritan custom, the execution of a condemned criminal was made a public event. Notes from various diaries of the period show that large crowds gathered to witness
From the portrait in The Massachusetts Historical Society
AN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY LADY, MRS. MARY ANN JONES, SISTER OF PETER FANEUIL
361
COURTSHIP
these scenes. The event took on the atmosphere of a celebra- tion and the witnesses derived no small amount of satisfaction and pleasure from the performance. It is apparent from the diary of Judge Sewall that women were among those present and that they gave themselves up to the morbid excitement of the occasion.
"Feria Sexta, Junij. 30, 1704 . After Dinner about 3 p. m. I went to see the Execution. . . . Many were the people that saw upon Broughton's Hill. But when I came to see how the River was cover'd with People, I was amased: Some say there were 100 Boats, 150 Boats and Canoes, saith Cousin Moody of York ... When the scaffold was hoisted to due height, the seven Malefactors went up; Mr. Mather pray'd for them standing upon the Boat. Ropes were all fasten'd to the Gallows. . . . When the Scaffold was let to sink, there was such a Screech of the Women that my wife heard it sitting in our Entry next the Orchard, and was much surprised at it; yet the wind was sou-west. Our house is a full mile from the place."
COURTSHIP
Young girls in colonial Massachusetts grew up with com- parative freedom in their social relationships. Calhoun points out, as reasons for the lack of anything like chaperonage, the domestic occupations which kept girls closely confined, and the fact that the neighborhoods in which they lived were com- posed exclusively of approved families among whom girls would be considered safe. There are many instances in which it is reported that young men took girls to evening parties unaccompanied by any older person.
The initiative in the matter of choosing a mate appears not to have been taken exclusively by the young man as later came to be the case. Cotton Mather records one instance of the persistence of a young woman which he found very baffling. "There is a young Gentlewoman of incomparable Accomplishments. No Gentlewoman in the English America has had a more Polite education . . . This young Gentle- woman first Addresses me with diverse letters, and then makes me a Visit at my House; wherein she gives me to understand, that she has long had a more than an ordinary Value for my
362 EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY WOMEN
Ministry; and that since my present Condition has given her more Liberty to think of me, she must confess herself charmed with my Person, to such a Degree that she could not but break in upon me, with her most importunate Requests that I would make her mine, . . . for if she were mine . the effect of it would be that she . . . would also be Christ's.
"I was in great Straight, how to treat so polite a Gentle- woman . . I plainly told her that I feared whether her Proposal would not meet with unsurmountable Oppositions .. . However, . .. if I could not make her my own, I should be glad of being any way Instrumental, to make her the Lord's Her Reputation has been under some Disadvantage.
"What Snares may be laying for me, I know not . .. Lord, help me, what shall I do? I am a miserable man."
In other instances, however, the courtship appears to have been managed with a good deal of guidance by parents. We are indebted again to the diary of Judge Sewall for the picture of the courtship of two of his daughters. When Mr. Gerrish desired the hand of his daughter, Mary, he first asked the father's consent to pay his attentions. The Judge writes: "S. Gerrish comes. Tell's Mary except Satterday and Lord's-day nights intends to wait on her every night; unless some extra- ordinary thing happen." Evidently such uninterrupted wooing brought quick results, as an entry only six months later is : "Midweek, August 24. In the evening Mr. Pemberton marrys Mr. Samuel Gerrish and my daughter Mary: He begun with Prayer, and Mr. Gerrish the bridegroom's father concluded."
The supervision of courtship by parents did not extend to imposing their wills upon reluctant children as Miss Goodsell points out in discussing the courtship of Sewall's second daughter, Betty. When Betty's shyness prevented her accept- ance of Captain Tuthill, the father did not press the matter. "Captain Tuthill comes to speak with Betty, who hid herself all alone in the coach for several hours till he was gone, so that we sought at several houses, till at last came in of her- self, and lok'd very wild." Captain Tuthill was discouraged and withdrew, but the family prepared the way for another suitor, Mr. William Hirst, who was given "the liberty of our house," and "Oct. 17th, 1700 . . . Mr. Grove Hirst and Elizabeth Sewall are married by Mr. Cotton Mather .
363
MARRIAGE
Sung the 128 Psal. I set York Tune not intending it. In the new Parlor."
MARRIAGE
The marriage of convenience was well understood in colonial society of this period. The difficulties of Judge Sewall in coming to terms with the various widows with whom he began negotiations very soon after lamenting his wife's death furnish evidence that shrewd bargaining was practiced by both parties. The Widow Denison, who had been well pro- vided for by her first spouse, was unwilling to accept the terms the judge offered: "Ask'd her what I should allow her; she not speaking; I told her I was willing to give her Two [Hun- dred?] and Fifty pounds per annum during her life, if it should please God to take me out of the world before her. She answer'd she had better keep as she was, than give a Certainty for an uncertainty; She should pay dear for dwelling at Boston. I desired her to make proposals, but she made none." Later, after he had wooed and won a second wife and she had also died, he relates his attempts to secure the Widow Winthrop : "Spake of giving her a Hundred pounds per annum if I dy'd before her. Ask'd her what sum she would give me, if she should dy first? Said I would give her time to Consider of it." Her consideration ended in her refusal to "Change her Condition." Not daunted, the Judge repaired to the Widow Gibbs and at last was successful in winning a wife to whom he had offered only "Forty pounds per annum during the term of your natural Life in case of your Survival;" terms decidedly lower than those of his previous proposals!
An important change in the status of marriage dates from the last of the seventeenth century, when the early Puritan fear of ecclesiastical domination required the performance of the ceremony by justices of the peace. In the eighteenth century it was legal and customary for ministers to be the celebrants. It will be recalled that when Judge Sewall's daughter Elizabeth was married on October 17th, 1700, Cotton Mather officiated. The requirement of "three several times publication" of the banns and parental consent for those "under covert of parents" were continued.
The basis of the legal status of Massachusetts women in the
364 EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY WOMEN
eighteenth century was still derived from English law. The importance of the marriage settlement lay in the modification through it of the almost absolute control of the husband over the property of the wife. The influence of English custom and tradition was not so strong in fixing intimate family re- lationships because of different economic conditions. Women who married young might be placed soon afterward at the head of a great clan-like group.
DIVORCE
Marriages were not all successful in colonial Massachusetts. Disagreement then, as now, was frequent, but it resulted less often in divorce. Even the marriage of Judge Sewall's son, Samuel, to the daughter of Governor Dudley was not a happy one. The comment of Judge Sewall on February 21, 1715, shows the parents' perplexity in handling this situation :
"Son Sewall intended to go home on the Horse Tom brought, sent some of his Linen by him; but when I came to read his wive's letter to me, his Mother was vehemently against his going : and I was for considering. .. " ." The frequent confessions of adultery by married men and women, made in full knowledge of the possibility of the awful punishment of branding with the scarlet letter, are testimony to laxity in marital relations.
Belief in the family as the only proper setting for the indi- vidual was very strong. The terrific pressure of public opinion, manifested in home, church and civil interference, was exerted for the maintenance of family ties. Unhappy unions occasion- ally ended in the granting of separation or divorce by the civil authorities; but the instances were few in number during this period in comparison with those of later years. Howard's careful research has uncovered only four cases of divorce in Massachusetts Bay Colony in the two years 1690 and 1691, when jurisdiction was in the hands of the Court of Assistants. For the next half-century the history of divorce is almost a complete blank, for the records of the governor and council who heard the majority of such actions are missing. Only three such cases are recorded in the years 1739-50. A few additional pleas for separate maintenance came before the
365
DIVORCE
county court of the general sessions of the peace. One was the case of Dorothy, "the wife of John Jackson of Boston Starchmaker," who asked separate maintenance on the grounds of non-support and cruelty and alleged that she "would run the hazzard of her life in case she should attempt to Enter into his house." The recalcitrant Jackson was ordered to take his wife home, support her, and "keep his Majesty's Peace." When he refused, the court ordered him to provide Dorothy a weekly allowance of eight shillings. One single instance between 1725 and 1780 appears in still another set of records, those of the Superior Court of Judicature. When the court convened for Barnstable and Duke counties on April 21, 1730 :
"Hannah Marshall, wife of the Reverend Josiah Marshall, complained that she has lived with him for considerable time past in daily fear of her life, threats of being brained etc. Josiah appeared and made answer. Hannah admitted to her oath . . . Court directed and advised her to keep at her father's house until further order from the Court or from the General Sessions. Josiah to find surety for his good be- havior."
Massachusetts wives of the early eighteenth century, like their sisters in England, lived under the rule of a double standard of morality. As Governor Hutchinson, who for many years presided over the council which heard divorce cases in Massachusetts Bay Colony, phrases it, "female adul- tery was never doubted to have been sufficient cause, but male adultery, after some debate and consultation with the elders, was judged not sufficient." The same code also prevailed in Plymouth Plantation. A complaint of adultery on the part of the husband was always accompanied by another charge, as in the case of "Mary versus Sam Stebbins," in the assist- ants court in 1690-91, where both adultery and desertion were cited. Before 1776, according to Howard, there is not a single clear instance of divorce being granted for a husband's un- faithfulness, although after that date marriages were freely dissolved for this cause.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.