The Transformation of Sexual Morality in "Puritan" New England

Evidence from New Haven Court Records, 1639-1698

Bibliographic Data

ID8896049
AuthorsRobert West Roetger (corresponding author)
Year1984
Volume15
Issue3
Pages243-258
Publication date1984-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCanadian Review of American Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-7720 • E-ISSN: 1710-114X
PublisherUniversity of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.3138/cras-015-03-01
OpenAlexW1984546635
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited21

By all accounts the itinerant sawyer William Harding who practiced his trade in early New Haven was a "lewd and disorderly person." Although his origins are unknown, Harding made an indelible impression on residents of this puritan settlement and officials entered his illegal activities into court documents for posterity. Those records suggest that one of his principal "trades" was corrupting those around him. He was responsible on at least one occasion for causing servants to steal. On another, his "pernicious counsel" prompted a young couple to violate the law and be cast out of the plantation. Finally, in 1643, when Harding's misdeeds caught up with him, he was convicted of "a great deal of base carriage and filthy dalliances with divers young girls." For yielding to Harding, Ruth Acie, Jane Andrews and Martha Malbon, whom he entertained at a venison feast, were whipped for their unrighteous behavior. The licentious sawyer's penalties included a severe whipping, monetary damages to the girls' parents, and banishment from the community.1

Criminology · Damages · Haven · Morality · Political science · Settlement (finance · Sociology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · American History and Culture · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Law