In Plymouth
a man was "sharply whipped" for shooting fowl on Sunday; another was fined
for carrying a grist of corn home on the Lord's Day, and the miller who
allowed him to take it was also fined. Elizabeth Eddy of the same town was
fined, in 1652, "ten shillings for wringing and hanging out clothes." A
Plymouth man, for attending to his tar-pits on the Sabbath, was set in the
stocks. James Watt, in 1658, was publicly reproved "for writing a note
about common business on the Lord's Day, _at least in the evening
somewhat too soon._" A Plymouth man who drove a yoke of oxen was
"presented" before the Court, as was also another offender, who drove some
cows a short distance "without need" on the Sabbath.
In Newbury, in 1646, Aquila Chase and his wife were presented and fined for
gathering peas from their garden on the Sabbath, but upon investigation the
fines were remitted, and the offenders were only admonished. In Wareham,
in 1772, William Estes acknowledged himself "Gilty of Racking Hay on the
Lord's Day" and was fined ten shillings; and in 1774 another Wareham
citizen, "for a breach of the Sabbath in puling apples," was fined five
shillings. A Dunstable soldier, for "wetting a piece of an old hat to put
in his shoe" to protect his foot--for doing this piece of heavy work on the
Lord's Day, was fined, and paid forty shillings.
Captain Kemble of Boston was in 1656 set for two hours in the public stocks
for his "lewd and unseemly behavior," which, consisted in his kissing his
wife "publicquely" on the Sabbath Day, upon the doorstep of his house, when
he had just returned from a voyage and absence of three years.
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