Price of adultery in 1641

This is the story of Mary Latham an eighteen-year-old girl who strayed from the moral path of her Puritan community and paid for her transgression with her life. Mary suffered from unrequited love. Spurned by the object of her affection, she resolved to wed the first man who came along. She carried out her threat by marrying a much older man for whom she could muster no fondness.

John Winthrop was the first Governor of Massachusetts Colony. He describes the plight of Mary Latham in his diaries:"At this court of assistants one James Britton, a man ill affected both to our church discipline and civil government, and one Mary Latham, a proper young woman about 18 years of age, whose father was a godly man and had brought her up well, were condemned to die for adultery...

This woman, being rejected by a young man whom she had an affection unto, vowed she would marry the next that came to her, and accordingly, against her friends' minds, she matched with an ancient man who had neither honesty nor ability, and one whom she had no affection unto.

Whereupon, soon after she was married, several young men solicited her chastity, and drawing her into bad company, and giving her wine and other gifts, easily prevailed with her, and among others this Britton. But God smiting him with a deadly palsy and a fearful horror of conscience, he could not keep secret... (Ha ha - he had to make a clean breast of it.)

What happens to Mary and James?

The rest at EyeWitnessToHistory

By the way - what the hell is the story with those frilly things they wore around their necks? The Klown is amazed that peeps could be talked into wearing them (hetero males, anyway.) Funny, huh? Wear it in 1641 and you're a big cheese. Wear it in 2009 -- ass kicking.