King James Preserves Court Etiquette ..... So Now You Know!

    

 The religious tension between egalitarian-minded Quakers and the Stuart monarchy which had driven William Penn from England during the reign of Charles II was evident in an encounter Penn had with Charles's brother, James II. Penn had always been on good terms with James, and visited him soon after the King's coronation. Upon entering the monarch's presence, Penn failed to remove his hat. James immediately removed his.
    "Friend James, " inquired Penn, "why dost thee uncover thy head?"
     "Because," replied the new king, "it is the fashion here for only one man to wear his hat."

So now you know.....

The Fourth Commandment in Colonial Connecticut ....... So Now You Know!

In Colonial Connecticut there were stiff legal penalties against disobedient children. Examples:

• "If any Childe or Children above fifteen years old, and of sufficient understanding, shall curse or smite their natural Father or Mother, he or they shall be put to death, unless it can be sufficiently testified, that the Parents have been unchristianly negligent in the education of such Children."

• "If any man have a stubborn, or rebellious Son, of sufficient understanding and years, viz. fifteen years of age, which will not obey the voice of his Father, or the voice of his Mother, and that when they have chastened him, he will not hearken unto them; then may his Father or Mother, being his natural Parents, lay hold on him , and bring him to the Magistrates assembled in Court, and testifie unto them, that their Son is Stubborn and Rebellious, and will not obey their voice and chastisment, but lives in sundry notorious Crimes, such a Son shall be put to Death!"

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Marriages In The Nude ..... So Now You Know!

     In Colonial New England there were many instances of women getting married in the nude or in their underwear. Why? According to an old English tradition, if a woman married "in the shift on the king's highway," her husband would not be responsible for her prenuptial debts. To preserve decency, these marriages were often performed at night - but not always. There were some couples who found they could comply with tradition and still be discreet during the daylight. In one case a couple got married while the woman stood naked in a closet, with only her hand showing. It is not known whether or not creditors generally accepted the tradition.

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Colonial Regard For The Legal Profession ..... So Now You Know!

     

     Hostility to lawyers is not a recent phenomenon. It goes back at least to the Middle Ages and was widespread in the seventeenth-century America. In 1641, Massachusetts Bay actually adopted a law making it illegal to earn money by representing a person in court; the law stayed on the books for seven years. In Virginia legislators went even further. In 1658 they passed a law expelling all attorneys from the colony. Not until 1680 was the law repealed and the lawyers allowed to return.

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The Puritans Who Stole Christmas .....So Now You Know!

     The Puritans have been blamed for nearly everything that is wrong with America, but they cannot be blamed for the commercialization of Christmas. In colonial Massachusetts it was illegal to observe Christmas. By a law passed in 1659, anybody "found observing, by abstinence from labor, feasting or any other way, any such days as Christmas day" was fined five shillings for each offense. The law was repealed in 1681, but only because the Puritans were sure no one would celebrate the holiday. In 1685, Judge Samuel Sewall noted in his famous diary that on Christmas Everyone went to work as usual. Not until the middle of the nineteenth century did Christmas become a major holiday.

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Puritans Prohibit Church Weddings ..... So Now You Know!

    

 In 1647 the New England Puritans did something which might seem odd in the view of their professed and very real piety: they outlawed the preaching of wedding sermons. Even before that year they had mandated that all marriage ceremonies be conducted by a civil magistrate.
     Why? The Puritans believed that marriage was a fundamentally secular institution, of no direct concern to the church. It was, as Martin Luther wrote, not a sacrament, but "a secular and outward thing, having to do with wife and children, house and home, and with other matters that belong to the realm of government, all of which have been completely subjected to reason." By the end of the century the Puritans relaxed their restrictions on church involvement in wedding and allowed marriages ceremonies to be performed by ministers as well as by justices of the peace.

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Boy Executed for Buggery ..... So Now You Know!

    

 Strange as it may sound, in 1642 the Pilgrim Colony at Plymouth, Massachusetts, Was struck by a crime wave. William Bradford, governor of the colony, described in his history of Plymouth one of the worst crimes:
     "Ther was a youth whose named was Thoma Granger; he was servant to an honest man of Duxbery, being aboute 16. of 17. years of age. He was this year detected of buggery (and indicted for the same) with a mare, a cowe, tow goats, five sheep 2. calves and a turkey, Horrible it is to mention but the truth of the historie requires it. He was first discovered by one that accidentally saw his lewd practise towards the mare. (I forbear perticulers.) Being upon it examined and committed, in the end he not only confest the fact with the beast at that time, but sundrie times before, and at severall times with all the rest of the forenamed in his indictmente..... And accordingly he was cast by a jury, and condemned, and after executed the 8. of September, 1642. A very sade spectakle it ws; for first the mare, and then the cowe and the rest of the lesser catle, were kild before his face, according to the law, Levit:20:15, and then he him selfe was executed"

So Now You Know..........!