In Hartford

Susan Coles for her rebellious cariedge towards her mistres is to be sent to the house of correction, and be kept to hard labour and coarse dyet, to be brought forth the next lecture day to be publicquely corrected and so to be corrected weekly until order be given to the contrary.

There are many like records. The head agent of a London company at a settlement in Maine defended his wife to the powers at home for beating a worthless, idle maid. Thus it is evident that, as now, the servant problem was an apple of discord in family life, as indeed it will continue to be so long as a part of the population demands personal, menial attention from others in the capacity of house servants.

VIII. SEX AND MARRIAGE IN COLONIAL NEW YORK

The middle colonies were startlingly heterogeneous in population. Owing to diversity in respect to nationality and religion each colony possessed an individuality that makes it inadvisable to study them as a unit. Only a few large generalities are in order.

Slighter attention was given there than in New England to the regulation of domestic life. Greater amplitude and fertility of soil and geniality of climate tended to soften the rigor of life and to make family life more kindly. Diversity of population and multiplicity of minor sects tended to clannishness but forced broad tolerance inasmuch as it was hard for any one group to gain unrestrained expression in the form of law. Introduction of continental blood and customs worked toward the softening of the hard lines of life. The Huguenots, for instance, coming from a land more advanced in some ways than Holland or England, established a home life different from that of the other colonists. Their home life was pleasant in contrast to much of the severer life around. Children were instructed with more gentleness and consideration than among the English and Dutch. Warfield notes the "esprit of the Huguenot women." There were Huguenots in both the middle and the northern colonies. They were numerous in New York, where Dutch influence was also strong. The Dutch were a milder

species of the genus to which the Puritans belonged."

New York, like New England, recalls the fact that the racial endowment of sex is more than sufficient for race perpetuity when relatively civilized conditions obtain. In Dutch days "improper conduct" with women was a frequent occurrence, ranging from the darkest crimes to words and acts that are not now subjects of law. In the later years of the Old Dutch rule, "sins of sensuality" were frequent. One case was hushed up inasmuch as the woman was an unmarried daughter of Dominie Schaats of Albany. Her paramour was a married man. Stuyvesant wrote bitter words about the affair. In the early English days his half-sister Margriet had a child by a rich bachelor to whom she was affianced but whose sudden demise forestalled the marriage. This incident does not seem to have disgraced her, for she soon found a husband. It may be that a less happy event is indicated in the complaint of a farm wife in 1716 at Court of Sessions at Westchester that "a travelling woman who came out of ye Jerseys who kept school at several places in Rye parish, hath left with her a child eleven months old, for which she desires relief from the parish."

The Dutch custom of long betrothal seems to have had evil results. Some persons had delayed the ceremony even for months after banns. Apparently couples had been living together after banns without marriage. It was accordingly ordered in 1658 that no man and woman should keep house together as man and wife until they were legally married; and a fine was to be the penalty for any violation of the order. The Dutch passed a law requiring the consummation of marriage within a month after publication had been completed

69 A review of the closing pages of Chapter II will prepare the reader for a study of this colony.

unless there was legal opposition. Bundling was practiced but finally came under prohibition of the authorities. Accounts of scandal in high society can be found in the histories of all old New York towns.70 Tho strict regulation of marital relations was attempted by the Dutch colonists and severe sentences were provided for adultery, sexual transgressions were not treated with so great rigor as in New England. Neither death nor the scarlet letter was inflicted.

We have noted the custom of civil marriage in the low countries. Marriage by justice of the peace was made lawful by the States General of Holland from 1590. The laws of the Netherlands were, indeed, not uniform and in the Dutch American colony it would seem that the ceremony had to be performed by a minister with religious rites tho there is difference of opinion on this point. An authorized celebrant, at least, was essential: the principle of English common law marriage did not obtain.

In the Netherlands, usually parental consent and often publication of banns was made essential. A majority of the early settlers of New Netherlands hailed from Guilderland and the marriage laws of that province naturally prevailed. There a marriage was void if the express consent of the father, or if he were dead, the mother, had not been obtained before the marriage of a son. With regard to daughters the law was still more rigorous; even marriage with parental consent did not release a girl from parental authority in case her husband died while she was still under age. Governor Stuyvesant of New Netherlands was strict in his application of the law of parental consent and due notice. Proper forms had to be observed.

In violation of the law as to banns, etc., a sheriff of 70 Giddings. Natural History of American Morals, 34