after this release, married himself, "a transaction in my opinion, under execution, entirely unlawful," wrote the local official in quest of orders from higher authority. The marriage was shortly declared void. Conditions in Delaware corresponded to the account of Maryland by an Episcopal rector (1676): "All notorious vices are committed; so that it is become a Sodom of uncleanness, and a pest house of iniquity." 1997 Fabritius, a Lutheran minister, came to New Castle in 1671 having gotten into hot water in Albany for not baptizing several children on application, etc. Soon he was suspended from the ministry for one year for having performed a marriage "without having any lawful authority thereto, and without publication of banns." His wife remained at Albany, and he managed to keep in trouble at both places. Tienhoven, at one time secretary of the colony on South River, seduced in Holland on promise of marriage a girl of Amsterdam. She came and found him already married and took her case into court. In 1709 Thomas Crawford, a missionary, wrote of uncleanness : [Mr. Middleton, a vile man, sent me word of the disappearance of Elizabeth Watson. Some] believed it was done by a fellow that was in the house with her whom all say she admitted to her embraces. But what I have to say of her uncleanness, that on earth I can get proved, and other villany to obtain her lust, and gratify her unclean desires as also a certificate of her former husband's death whom she trapanned and sent to sea, and then removed under the name of a maid to a strange place, and things worse than that I shall not mention. With all the last money I sent Elizabeth Watson, she laid it out to pay the boarding of a gentleman's children, to whom she had been valet de chambre many a night till all 97 Holcomb. Sketch of Early Ecclesiastical Affairs in New Castle, Delaware, and History of Immanuel Church, 29. the world took notice of her base carriage with him, and then when she had lost her fame she came after me. The records of the Welsh Tract Baptist Meeting contain numerous records of church censorship of sex morals. In 1714 Evan Edmunds and Catherine Edwards were excommunicated for conducting themselves scandalously and unseemly and withstanding the advice of the church not to keep company till they cleared themselves of the scandal. In 1717 Richard Lewis was turned out for keeping unseemly company with his neighbor's wife and withstanding the counsel of the church. Mary Rees was "dismembered" in 1723 for withstanding the advice of the church and marrying a man against the warning of the brethren and of her father. Besides there was no proof of her former husband's death. The sentence was to stand so long as both parties were alive. In the previous cases the sentences were really only suspension until satisfaction should be given. Thomas Jones and wife were excommunicated for improper conduct with regard to the obligation of the marriage vow, etc., and for disregard of the call of the church. Numerous others cases of excommunication, etc., occured for such causes as bastardy, bigamy, disorderly marriage-without advising with the church and without parental consent- fornication, excessive drinking to the hurt of the culprit's family, adultery. These cases, however, are spread over half a century, namely from 1736-1786. The church undertook also to adjust differences between husband and wife. In the eighteenth century the Delaware assembly made sodomy, buggery, and rape capital offences. Death without benefit of clergy was fixed as the penalty for the killing of bastards. Perhaps the most outstanding fact in the history of the New Jersey and Delaware colonial families is the unsettling influence of heterogeneity of population. This factor is visible in the liberalization of the New Jersey marriage law, in irregularities of marriage in Delaware, in family division due to cross-marriages, and in the variety of petty groups, each censoring the affairs of its members. XI. THE FAMILY IN COLONIAL PENNSYLVANIA Pennsylvania was cosmopolitan, hence tended to breadth and tolerance. Here we must study varied influences, particularly Quaker, German, and ScotchIrish. In the early days the Quaker element was dominant. They always held marriage and the family in great esteem. The records of the colonial Pennsylvania Quaker meetings are full of instances of discipline administered to young people for fornication. Penn claims that wedlock should grow only out of reciprocal inclination. "Never marry but for love," he says, "but see that thou lovest what is lovely." Tho holding, like the Puritans, that the regulation of marriage belongs to the civil power, the Quakers,9 as a sect, imposed restrictions of their own. The Meeting exercised constant surveillance over family discipline. and private life. As it was impossible properly to discipline the family of a mixed marriage a Quaker marrying one of another sect was dismissed from the society even tho their numbers were thus greatly depleted. If a Friend sought a wife elsewhere than in his home community he carried a letter from the Meeting. In the first half of the eighteenth century perplexing questions were rife as to forbidden degrees, marriage by justice of the peace, mixed marriages, young couples' keeping company without parental consent. Adverse 98 See Index for Quakers in England. decisions were rendered on every question. A tendency to recognize the validity of common law marriages appears. The following are illustrations of the problems that confronted the Friends in Pennsylvania: many young Friends, impatient of the slow and troublesome process of passing meeting, would hasten off to the priest or to a magistrate and be married without delay or formality. Refusal to confess fault meant expulsion. At Warrington, 1767, Sarah Delap acknowledged "keeping company with a young man not of our society and attempting marriage with him by a priest to the great grief of my tender parents." She was reinstated. While Quaker discipline was, on the whole, rather Puritanlike the home life was charming. The families were often large. The Friends were especially appreciative of the aged. Hospitality was a genial virtue. In American Quaker homes there were spare rooms, and Quaker visitors, no matter how numerous, never went to a hotel. The Diary of Christopher Marshall, a well-to-do Quaker of Philadelphia, kept during the year 1778, describes his wife's activities: "From early morning till late at night she is constantly employed in the affairs of the family, which for four months has been very large. It is a constant resort of comers and goers." Moreover she did the baking and cooking; made twenty large cheeses from one cow; was gardener and butter-maker; kept the house clean; cut and dried apples; made cider without tools "for the constant drink of the family;" attended to the washing and ironing. She also sewed, knit, etc. "I think she hath not been above four times since her residence here to visit her neighbors." In sickness furthermore he stated that she was a faithful nurse day and night. She was ever |