Legal case: Eliz. Johnson; Massachusetts Bay, Dec 5, 1642
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"Unseemly practices"
The Essex County Court. meeting at Salem in Massachusetts Bay, reported the sentencing of a servant, Elizabeth Johnson, for a series of insubordinate and illegal acts.[1]
Elizabeth Johnson, servant to Mr. Jos. Yonge, [is] to be severely whipped and fined 5 li. [pounds] for unseemly practices betwixt her and another maid; also, for stubbornness to her mistress answering rudely and unmannerly; and also for stopping her ears with her hands when the Word of God was read. . . .
The record adds that Johnson was also punished "for 'spurning an ewe goat till both [mother and offspring?] died'; also for killing a pig and burying it."
References
- ↑ Jonathan Ned Katz, Gay/Lesbian Almanac (NY: Harper & Row, 1983), pp. 85-86, citing George Francis Dow, ed., Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County. . . (Salem, MA: The Essex Institute, 1911), vol. 1, p. 44.
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