Cases of conception before marriage with fine, and in a few cases fine or whipping for husband, or both husband and wife 48 Cases of woman fined or whipped, and putative (or acknowledged) father sentenced to maintenance of child 44 Between 1692 and 1725 there were the following convictions before the general sessions for Middlesex county (each case stands for both man and woman if both were tried): Cases of fornication 135 Cases of fornication and conception before marriage 155 yield forty-eight cases of conviction of married couples for pre-nuptial misconduct, as compared with 148 cases of single women sentenced for the same offenses.[587] The corresponding records of the general sessions of Middlesex for the years 1692-1725 contain the extraordinary number of 155 cases of the first class, as compared with 135 of the second. In a great many instances the husband or both husband and wife appear "freely and voluntarily" and confess their guilt. [Footnote 586: There are (1) many cases of bastardy, the woman being usually fined or whipped and the man in most cases sentenced merely to contribute to the child's support; for a few examples see _MSS. Records of the Court of Gen. Sessions of Suffolk_, I, 112 (1705), 190, 192 (1709); II, 234 (1719); III, 154, 308 (1724); IV, 331 (1731): _MSS. Records of the Court of Gen. Sessions of Middlesex_, II, 197, 203, 204 (1729-30); (2) killing of bastard, at least ten convictions between 1692 and 1725, in nine of which the woman was sentenced to death; and not less than a dozen presentations and one capital sentence after 1725: see examples in _MSS. Records of the Superior Court of Judicature_, II (1686-1700), 49, 50; III (1700-1714), fol. 270; _ibid._ (1725-29), fol. 111; _ibid._ (1772), fol. 98; _ibid._ (1757-59), 295; (3) miscegenative fornication, a number of cases, the white woman almost always receiving twenty stripes: examples in _MSS. Records of the Court of Gen. Sessions of Suffolk_, I, 144 (1706), 206 (1710); II, 43, 45 (1713); (4) rape, at least two cases: _MSS. Records of Superior Court of Judicature_ (1739-40), fol. 225; _ibid._ (1767-68), fol. 261; (5) prostitution of wife, one case: _MSS. Minute Books of the Court of Gen. Sessions of Suffolk_, III, Dec. 3, 1756. The darker crimes were, however, not unknown to the period of the first charter. Between 1674 and 1681 in Massachusetts four persons were sentenced to death for rape: NOBLE, _Records of the Court of Assistants_, I, 21, 50, 74, 199.] [Footnote 587: Here are two typical cases: