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The Olden Time Series, Vol. 5: Some Strange and Curious Punishments: Gleanings Chiefly from Old Newspapers of Boston and Salem, Massachusetts — John Shaqi

The Olden Time Series, Vol. 5: Some Strange and Curious Punishments: Gleanings Chiefly from Old Newspapers of Boston and Salem, MassachusettsBrooks, Henry M. (Henry Mason)

History

The Olden Time Series, Vol. 5: Some Strange and Curious Punishments: Gleanings Chiefly from Old Newspapers of Boston and Salem, Massachusetts

Name: The Olden Time Series, Vol. 5: Some Strange and Curious Punishments: Gleanings Chiefly from Old Newspapers of Boston and Salem, Massachusetts
Author: Brooks, Henry M. (Henry Mason)

Brooks, Henry M. (Henry Mason)

New England -- Social life and customs; Punishment

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_Women Gossips_.--Among the many ordinances promulgated at St. Helena
in 1709, we find the following:--

    Whereas several idle, gossiping women make it their business to
    go from house [to house] about the island, inventing and
    spreading false and scandalous reports of the good people
    thereof, and thereby sow discord and debate among neighbors, and
    often between men and their wives, to the great grief and trouble
    of all good and quiet people, and to the utter extinguishing of
    all friendship, amity, and good neighborhood: for the punishment
    and suppression whereof, and to the intent that all strife may be
    ended, charity revived, and friendship continued,--we do order
    that, if any woman, from henceforward, shall be convicted of tale
    bearing, mischief making, scolding, drunkenness, or any other
    notorious vice, that they shall be punished by ducking, or
    whipping, or such other punishment as their crimes or
    transgressions shall deserve, or as the Governor and Council
    shall think fit.

    _Essex Register_, 1820.

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IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT.

The following scrap from a Boston paper of 1819 has reference to an
old method which creditors frequently resorted to in dealing with
troublesome, and no doubt oftentimes unfortunate, debtors.

    _CHRISTMAS DAY._

    On this most glorious "Day of Days" there are in gaol for debt,
    in this town, the following persons, viz.:

      1 Head of a Family for          9 94
      1   -- do.    --       --       8 12-1/2
      1   -- do.    --       --      14 00
      1   -- do.    --       --       9 61
      1   -- do.    --       --      11 68
      1   -- do.    --       --      27 00
      1   -- do.    --       --       7 75
      1   -- do.    for schooling }  11 25
                    his children, }
      1   -- do.    discharged        1 88!!!
                                     -----

    Who among the opulent is willing to restore a _Father_ to his
    Family and Christmas Fire Side?

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Sometimes debtors were not actually imprisoned, but were confined to
what was called the "limits of the jail;" that is, certain streets
within a specified distance of the jail. The writer distinctly
remembers, when a boy, of having a man pointed out to him, of whom it
was said he had refused to pay his debts, and so was only allowed to
go at large "within the limits of the jail."

The law under which persons were imprisoned for debt was abolished in
Massachusetts many years ago.

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Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The Olden Time Series, Vol. 5: Some Strange and Curious Punishments: Gleanings Chiefly from Old Newspapers of Boston and Salem, Massachusetts

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