he colonists "proverb'd with the grandsire
phrase," that women dying maids lead apes in hell. Maidens "withering on
the virgin thorn," in single blessedness, were hard to find. One
Mistress Poole lived unmarried to great old age, and helped to found the
town of Taunton under most discouraging rebuffs; and in the Plymouth
church record of March 19, 1667, is a record of a death which reads
thus:--

"Mary Carpenter sister of Mrs. Alice Bradford wife of Governor
Bradford being newly entered into the 91st year of her age. She was
a godly old maid never married."

The state of old maidism was reached at a very early age in those early
days; Higginson wrote of an "antient maid" of twenty-five years. John
Dunton in his "Life and Errors" wrote eulogistically of one such ideal
"Virgin" who attracted his special attention.

"It is true an _old_ (or superanuated) Maid in Boston is thought
such a curse, as nothing can exceed it (and looked on as a _dismal_
spectacle) yet she by her good nature, gravity, and strict virtue
convinces all (so much as the fleering Beaus) that it is not her
necessity but her choice that keeps her a Virgin. She is now about
thirty years (the age which they call a _Thornback_) yet she never
disguises herself, and talks as little as she thinks, of Love. She
never reads any Plays or Romances, goes to no Balls or
Dancing-match (as they do who go to such Fairs) to meet with
Chapmen. Her looks, her speech, her whole behavior are so very
chaste, that but once (at Govenor's Island, where we went to be
merry at roasting a hog) going to kiss her, I thought she would
have blushed to death.

"Our _Damsel_ knowing this, her conversation is generally amongst
the women (as there is least danger from that sex) so that I found
it no easy matter to enjoy her company, for most of her time (save
what was taken up in needle work and learning French &c.) was spent
in Religious Worship. She knew time was a dressing-room for
Eternity, and therefore reserves most of her hours for better uses
than those of the Comb, the Toilet and the Glass.

"And as I am sure this is most agreeable to the Virgin modesty,
which should make Marriage an act rather of their obedience than
their choice. And they that think their Friends too slowpaced in
the matter give certain proof that lust is their sole motive.