.... Some years after (1646) a woman
residing in Northampton was punished for defamation by being condemned
to stand at the door of her parish church, during the singing of the
psalm, with a gag in her mouth.... Deborah Heighram ... was, in 1654,
not only required to ask pardon of the person she had slandered, but was
mulcted to the extent of two thousand pounds of tobacco. Alice Spencer,
for the same offence, was ordered to go to Mrs. Frances Yeardley's house
and beg forgiveness of her; whilst Edward Hall, who had also slandered
Mrs. Yeardley, was compelled to pay five thousand pounds of tobacco for
the county's use, and to acknowledge in court that he had spoken
falsely."[296]

The mere fact that a woman was a woman seems in no wise to have caused
merciful discrimination among early colonists as to the manner of
punishment. Apparently she was treated certainly not better and perhaps
sometimes worse than the man if she committed an offense. In the matter
of adultery she indeed frequently received the penalty which her partner
in sin totally escaped. In short, chivalry was not allowed to interfere
in the least with old-time justice.

FOOTNOTES:

[230] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 237, p. 396.

[231] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 237.

[232] Howard: _History of Matrimonial Institutions_, p. 166.

[233] Howard: p. 163.

[234] Howard: p. 200.

[235] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 396.

[236] _Diary_, Vol. II, p. 336.

[237] Vol. III, pp. 144, 165.

[238] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 176.

[239] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 180.

[240a], [240b] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 232.

[241a], [241b] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 262.

[242] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 265.

[243a], [243b] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 266.

[244] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 269.

[245] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 271.

[246] Vol. III, p. 274.

[247] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 275.

[248] Ravenel: _Eliza Pinckney_, p. 55.

[249] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 491.

[250] Sewall's: _Letter-Book_, Col. I, p. 213.

[251] _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 216.

[252] _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 228.

[253] Vol. III, p. 172.

[254] _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 368.

[255] _Diary_, Vol. II, p. 24.

[256] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 364.

[257] _Diary_, Vol. II, p. 347.

[258] _Diary_, p. 82.

[259] _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 354.

[260] _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 424.

[261] Weeden: _Economic, & Social History of N. Eng._, Vol. I, p. 299.

[262a], [262b] Vol. II, p. 371.

[263] _Diary_, Vol. II, p. 371.

[264] Vol. II, p. 400.

[265] Vol.