LETTER: Autograph letter signed.

An 18th-Century Woman Appeals for Sexual Rights

[Legal issues]. Shearman, Marah. Autograph letter signed, “Marah Shearman,” to “Hon’d S’r” (the Honorable Nathaniel Byfield, Esq. at Bristol), April 11, 1720; one leaf, one page, 8” x 15”, folded; light soiling; residue of wax seal; chipping to edges.

A manuscript letter from an 18th-century Massachusetts wife and mother, to a prominent colonial New England magistrate, suing for mercy in consideration of charges of premarital sexual relations against her and her husband.

Dated April 11th, 1720, and addressed “Hon’d Sr,” the letter begins with Marah Shearman’s acknowledgement of her “imprudence and folly,” her fall “into scandal,” and her subsequent exposure “to the lash of the law.” Without naming her crime specifically, Mrs. Shearman asks Judge Byfield that he “not deal with us in severity; because the child was born in wedlock,” an indication that she and her husband faced charges of engaging in premarital intercourse. That the couple was subject to discipline by the court for a consensual act is a testament to the kind of control that colonial New England’s leaders sought to exert over its citizens, especially women. The regulation of women’s sexual behavior would become, in the centuries following, a central issue in the women’s movement.

At the conclusion of the letter, Mrs. Shearman assures the judge that she and her husband have been “brought to a full sense of our sinn [sic] so as to mourn for it before both God and men.” Though in the absence of court records it is impossible to say with certainty what effect her plea had on the judge, there is reason to believe that it might have proved beneficial. Magistrates in New England saw themselves as fulfilling not only a legal function, but a religious function as well, and offenders “who manifested appropriate repentance were much more likely to be treated with compassion and even leniency.” If Nathaniel Byfield deemed Shearman’s repentance appropriate, she may have received the leniency she sought – most likely in the form of a reduced fine. Though in early colonial New England public flogging had been a common punishment for premarital intercourse, by the date of this letter corporal punishment had given way to monetary punishment.

Nathaniel Byfield (1653-1733) was a respected Massachusetts judge whose rulings were “so sound that no decision of his was ever, upon appeal, reversed by a higher court.”

(#13128)

Item ID#: 13128

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