Lydia Wardell

Lydia Perkins, married Eliakim Wardell 17th 8 mo (17 Oct) 1659 in Hampton, Rockingham, New Hampshire, both were Quakers, in May of 1663, she was whipped for having gone “naked into the meeting house at Newbury”, settled in New Jersey.

From http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/t/h/o/Amy-Thomas-NC/WEBS...

Eliakim and Lydia ran into trouble by harboring a Wenlock Christansion after he was censored by the authorities. He was removed from the Wardell home and banished from the colony under penality of death. Eliakim was fined for helping Wenlock Cristison, he lost his saddle horse(worth 14 pounds)

The couple was fined for absence from church for 26 Sabbaths in April 8, 1662.

After seeing the the family possessions including the grass in the meadow stripped to pay numerous fines, having witnessed the beatings of her friends Ann Coleman,Mary Tompkins and Alice Ambrose, remembering the way her house guest Wenlock Cristison was dragged from her home and aware of the hanging of four friends as well as the torture of numerous others brought her to distraction. Lydia was continued to be summoned to church to give a reason why she did not appear. After the pestering and goading she finally appeared in May 1663, she entered the Newbury church naked. A family historian reports that this act was "exceedingly hard to her modest and shamefaced disposition." It was to be a "sign" of the spiritual nakedness of her persecutors. She protested the "ignorance and persecution" of the Newbury Church in Hampton.

Lydia was arrested on May 5, 1663 and sentenced by the court at Ipswich to be "severely whipped and pay costs and fees to the marshall of Hampton for bringing her." It came to 10 shillings and 6 pence and fees amounted to 2 shillings and 2 pence. In accordance with the sentence "she was tied to the fence post of the tavern and, stripped from waist upwards, with her naked breasts to the splinters of the post sorely lashed with 20 or 30 stripes."

After banishment, Eliakim and Lydia went to Rhode Island then moved to Shrewsbury, New Jersey. "Becoming the first purchaser of a patent for Quakers at what is now Monmouth Beach in 1664."

The Rev. Seaborn Cotton was responsible for these fines. He was related to Cotton Mather. Rev. Seaborn Cotton was an aggressive bigoted Puritan determined to eradicate heresy in his congregation.

from

Sources

1. History, Genealogical and Biographical, of the Eaton Families  (Google eBook)nC. W. Bardeen, 1911 - 782 pages. Page 600

Links

• http://www.boydhouse.com/michelle/hussey/isaacsusannaperkins.html
• http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/t/h/o/Amy-Thomas-NC/WEBS...

  ---

Lydia Wardwell (born Perkins) MyHeritage Family Trees FARY - HYSLOP 2019 in fary Web Site, managed by annmarie lynn fary (Contact) Birth: 1636 - Hampton, Rockingham, New Hampshire, United States Death: Oct 3 1699 - Shrewsbury, Monmouth, New Jersey, United States Parents: Isaac Perkins, Susanna Perkins (born Wise/wyeth Perkins) Siblings: Isaac Perkins, Jacob Perkins, Caleb Perkins, Benjamin Perkins, Susanna Perkins, Hannah Perkins, Mary Perkins, Ebenezer Perkins, Joseph Perkins, Daniel Perkins, <Private> Perkins Husband: Eliakim Wardwell Children: Elizabeth Wardell, Joseph Wardell, Sarah Wardell, Margaret Wardell, William Wardwell, Elizabeth Wardwell, Meribah Wardell, Eliakim Wardell

- Mansfield Township; Burlington Co., New Jersey