Mary Latham

Around 1643, Mary Latham fell in love with a boy who rejected her. About 17 and impetuous, Mary Latham decided to marry the next man who asked. It was a bad decision. What followed was the case of the only known execution in America for adultery.

Notes

On 24 February 1643/4, a warrant was issued against William Latham's wife Mary for adultery. Governor Edward Winslow of the Plymouth Colony wrote "Whereas divers and sundry complaints have come in to me from Weymouth sent and delivered by godly and credible persons against Mary the wife of William Latham late of Marblehead but now at Marshfield for adultery committed upon the body of the said Mary by one James Brittain of Weymouth. And having apprehended the said Mary and examined her, have sent her with the examination according to my duty to that Government where the fact was committed."

From https://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=lathamdr...

“Because of dates and places specified later, the question arises whether or not Robert was actually the son of William. Also, while we have a fairly good account of William’s activities, there is scant information available about his marriage to Mary ?, a servant girl, or his having any children. In Governor Bradford’s "Plymouth Plantation" Journal, no mention is made of it either. In "The Search For Mary ?" 1997 by Robert Latham, we are offered proof of a wife; but there doesn't seem to be any proof of children conceived and born during this short marriage.”

From http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/mary-latham-marries-and-...

What little we know of her comes from the diary of John Winthrop, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

UNHAPPY MARRIAGE

Mary’s husband was “an ancient man who had neither honesty nor ability, and one whom she had no affection unto,” Winthrop writes.

“It was reported also that she did frequently abuse her husband, setting a knife to his breast and threatening to kill him, calling him old rogue and cuckold, and said she would make him wear horns as big as a bull,” wrote Winthrop.

“Whereupon, soon after she was married, divers young men solicited her chastity, and drawing her into bad company, and giving her wine and other gifts, easily prevailed with her.”

Now everything might have proceeded without a problem except Mary Latham took up with a man named John Britton. Britton, a professor in England, came to the colonies, but he was not a Puritan.

“He opposed our church government, etc., and grew dissolute, losing both power and profession of godliness,” Winthrop wrote. Britton was “a man ill affected both to our church discipline and civil government.”

CONFESSIONS
Britton also apparently couldn’t keep his mouth shut. He confessed to his affair with Mary Latham. The magistrates in Plymouth, where Mary lived, wasted no time in shipping her to Boston to face the charges against her.

At first, Mary Lataham denied the allegation. Britton had made advances, she said, but had not succeeded.

A witness against her said, “a company met at Britton's and there continued drinking sack, etc., till late in the night, and then Britton and the woman were seen upon the ground together, a little from the house.”

The jury found her guilty, and soon after that Mary confessed. She not only admitted the affair with Britton, but she named 12 other men, two of them married, that she had been with. The scandal produced a roundup of five of the men,though the others could not be found. The accused denied everything and for lack of witnesses or confessions they went free.

Mary Latham, however, had far less luck. The court sentenced her and Britton to death. Though a number of magistrates argued that death was not an appropriate punishment for adultery, they were outvoted.

Britton petitioned the court for a lesser sentence, but the court denied his request. Mary was penitent, and both stood a good chance of getting pardoned. Despite the strictness of the Puritan laws, criminals who repented often received pardons.

Winthrop concludes their story on March 21, 1644: “They were both executed, they both died very penitently, especially the woman, who had some comfortable hope of pardon of her sin, and gave good exhortation to all young maids to be obedient to their parents, and to take heed of evil company, etc.”

This story about Mary Latham was updated in 2017.

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Six years later, two more persons went to the gallows at Boston; James Britton, and Mary Latham, a young wife, 18 years old, from Plymouth. They had been found guilty of adultery.

References

• http://public.gettysburg.edu/~tshannon/341/sites/Gender%20and%20Sex...
• http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/adultery.htm
  • This eyewitness account appears in: Winthrop, John, The History of New England 1630 to 1649 James Kendall Hosmer (ed.) (1908); Erikson, Kai T. Wayward Puritans (1966).
• http://www.histarch.illinois.edu/plymouth/Lauria1.html
• http://www.celebrateboston.com/crime/puritan-capital-punishment.htm