Description:

Court Document from Plymouth in 1716 detailing eight charges by named individuals before the Grand Jury including breach of the Sabbath, cursing, fornication, and wishing " That ye Indians Were in hell..."

( Colonial Massachusetts) Manuscript Document Signed " John Foster fore man" 1 page, 7.5" x 12". Also signed " John Foster fore man" on verso beneath a short witness statement. Plimouth, March 7, 1716. With integral leaf attached. Chipped edges, some toning soiling. Good condition.

Begins, "Presentments made and Exhibetted By The Grand Jury for ye Body of ye County of Plimouth To his Majestys Justises of ye Quarter Session of ye same as follows."

Seven names of Witnesses follow with each statement beginning " Wee Present..." In part, "for Breach of Sabath For vainly Spending ye Sabath"..." Profane Swearing by his maker and for Cursing Wishing by God That ye Indians Were in hell. This was some time in January 1715...ye Wife of Eliazir Harlow for Fornication for haveing a...Born of her Codus Within five or six months of her Marriage..." An eighth name appears on verso.

John Foster (1642-1732), the foreman of the Grand Jury, was a blacksmith, and early permanent resident in Marshfield, Plymouth County. Marshfield was officially set off from Plimoth Plantation as a separate town in 1640. Much of the land in Marshfield was originally granted to Pilgrims, their family members or to the investors in the Pilgrim settlement at Plymouth. Foster served his townsmen as selectman 1690, but declined to be their representative in the general court when they elected him to that office. He was elected as deacon of the first church in Marshfield in 1700 and was ordained Deacon in the Church on July 20, 1701.

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