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Browsing: Diary of John Adams, Volume 1


Suffolk Sessions July 1766.1

Docno: DJA01d426

Author: JA
Date: 1766-07
D[omin]us Rex vs. Francis Keen, for stealing Cask Molosses.
Dus. Rex vs. Mary Gardiner, for a common Scold, Quarreller and Disturber of the Peace.
Sewal. Hawkins—a common Scold is punishable by putting into the Ducking Stool. Prosecutions rare, ’tho the offence frequent. Other Crimes, not prosecuted here, as forestalling, Regrating &c.
W[escan?] . She gets drunk sometimes, and then curses and swears {p. 318} at her Husband, all Night, for several Nights together, and quarrells with her Neighbours.
Three Instances of Drunkeness prove a common Drunkard, 3 Acts of Barratry, prove a common Barrator, 3 Instances of Disceit, will prove a common Cheat. So 3 Instances of Brawling and Scolding to the common Disturbance of the Neighbourhood, proves a common Scold.
 
1. This entry is inserted from “Paper book No. 14" (our D/JA/14), a stitched gathering of a few leaves, many of them blank, containing (except for these notes on cases in the Suffolk Court of General Sessions at the front of the booklet) entries dating exclusively in April and May 1767.
Cite web page as: Founding Families: Digital Editions of the Papers of the Winthrops and the Adamses, ed.C. James Taylor. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 2007.
http://www.masshist.org/ff/