A Celebrity Trial, 17th Century Style

It's been a busy couple of months for me, between summer band concerts and writing the first chapters of the third book in my Herodias Long trilogy, The Golden Shore. I haven't found time for blogging, so please forgive me for reprising a blog I wrote for the wonderful writer, Ginger Myrick, a couple months ago at http://gingermyrick.com/ :

The time is the last Tuesday of June, 1655. The place is Newport, Rhode Island, a tiny town planted on land bought from the Wampanoag Indians only seventeen years before. If you are lucky enough to get a seat, you sit on a hard bench in Newport’s thatched meeting house, the largest building in town, as Rhode Island’s Court of Trials opens. Before you stands George Gardner, a sturdy farmer accused of adultery with John Hicks’ wife.

These are the facts, ma’am. The court record provides us with the charge, but it doesn’t tell the story behind the bare bones of accusation and verdict.

Thomas Painter, a newcomer to Newport, made the accusation against George Gardner, and it must have raised some eyebrows. George, John Hicks and Hicks’ wife Herod (short for Herodias) had all come to Newport when that town was first settled.

On December 3rd, 1643 Herod Hicks complained to Rhode Island’s governor that her husband, John Hicks was beating her. A few months later, Governor Coddington, fearing for the young woman’s life, legally separated her from John. Hicks removed to Long Island, taking their children and her inheritance with him. In December, 1644 he wrote to Rhode Island’s secretary, advising the authorities that he wanted no more to do with Herod because of “her whoredom.”

Puritan trial

We don’t know if that accusation was made public, but everyone in Newport knew the Hickses’ sordid story. Herod was only thirteen when she married the man. John’s court appearances for abuse. The bruises Herod must have displayed before the governor separated them.

Despite Herod’s messy breakup, as far as Newport knew or cared, she had been quietly married to George Gardner since John Hicks’ departure. By 1655 the couple had five or six children, and their first son Benoni was born long enough after they had become a couple that there had been no accusations in court. George had done a good job as constable, and just been elected ensign in Newport’s militia.

We now know something of the accused, but who is the accuser? Who is Thomas Painter, and why did he make such a charge? By Rhode Island law, George Gardner could be put to death for adultery.

Thomas Painter was a newcomer to Rhode Island. He’d lived in Massachusetts for the last couple of decades, and Painter was an unsavory character as far as Puritan Massachusetts was concerned. He had moved from one town to another, and was probably urged along. He’d been given a scrap of land at Rowley in 1639 by Charlestown (perhaps to get rid of a deadbeat). In 1640 Painter’s family received charitable alms from Hingham.

Painter was still in Hingham in 1644 when Massachusetts’ governor John Winthrop noted in his journal that Painter, “on the sudden turned Anabaptist, and having a child born, would not suffer it to be baptized, or let his wife to bring it to the ordnance of baptism.” Painter was hauled into court and for contempt in saying that Puritan baptism was anti-Christian, and for “bold and evil behavior both at home and in the court,” Painter was whipped.

So, where was Painter between 1650 when he had a home near the wharves in Charleston, MA, and 1655 when he made his accusation against George Gardner? Perhaps he was in Newport for a couple of years, because he had been accepted as a freeman by May 1655. However, unlike the rest of Newport, it seems that Painter thought that Herod Gardner was still married to John Hicks until recently.

Gov. Pieter Stuyvesant

Actually, under Dutch law, John Hicks was still married to Herod until June 1^st, 1655, a few weeks before George Gardner stood in court to answer Painter’s charge against him. On that date John was granted a divorce in Flushing, New Amsterdam. He testified that he wanted to wed again, and that his first wife had run off with another man. John said plaintively that he had given her no reason to do so, conveniently forgetting his abuse of Herod. He was granted that divorce by Pieter Stuyvesant on June 1^st, but probably the divorce had been in the works for quite some time.

So, did Thomas Painter know that Herod Gardner had recently been divorced from John Hicks in New Amsterdam, and believe that the Gardners had been living in sin for years? Did he have evil on his mind, perhaps blackmail? Of course, chortles my novelist’s soul. Painter’s accusation and George Gardner’s trial are featured in my latest historical novel, The Reputed Wife, sequel to Rebel Puritan. Readers will also learn that George and Herod were keeping another secret about their marriage, but that is another tale …

Rhode Island and New York’s colonial records inform us that George Gardner had nothing to fear because no less than a former Rhode Island governor could testify on the Gardners’ behalf. William Coddington may have been weakened by his failed attempt to secure Rhode Island as his possession for life, but could still testify to their separation. Yet another tale …

Tasty Summer Reads Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Tasty Summer Reads Blog Hop! It's a good thing we are doing this during the summer, when I have a fighting chance to work off Christy English's apple pie tartlets or Prue Batten's hazelnut chocolate cookies. Sweet nibbles and a great book - heaven!

My thanks to Anna Belfrage for inviting me to play, and more thanks to Karen Aminadra for being the next to hop into the game! Here’s how the blog hop works: each author invites up to five other authors to answer five questions about their current summer releases or WIP and to add a tasty recipe to go with it. We can all find some great new recipes - and some great new books - to try!

The Reputed Wife

The Reputed Wife is my 2013 historical fiction novel about Herodias (Long) Hicks Gardner Porter. You might be able to guess from her name that Herodias was one of early New England's most colorful women, due to her messy, and highly modern marital history.

Herodias is also remembered for standing up to Massachusetts' Puritan government. She  carried a nursing infant sixty miles from her Newport, Rhode Island, through Wampanoag Indian territory, to protest the whipping of Quaker missionaries by the Puritans. For her boldness, Herodias was stripped to her waist and whipped in the public square. This bold act is what inspired me to write about Herodias. 

Now for some tasty questions:

1) When writing, are you a snacker? If so, sweet, or salty?
Sometimes I perk up my brain in the afternoon with a few cherries or grapes (no keyboard crumbs allowed!). However I have a bottle of tea beside me during most daylight hours. Cold, hot, tepid, I don't care which, just so long as there is plenty.

2) Are you an outliner, or someone who writes by the seat of their pants?
I begin with a timeline of the known facts in Herodias Long's life. She left a record of her early and mid-life - remarkable for a woman in her day - when she described her marital woes while asking for a separation from an unsuitable husband. A transcript is on my website at http://www.rebelpuritan.com/More.html.

With timeline in hand, I strike off in grand seat-of-pants fashion, and half the fun is seeing where Herodias takes me next.

3)When cooking, do you follow a recipe, or do you wing it?
I cook like I write - start with a framework, and take off from there.  We still have recipe cards written by my grandmother Gardner (7th-great granddaughter of Herodias Gardner). They tell me to add a large pinch of cinnamon, or lard (!) the size of a big hen's egg. My grandmother was a winger, and so am I.

4) What is next for you after this book?
Rebel Puritan, printed in 2011, is the first in my series about Herodias, and I'm now at work on The Golden Shore, which will conclude the Scandalous Life series - I think. My original plan for Rebel Puritan was to tell Herodias' story in a single book. I have an Indian war to cover, along with Herodias' children, some of which were scandalous in their own right. After that, I'm considering a tale from the American Revolution, along with a modern murder mystery - or both.


5) Last question… on a level of one being slightly naughty and ten being woo hoo steamy, how would you rate your book?
I have erotic scenes, but they are not explicit.  Lots of steamy sex, at least for me, can override a story line, so I prefer to leave it up to my readers' imagination. That said, I'm writing a scene in the beginning of The Golden Shore which rates at least a 6!

A kitchen scene by Strozzi

And now for the really tasty part - a recipe to share! Allow me to reach back into my genealogy again, to a recipe inherited from Priscilla (Mullins) Alden of "Mayflower" fame. Like most seventeenth-century recipes, this Partritch Stew is boiled, but it sounds pretty darn good.

Partritch Stew’d

Take marrow bones of beef or mutton, boil them well

Strayn the broth, and put it into an earthen pot

Then add a quantity of wyne thereto

Then stuffe the partritch with whole pepyr and marrow

Sow up all the vents of the burd

Then take cloves, mace and whole pepyr, and let them boil together with the partritch

When it is enough cast into the pot powder of gingyer, salt and saffron

Serve it up in broth

As stated above, there are a number of interesting recipes on this blog hop – and some equally good books! Take the time to enjoy.

Christy English
Diana Russo Morin
Nancy Goodman
Lauren Gilbert
Lucinda Brant
Prue Batten
Anna Belfrage
Ginger Myrick
Jo Ann Butler
Karen Aminadra

Rhode Island's famous Hoydens and Firebrands

Anne Hutchinson's statue at Boston's State House

Hoydens and Firebrands is a superb blog devoted to "Roaring Ladies who write about the 17th Century." That would be me, and this week Hoydens and Firebrands are hosting me in a tale about Anne Hutchinson, Mary Dyer, and of course, Herodias Long. All three are noted 17th century Rhode Island firebrands, but Herodias is also notorious for her hoyden-esque life too! Please click on over to my post, and huzzah for Roaring Ladies!
 
http://hoydensandfirebrands.blogspot.com/2013/07/guest-post-jo-ann-butler.html

"17th Century Celebrity Trial" guest post and "The Reputed Wife" giveaway on Ginger Myrick's Blog:

Ginger Myrick

The lovely and talented Ginger Myrick is hosting me on her blog this week for a tale from Herodias Long's scandalous life, "A Celebrity Trial 17th Century Style."  She is also hosting a giveaway of 2 print copies of The Reputed Wife or Rebel Puritan (your choice) and 2 ebook copies. I hope you'll click right on over to Ginger's blog and leave your name for a chance to win.

Oh, and read the story while you are at it! Cheers, Jo Ann

http://gingermyrick.com/jo-ann-butler-guest-post-and-giveaway/?fb_source=pubv1

The Hanging of Mary Dyer

Mary Dyer on her way to the gallows

On May 31, 2013, Christy English hosted me on her blog for this post commemorating the martyrdom of Mary Dyer on June 1, 1660. http://www.christyenglish.com/2013/05/31/the-hanging-of-mary-dyer-by-joann-butler/

Here is my post:

June 1 is a sad anniversary in New England history. On that day in 1660 Mary Dyer was hanged in Boston for defying the Puritan government’s order of banishment on pain of death. What events led to the execution of that highly respected woman, and what does Mary Dyer have to do with my favorite Rhode Island obsession, Herodias Long?

 

Some quick background on what the Puritans were thinking when they hanged Mary. Decades earlier they had watched political, financial, and religious harassment by King Charles I and the Church of England escalate. Then the Pilgrims, a Puritan sect who had fled first to Holland, settled at Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620.

Governor John Winthrop

Backed by the Massachusetts Bay Company, Governor John Winthrop led over 700 men, women, and children in search of a place where they could worship freely. They settled on a peninsula in Massachusetts Bay in 1630. The Puritans’ stated purpose was to be a “city upon a hill.” The world would marvel as a Godly community prospered and the Wampanoag Indians flocked to convert to Christianity. The Puritans would also trade for furs with said Wampanoags, scout for gold and minerals, and repay their backers. 

The Puritans briefly lost the governor’s seat to Sir Henry Vane in 1637. Their response was to purge their community of a liberal, perhaps heretical faction of voters.

Sir Henry Vane

The men who voted Harry Vane into power sought a more liberal flavor in their Puritanism. Anne Hutchinson held meetings in her home to critique Puritan sermons. Soon 80 people were crowding to hear her, and even more were noted to be discontent. Anne was banished as a heretic, but not before 142 men were ordered to turn in their arms, and then to recant or to leave. 84 men took their families and departed, most of them to Rhode Island in winter-spring, 1638. 

William and Mary Dyer and their young son were among the families who began farming on the north end of Rhode Island (then called Aquidneck). A year later, discontent over leadership led the Dyers to follow William Coddington southward to establish Newport.

The trial of Anne Hutchinson

Herodias Long, then Hicks, her husband, and their children arrived in Newport in the same year. John Hicks was not accused of supporting Anne Hutchinson, yet perhaps the Hickses were sympathetic enough to leave Puritan Massachusetts for Newport in summer, 1639.

With Anne and her malcontents gone, the Puritans continued to purge their colony of undesirables. Criminals and suspected heretics were banished. Catholics and free-thinkers like Roger Williams were told to leave. Baptists were jailed and flogged. Quakers began to arrive in Boston in 1656. The first two women were stripped and searched for witches’ marks, then jailed. Then more Quakers arrived. Mary Dyer, who had become a Quaker in England, was jailed in Boston for over two months as the Puritans wrote even harsher laws. Soon Quaker missionaries were being severely flogged.

The Puritans were defensive about their laws. Aren’t they the same as locks on a man’s door to keep intruders out? Besides, the Quakers had plenty of warning, and were guilty of their own deaths. Their ministers concurred, saying that the Quakers were under Satan’s influence, and little more than witches.

You are thinking, “What has this got to do with Herodias Long?” Well, Mary Dyer brought her Quaker faith to Newport in June, 1657. Quaker literature tells us that in May, 1658 ‘Horred’ Gardner shouldered her nursing infant. With a girl to assist her, they walked 50 through the wilderness to Weymouth, Massachusetts to protest Puritan cruelties done to Quakers.

Whipping a Quaker 'out of town'

Herod and her maid were arrested, marched to Boston, where they were both stripped to the waist in public, and then whipped. Herod sheltered her baby in her arms, and afterward prayed that God would forgive the Puritans.

It seems that Herodias Long and Mary Dyer must have been close friends. After all, Herod walked 60 miles to defend the Quakers a year after Mary brought that faith to Newport. I can’t prove from contemporary writings that the two were friends, but the two young mothers brought their families to the very small, very new town of Newport at the same time. They attended the same church, and their husbands served in the same government. Of course Herod and Mary knew each other, and well.

Herod’s conversion to Quakerism, if it happened at all, was brief. She never appears in Quaker writings after her whipping, as other Quaker martyrs did. Her name is not seen in the records of Quaker meetings which became established near Herod’s homes. I believe that Herod was a woman of conscience who spoke out against Puritan abuse, but I don’t believe she was a Quaker.

Quakers walking to the gallows

What of Mary? She was jailed several times in Boston, but was not whipped, probably because she once lived in Boston, and perhaps because she was a woman of some means. Rumors abound that Mary was of noble birth, but no researcher has turned up her roots.

In 1659 Mary was led to the gallows. She watched two male Quakers hang, and then stepped willingly onto the ladder herself. The executioner snugged the noose around her neck and hooded her face, but then she was reprieved and sent back to Rhode Island. Once more the court’s sentence was ‘banishment on pain of death’ should she return to Boston.

Mary Dyer did exactly that in May, 1660. She never preached a word against Puritan ministers or government, as other Quakers did. She disturbed no meetings, nor the peace of the marketplace. Mary came to Boston to visit jailed Quakers, and to defy that order of banishment. If the Puritans hanged her – and they did – maybe witnesses would speak out too, and eventually those bloody laws would be rescinded.

King Charles II of England

In 1661 King Charles II was horrified when he read of Mary’s death, and ordered the hangings to end. Charles also read of Herod’s flogging. The friends’ sacrifices of blood and life were not in vain, for they helped to stir a monarch’s heart, and to end the killing.

What did Herod do when she heard that her friend faced the Puritans’ gallows? The record is mute, but I drew on the friendship and sacrifices of Mary Dyer and Herodias Long for my historical novel The Reputed Wife. I hope you’re curious enough to find out what happened next …

Puritans: From Concord and Lexington to the Boston Marathon

On Sunday evening, April 14, I finished Paul Revere’s Ride by David Hackett Fischer. I can’t remember when I relished a book more. I even devoured all the appendices and notes, and was sorry to see the book end. Mr. Fischer’s 1995 riveting history is about Paul Revere, but also the disastrous British attack on Concord and Lexington, Massachusetts, about twenty-four road miles from Boston.

Twenty-four miles, and the British army covered that distance in about

Battle of Lexington April 19, 1775

six hours as they retreated from the American militia. The men who defeated professional British soldiers and marines may have been farmers, lawyers, and tradesmen, but they knew how to fight. All able bodied men between sixteen and sixty were required to train with the militia, and New England's militias had been fighting Indians and French for generations. They were well-prepared to turn out against the British that day.

Now, I could spiral off into saying “that’s why we need guns.” All I’m going to say is I don’t have one. I don’t say that the law-abiding and capable shouldn’t have one. But I don’t think that all of the armaments available now should be on the market.

My thoughts turn more to those twenty-four miles. Runners traveled twenty-six for the Boston Marathon yesterday. I’m tempted to search out some cosmic conjunction in those distances. However, I’ll focus on why those miles were traveled. 

Boston Tea Party Dec. 16, 1773

The British went to Lexington because they heard that John Hancock and Samuel Adams were there. They would arrest those Sons of Liberty for raising opposition to Parliamentary acts and taxes. The Boston Tea Party was the most famous of many acts of resistance.

Then the 700-man army would hasten to a few miles down the road to Concord to seize gunpowder the colonials were storing there. They didn’t expect much resistance, but some 250 colonials drove them out of Concord. Alerted by word of mouth and messengers on horseback – Paul Revere wasn’t the only one – militias streamed in from as far as Connecticut (though the Nutmeggers didn’t arrive until the battle was long over). A British brigade reinforced the embattled army by another thousand men. Nearly two thousand militiamen harried the British to the outskirts of Boston. I won’t discuss how many casualties there were, but there were hundreds, and they were horrific.

The British were defeated. They wanted to nab Hancock and Adams, but they failed, and they didn’t get that colonial gunpowder.

We all know what happened yesterday. One or more cruel, destructive people created bombs, and while I’m not speculating on their motives, they wreaked death, destruction, and fear at the Boston Marathon - a race where people challenge themselves to triumph over fatigue and pain.

Minuteman statue at Lexington

Yesterday was Patriot’s Day, celebrating the April 19 anniversary of Concord and Lexington. The bomber(s) chose that day. The bomber chose a race dedicated to the dead at Newtown, Connecticut. And that twenty-six mile race is a distance honoring a runner who died bringing news of a Greek victory at Marathon. The day and the month are rich with symbolism.

There will be all sorts of calls for more security, and there may be proposals which put our hard-won liberties to the test. I don’t think I’ll change how I look at the world, any more than I did after 9/11. But I do have to remember a couple of things.

I’ve had a lot to say about Puritans in my two historical novels and in blogposts, especially the Puritans who settled in Massachusetts. However, Mary Dyer and Anne Hutchinson were Puritans before they were cast out by their own for radical views. Even Herodias Long, whom I revere, may once have been a Puritan. The Minutemen and other militia members who defeated the finest army in the world were only a generation or two removed from Puritans.

I am proud to say that I’m a descendant of Puritans, even though I deplore some of their acts. The Puritans who crossed the Atlantic to build homes in the American wilderness were tough people. They risked everything for their beliefs and they were stalwart, even when they thought they faced Satan during the witchcraft trials.

The 17^th century Puritans were doing their best in a new world. They believed in hard work, but they shared it. They loved their families (though they didn’t spare the rod to prevent spoiling the child). The Puritans believed they were a 'city upon a hill' with the world's eyes upon it, and they strove to provide the world with an example of a Godly society.

Now Boston is once more the ‘city upon a hill,’ and they will triumph over those who would make us all despair. Yesterday Bostonians ran to help the wounded and opened their homes and hearts. Humanity is capable of harsh acts, but I must remember that it is also capable of greatness.

Images:

Wikipedia

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/15/help-boston-marathon-victims_n_3087183.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

The Sunshine Award

Sunshine Award

 A few days ago Christy English gave me the Sunshine Award for those “who positively and creatively inspire others in the blogosphere.” As I write on this gloomy and sunless day in upstate NY, I thank Christy for this dose of Sunshine. My good friend lights up my life with her unwavering joy, and with her blog, A Writer's Life: Working with the Muse at: http://www.christyenglish.com/

And now, to paraphrase Monty Python, She who receives the Sunshine Award must answer me these questions three, ere the other side she see.  OK, it's nine questions, but Sir Galahad had trouble counting too:

Ride 'em, Jo Ann!

Favorite Color: Sky blue. It's a color I crave even more than chocolate, especially between November and May.

Favorite Animal: I love them all, but I don't remember an age when I wasn't in love with horses.

Favorite Number: 5. I can't tell you why, but the answer is probably at my fingertips.

Favorite Non-alcoholic Drink: Tea - hot, cold, or any other temperature.

Facebook or Twitter?: Facebook. I love birds and birdsong, but Twitter hasn't grabbed me.

Rebel Puritan and The Reputed Wife

Your Passion: Herodias Long. I've spent ten years writing about that woman's bravery and persistence, and hope that she has passed those traits down to me, her 8th great-granddaughter.

Giving or getting presents: There is nothing like a present to brighten the day!

Favorite Day: Monday, believe it or not. Nothing on my schedule and all things are possible.

Favorite Flowers: Hyacinths. Winter really is over when they appear, and they smell divine!

 And now, to announce the next winners of the Sunshine Award:

Ginger Myrick, author of the amazing historical fiction novels WELSH HEALER and EL REY

http://gingermyrick.com/

Deborah Swift, author of THE GILDED LILY and THE LADY'S SLIPPER, and her wonderful blog:

http://www.deborahswift.blogspot.com/ 

Francine Howarth, author of numerous historical romances, including
BY LOYALTY DIVIDED

http://francinehowarth.blogspot.co.uk/