his spelling in the
_Connecticut Courant_ of January 30th, 1776:

"Whearis my Wife Abigiel hes under Rote me by saying it is veri
Disagria bell to Hur to Expose to the World the miseris & Calamatis
of a Distractid famely, and I think as much for hur Father & mother
to Witt Stephen deming & his wife acts very much like Distractid or
BeWicht & I believe both, for the truth of this I will apell to the
Nabors. When I first Married I had land of my one and lived at my
one hous but Stephen deming & his Wife cept coming down & hanting
of me til they got me up to thare house but presently I was
deceived by them as Bad as Adam & Eve was by the Divel though not
in the Same Shape for they got a bill of Sail of a most all by
thare Sutilly & still hold the Same. perhaps the Jentlemen will say
it is to pay my debt. Queri. Wherino a man that ows one pound to my
shiling. I dont want it to pay his one, I believe he dos. My wife
pretends to say I abus'd her for the truth of this I will apiel to
all thare nabors."

Anenst this I am glad to add that I have found repentant sequels to the
mortifying story, in the form of humble retractions of the husband's
allegations. Wives were, on the whole, marvellously well protected by
early laws. A husband could not keep his consort on outlying and
danger-filled plantations, but must "bring her in, else the town will
pull his house down." Nor could a man leave his wife for any length of
time, nor "marrie too wifes which were both alive for anything that can
appear otherwise at one time," nor beat his wife (as he could to his
heart's content in old England); he could not even use "hard words" to
her. Nor could she raise her hand or use "a curst and shrewish tongue"
to him without fear of public punishment in the stocks or pillory.

In the first years of the colonies there existed a formal ceremony of
betrothal called in Plymouth a pre-contract. This semi-binding ceremony
had hardly a favorable influence upon the morals of the times. Cotton
Mather states:

"There was maintained a Solemnity called a Contraction a little
before the Consummation of a marriage was allowed of. A Pastor was
usually employed and a sermon also preached on this occasion."

If the prospective marriage were an important or a genteel one, an
applicable sermon was often preached in church at the time of the
"contraction." One minister took