Dorothy Talbye trial
The Dorothy Talbye Trial (d. 1638) is an early
AlthoughCircumstances
Dorothy Talbye was a respectable member of the church in Salem in the Massachusetts Bay Colony who became increasingly melancholic, with fits of violence. Governor John Winthrop ascribed the woman's despondency to delusions or "trouble of mind", stemming from "falling at difference with her husband, through melancholy or spiritual delusions [ ...so that] she sometimes attempted to kill him, and her children, and herself, by refusing meat, saying it was so revealed to her..." through revelations he believes were from Satan. He described how church members tried to intervene.[1]
However, Talbye did not listen to admonishments by the
In November 1638, she killed her daughter, Difficulty, by breaking her neck. Talbye freely confessed later to this act and was charged with murder.[citation needed] At her trial Talbye was uncooperative, refusing to speak until Governor Winthrop threatened to pile stones on her chest, at which point she pleaded guilty. She refused to repent at her trial or before her execution. Remaining uncooperative, she actively fought her execution. She removed the cloth covering on her head and put it under the noose to lessen the pain and, even as she was swinging from the noose, she attempted to grab at a ladder to save herself.[1]
Significance
In 1637, American colonial law regarding murder followed English
In 1641, the Massachusetts Body of Liberties was written as a first step to developing a body of law for the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It codified the following, giving some allowance for special situations, although it may not have helped Dorothy Talbye: "Children, Idiots, Distracted persons, and all that are strangers, or new comers to our plantation, shall have such allowances and dispensations in any cause whether Criminal or other as religion and reason require."[5]
Footnotes
- ^ a b c Winthrop, John (1908). Winthrop's Journal. Retrieved 2007-11-15.
- ^ ISBN 9780807067758. Retrieved 2007-11-15.
- ^ Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. "John Winthrop's City of Women". Archived from the original on 2007-10-17. Retrieved 2007-11-15.
- ^ Albert Christophe (1912). The Romantic Story of the Puritan Fathers: And Their Founding of NewBoston. Retrieved 2007-11-15.
- ^ "The Massachusetts Body of Liberties". 1641. Retrieved 2007-11-18.
External links
- Sylvia R. Frey, Marian J. Morton. New World, New Roles: A Documentary History of Women in Pre-Industrial America,, Greenwood Publishing, 1986; Google books
- Nancy F. Cott. No Small Courage: A History of Women in the United States, Oxford University Press, 2000; Google books
- Dolores Bacon, Old New England Churches and Their Children, New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1906, p. 17. Available on Internet Archive.
- Arthur B. Ellis, History of the First Church in Boston, 1630-1880, Boston: Hall & Whiting, 1881, p. 72