20“If a man have a stubborn or rebellious son, of sufficient years and understanding (viz) sixteen years of age, which will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and that when they have chastened him will not harken unto them … such a son shall be put to death.” This law followed the text of Deuteronomy 21:18-21 (King James version). Massachusetts Laws of 1648, 6; Connecticut Laws of 1673, 78; The Compact with the Charter and Laws of the Colony of New Plymouth, 100. Instances of actual punishment appear in the Plymouth Colony Records, III, 201; VI, 20; Mass. Bay Records, I, 155; Essex Records, I, 19; Assistants Records, III, 138-39, 144-45.

21 For a summary of laws and court cases, see Morgan, Puritan Family, 78.

1 Twenty town studies of mean age at marriage yield a normal New England pattern and three regional variations. The norm appeared in the seed towns of Congregational Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Connecticut by the second generation. Variation I in new interior towns combined a near-normal age for men and an early age for women, converging on the regional standard by the 2d or 3d generation. Variation II among Plymouth Separatists, Rhode Island Baptists and Nantucket families was marriage at a slightly earlier age for both sexes. Variation III among Boston elites and Massachusetts ministers was marriage at an advanced age for males and a near-normal age for females. Mean age at marriage was as follows:

Town

Marriage Cohort

Men

Women

Town

Marriage Cohort

Men

Women

Dedham

1640-90

25.5

22.5

Ipswich

1652-1700

27.2

21.1

(Lockridge)

 

 

 

(Norton)

1701-25

26.5

23.6

Andover

1st gen.

26.8

19.0

 

1726-50

24.0

23.3

(Greven)

2nd gen.

26.7

22.3

 

 

 

 

 

3rd gen.

27.1

24.5

Topsfield

1701-25

28.3

23.3

 

4th gen.

25.3

23.2

(Norton)

1726-50

27.8

25.3

 

 

 

 

 

1751-75

16.1

24.3

Rowley

1st gen.

26.6

22.0

 

 

 

 

(O’Malley)

2nd gen.

26.5

24.1

Boxford

1701-25

26.9

22.8

 

3rd gen.

24.5

23.5

(Norton)

1726-50

26.6

23.7

 

 

 

 

 

1751-75

25.5

22.8

Hingham

1641-1700

26.8

22.6

 

 

 

 

(Smith)

1701-20

27.8

24.3

Wenham

1701-25

24.8

22.2

 

1721-40

26.3

23.3

(Norton)

1726-50

24.0

23.6

 

1741-60

25.7

22.5

 

1751-75

24.7

23.7

Concord

1750-70

25.1

21.1

Sturbridge

1730-59

24.8

19.5

(Harris)

1770-90

26.2

23.9

(Osterud and

1760-79

25.4

21.6

 

 

 

 

Fuller)

 

 

 

Brookline

1710-30

26.6

23.0

Deerfield

1741-79

n.a.

21.1

(Linzner)

1731-50

26.4

23.0

(Temkin-Greene

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and Swedlund)

 

 

 

Hampton, N.H.

1655-99

25.7

21.5

Greenfield

1741-79

n.a.

18.5

(Kilbourne)

1700-1719

26.7

23.3

(Idem)

 

 

 

Windsor, Conn.

1640-59

26.7

n.a.

Shelburne

1741-79

n.a.

23.7

(Auwers)

ca. 1660-75

25.1

19.8

(Idem)

 

 

 

 

ca. 1670-85

25.4

20.6

 

 

 

 

 

ca. 1680-95

26.4

21.8

Nantucket

1710-19

23.3

21.6

 

ca. 1690-1705

26.3

23.0

(Byers)

1720-29

24.0

20.0

 

 

 

 

 

1730-39

24.6

19.3

Plymouth

1st gen.

27.0

20.6

 

1740-49

22.6

20.0

(Demos)

2nd gen.

26.0

20.2

 

1750-59

22.7

20.6

 

3rd gen.

25.4

21.3

 

1760-69

23.0

21.7

 

4th gen.

24.6

22.3

 

1770-79

23.6

20.7

Boston elites

1710-20

27.7

22.2

Bristol, R.I.

before 1750

23.9

20.5

(Simmons)

 

 

 

(Demos)

after 1750

24.3

21.1

Sources include Kenneth Lockridge, “The Population of Dedham, Massachusetts, 1636-1676,” ECHR 19 (1966), 331; Greven, Four Generations, 34; Smith, “Population, Family and Society in Hingham,” 55; Harris, “Concord,” 89; Linzner, “Brookline,” 24; Nancy Osterud and John Fulton, “Family Limitation and Age at Marriage: Fertility Decline in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, 1730-1850,” PS 30 (1976), 481-94; Susan Norton, “Population Growth in Colonial America: A Study of Ipswich, Mass.,” PS 25 (1971), 445; Patricia O’Malley, “‘Beloved Wife’ and ‘Inveigled Affections’: Marriage Patterns in Early Rowley, Massachusetts,” in Robert M. Taylor and Ralph J. Crandall, eds., Generations and Change (Macon, Ga., 1986), 181-202; Demos, A Little Commonwealth, 193; idem, “Families in Colonial Bristol, Rhode Island,” WMQ3 25 (1968), 55; unpublished data by Lawrence Kilbourne on Hampton, Susan Simmons on Boston elites, Edward Byers and Carol Shuchman on Nantucket.