12 Elizabeth G. Farrell, “Essex Rural Settlement” (thesis, Wales, 1969).

1 On this subject we have two classics of American historiography: Edmund Morgan, The Puritan Family, and John Demos, A Little Commonwealth: Family Life in Plymouth Colony (New York, 1970). Morgan’s work is strong on ideas of the family; Demos gives more attention to actual conditions as revealed in probate and court records. I am much indebted to both historians.