This is a drawing of the Old Anchor Tavern in Lynn, Massachusetts. the drawing was done in 1866, but the tavern opened in 1643. The tavern was situated in Saugus on the road to Boston, making it convenient for both townspeople and travelers. I find it interesting that this tavern, essentially, looks like a large house.

Last year I wrote two blogs about 18th century taverns because the characters in Sea Tigers & Merchants spent a fair amount of time at Ship tavern. Geordie Crowninshield and Lizzie Rowell began their “romance” in one of the upstairs rooms, and many of the characters stopped in the great room for food and beverages. You can access those blogs here and here. I researched the venerable sites of entertainment, libation, and business conferences until I was comfortable with the setting.

So, Why Am I Doing More Tavern Research?

My current as yet unnamed writing project is a prequel to the Salem Stories series. The project takes a step backward in time to investigate the conditions and people in Salem during the 17th century when ancestors of the Crowninshield and Derby families first arrived in Salem. For example, Mary Hodges who married Richard Derby in the first chapter of Ambition, Arrogance & Pride was a descendant of William Hollingworth, whose father was a member of the founding generation.

To supplement the family income William Hollingworth’s wife Eleanor petitioned the General Court for a license to operate “house tavern” in 1670. Business was good and Eleanor’s humble house tavern became known as the Blue Anchor. Initially, Eleanor served her only home brewed beer, but over time, meals were also available.

Every Town Requires a Tavern

Taverns were an extremely important part of Puritan town life, so much so that the 1656 General Court fined any town that didn’t have a tavern, then called an “ordinary.” The record notes that four years later, the town of Concord was fined, because it didn’t have a “common house of entertainment.”

Taverns were usually located close to to the required church meeting house. Church meetings were all-day affairs with a nooning break. Congregants walked vast distances to meet their church attendance requirement, and the only readily available food was at the tavern. Churches did not have heat in the winter; taverns had great roaring fires.

Many people think Puritans opposed alcohol consumption. Not true. Everyone – men, women, and children – drank alcohol with their meals, even if it was only small beer. Men of high social standing routinely owned taverns. For example, Deacon Nathaniel Ingersoll, lieutenant of the Salem Village militia, also operated Ingersoll’s Ordinary. The tavern did a brisk business on militia training days as well as church days. Likewise, on Sundays, Nathaniel Ingersoll was licensed to sell beer and cider by the quart, so long as the man managing the tavern was “godly.” Good thing Nathaniel was a church deacon.

Despite the substantial amount of alcohol consumed on a daily basis, Puritans condemned drunkenness as a sin. An 1658 law stipulated that no tavern owner could allow anyone to be drunk in his establishment or to drink excessively. The law defined that excessive drinking was “above half a pint of wine for one person at a time, or to continue tipling above the space of half an hour, or at unreasonable times, or after nine of the clock at night.”

As for the person who overindulged, “every person found drunken, viz. so as he be thereby bereaved or disabled in the use of his understanding, appearing in his speech or gesture, in any of the said houses or elsewhere, shall forfeit 10 shillings and for excessive drinking, 3 shillings and 6 pence and for tipling at unreasonable times or after 9 of the clock of night, 5 shillings for every offense in those particulars, being lawfully conducted thereof, and for an of payment, they shall be imprisoned till they pay, or be set in stocks one hour or more.. as the weather will permit not exceeding 3 hours.”

Tavern Designs

The Parker Tavern in Reading Massachusetts was built in 1694 in what was called the Salt Box Design typical of so many colonial houses. From the front, the structure appears to be a typical home with a flat exterior. But from the side the pitched roof explains the “salt box” comparison.

[Aside: Salt boxes were wooden boxes for storing salt. they were designed to hang On an interior wall and had a slanted lid.]

Salt box structures had two stories in the front and one story in the rear with a chimney in the middle. Windows were placed to admit natural light. Inside there is an entrance into a great room and a rear kitchen. Salt box design also allows for easy expansion.

Is My Tavern Research Complete?

I don’t think there’s anything more to add — It’s time to write the story.

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Sandra’s Books: Sea Tigers & Merchants. Ambition, Arrogance & Pride. Saxon Heroines. Two Coins. Rama’s Labyrinth.

Illustrations & A Few Sources:

Old Anchor Tavern; Puritans Drinking from Pewter Mugs; Cross Keys Tavern Interior, Shelby County KY 1933; Puritan Sitting in Stocks while another is Whipped; Parker Tavern; Salt Box; Salt Box Side Elevation; Quill Paper Icon. Edward Field, The Colonial Tavern, 1892. Rachel Silva. “Everything You Need to Know About Saltbox-Style Houses.” Decor. June 22, 2022.

The post Puritans, Taverns & the Sin of Drunkenness first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

When we left Katherine Naylor in my previous blog, she was 33 years old, a widow with two children and substantial property. In 17^th century Puritan New England, widows did not remain unmarried very long, especially if there was property involved. In Puritan culture, marriage was an equal partnership, but the husband was the undisputed head of the household. It was his responsibility to maintain an orderly house in good standing with the church and the magistrates. A disorderly house could affect the entire community.

Puritan culture also had an ambiance of watchfulness. Puritans believed that God predestined certain people for salvation and the rest for damnation. Men and women were granted church membership on the basis of their personal testimony of faith and their public behavior. The presumption was that church members were destined for salvation. But only God knew who would actually be saved. Thus, much emphasis was put on outward behavior which led to a culture of watchfulness. From ministers to housemaids, people watched each other to discern if all was well.

In 1663, Robert Nanny – Katherine’s first husband – died. Katherine continued to live in their house with her two children, Samuel & Mary. In 1666, Katherine married Edward Naylor who moved into the house and managed Katherine’s property and the property held in trust for her children. Katherine bore two more surviving children: Tabitha in 1667 and Lydia in 1668. On the surface, all appeared well. 

In 1671 Katherine Naylor petitioned the court for a divorce on the grounds that Edward Naylor failed in his role as head of household and did not model appropriate behavior. She charged he was cruel and violent; that she feared for her life. He did not care about religion and could not insure their children would be properly educated in the fear of God. He committed “whoredoms.” In addition, Katherine pled that she needed to secure the estate Robert Nanny left to her and their two children before it was used to satisfy Edward’s creditors.

Edward’s Whoredoms aka Promiscuous Sexual Activities

Evidence proved that Edward Naylor frequented Alice Thomas’s “bawdy house,” that he was the father of Mary Read’s illegitimate child, and that he carried on a public relationship with Mary More. Fornication and adultery were public concerns, because such activities undermined the family  and tainted the entire community with sin. There was also the issue of who would support illegitimate children.

Mary Read was a servant in the Naylor household when she became pregnant in 1668; Katherine Naylor was also pregnant at the time. In 1671 Mary Read testified that Edward Naylor fathered her child. Several family members and others gave evidence about Mary Read’s relationship with Edward Naylor. Mary’s family wanted the court to declare Naylor the father of Mary’s child so he would take financial responsibility.

The midwives who attended Mary testified that they interrogated Mary about the father while she was in labor. Puritans believed such an admission was proof of paternity, and the father would be required to provide financial support. Mary admitted Edward Naylor was the father but to please keep the information quiet. Presumably, she already had a financial arrangement with Naylor.

Naylor also had a somewhat public relationship with Mary More. The couple traveled together and passed themselves off as married. They met for liaisons in shops, taverns, and houses where they were easily seen. Five men and eight women testified about the relationship. Susanna Cross deposed that when Mary brought a man to her house in June 1670 and sat in his lap, she thought they were married, but then later she thought perhaps they weren’t.

Jan Anibal and William Godfrey heard a couple talking and laughing in Widow Thomas’s shop. They crept up the stairs, peeked into the room, and saw Naylor with Mary More.

And then there was Alice Thomas’s brothel near the Naylor house lot. Thomas appeared before the Suffolk County Court and convicted of sponsoring frequent secret entertainments of a lascivious nature and enabling persons to commit ‘carnal wickedness.’ The court sentenced Thomas to a fine, prison and a public humiliation that included being whipped at a cart’s tail.

Suffice to say, the charge of whoredom was proven.

Drunkenness & Violence

The issue of drunkenness was also the sign of a disorderly house. Servants testified that Naylor left the house short of provisions, and they lent Katherine money to buy bread, butter, and cheese. In addition, Naylor ordered that various items be kept locked away from his wife, saying she was wasteful. This prevented Katherine from doing her wifely duty and providing for her family.

Naylor was an abusive drunk. He whipped his children and kicked them down the stairs. He made his daughter stand in her shift outside in the cold. Elizabeth Haridine said that Naylor once lifted his one-year-old child out of her cradle and threw her on the floor.

Mary Jackson testified that one Sunday Naylor abused Katherine to the point that she was in bed for two days. Naylor tried to prevent his family and servants from praying on a Sabbath night, saying that he would not pray nor allow anyone else to do so.

Thus, Edward Naylor did not provide for his family either physically or spiritually, and his disrespect for Katherine’s effort to fulfill her wifely duties shattered the Puritan marriage ideal.

The Verdict

The court granted Katherine’s petition for divorce and allowed her to keep her home and inheritance from her first marriage. Naylor was tried in civil court and found guilty of cruelty and fornication. He was banished from Boston and the surrounding area. Naylor later petitioned the court saying the divorce and banishment left him an outlaw unable to pay his creditors. He was allowed to come back to Boston after providing a bond for good behavior. Less than two years later, he forfeited the bond because he “intruded” into Katherine’s company.

By removing Edward Naylor from Katherine’s family unit, the court restored an orderly household whose members were again part of an orderly community. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Katherine did not remarry.

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Sandra’s Books: Ambition, Arrogance & Pride. Saxon Heroines. Two Coins. Rama’s Labyrinth.

Illustrations & A Few Sources

A Fair Puritan by E. Percy Moran c. 1897; Tavern Puritans by William Cullen Bryant & Sydney Howard Gay, 1881; New England 1920; Couple Making Love, 1646; Couple Courting by a Tree by Léon Bonnat, 1871; A Drunken Man Standing by Aleksandr Orlovsky, 1822; Early Puritans Going to Worship by George Henry Boughton, 1872. Melissa Ann Johnson. “The Talk of the Town: Women, Gossip, and Watchfulness in 17^th Century Massachusetts.” Dissertation. University of Michigan. 2019. Lauren J. Cook. “Katherine Nanny, Alias Naylor.” Historical Archeology. 32:1.15-19.

The post Katherine Naylor: Petition for Divorce Granted first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.