Mass. court of 1698 was lenient on bigamy

In September 1692, Matthew Cary of Boston wrote his wife of seven years, Elizabeth, who remained in London, that he longed for her “dear company.”

No wonder Elizabeth was irritated when her husband up and married Mary Sylvester less than a year later in Bristol, then a part of Massachusetts. The new couple went on to have four children.

Mary’s brother, Giles Sylvester, likewise disapproved of the marriage and made a formal complaint in 1698 accusing Matthew Cary of adultery and bigamy.

Cary was indicted, but the jury found him innocent.

Perhaps he had thought that his first wife was deceased. But Cary wasn’t the first man to take a new wife in the New World while his original wife was alive across the ocean.

The colony already had a law on the books that a person could be considered unmarried once separated from a spouse across the sea for seven years.

Less than two months after Cary appeared in court, the General Court liberalized the law, stating that the waiting period would now be only three years.

D. Brenton Simons tells this fascinating story, “Bigamy in Boston: The Case of Matthew Cary and Mary Sylvester,” in the January issue of the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, available in some libraries.

Also in this issue are:

. “1776 Census of Providence, Rhode Island,” by Cherry Fletcher Bamberg.

. “Clarifying John Holton of Northampton and Dedham, Massachusetts, and His Wife, Abigail Fisher,” by Joan A. Hunter.

. “The Death of Henry Sewall in 1628: Puzzles, Evidence and Solutions,” by Eben W. Graves.

. “The English Origin of Rebecca Crooke, Wife of Peter Gardner of Roxbury, Massachusetts,” by Leslie Mahler.

. “Three John Carpenters: A Chain of Mistaken Identities,” by Eugene Cole Zubrinsky.

. “Abiah Carpenter of Warwick, Rhode Island, and His Family with Additional Material Concerning William Carpenter of Providence, Rhode Island, and William Carpenter of Rehoboth, Massachusetts,” by Eugene Cole Zubrinsky.

. “The Origins of Benjamin Nye: Examining the Sources,” by Ian Hilder, George R. Nye and Jonathan A. Shaw, continued from October issue.

. “Burial Records from the Account Book of Thomas Clap of Dorchester, Massachusetts, 1762-1797,” by David Allen Lambert, continued from October issue.

Every once in a while, staff at the Maine State Archives in Augusta find out about town records or other government records that are for sale by dealers or private individuals, sometimes on the Internet.

That is illegal. State and town records are the property of the government, and it is illegal to sell – or buy – them, except in very rare instances.

In 2003, state Rep. Matthew Dunlap – now our secretary of state – sponsored a bill which was passed, clarifying that the unauthorized sale or transfer of a record is a Class D crime.

What if those town records have been sitting in Grammy’s attic for the last 50 years? It’s still illegal to sell or transfer them. They need to be returned to the town.

According to Maine State Archivist James Henderson, when the possible sale of town records comes to light, efforts are made to inform the parties involved and recover the document or artifact.

Items that have been recovered in the past, Henderson said, include tax receipts, records of deorganized towns and plantations, indentured servant agreements, correspondence with other towns regarding the poor, school records, tax records and – believe it or not – a town record book with the act of Legislature establishing the municipality and containing all original early records.

Many town records have been published, and that’s a wonderful thing. But the originals belong with their owners – the government. If you have any questions about this, call the Maine State Archives at 287-5793.

It is legal to sell or purchase private records, but I don’t encourage it. It’s far better to share them, whether by publishing them or by depositing them with a historical society, library or other organization that can make them available to the public.

Send genealogy queries to Family Ties, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor, ME 04402; or send queries by e-mail, familyti

@bangordailynews.net.