[Footnote 463: _Plym. Col. Rec._, XI, 223.]
[Footnote 464: WHITMORE, _Colonial Laws of Mass._ (1672-86), 236, 237.]
[Footnote 466: _Ibid._, 196; _ibid._ (1672-86), 148; _Mass. Col. Rec._, I, 186.]
These laws were not wholly a dead letter, as shown by the judicial records. Thus on April 2, 1672, "Thomas Henshaw and Thomas Hall, singlemen, being convicted of living from under family government ... , are ordered forthwith to submit themselves" to such government "and to appear at the next court and bring with them certificate thereof."[467] Nevertheless complaint is made that the town officers are negligent. In 1668 the legislature directs the clerk of each shire court to send "to the Constables of the Towns" within the shire an order which they are "enjoyned faithfully to execute." In the preamble it is recited that the neglect of the laws, "as by sad experience from Court to Court abundantly appears, doth occasion much sin and prophaness to increase among us, to the dishonour of God, and the ensnaring of many Children and Servants, by the dissolute lives and practices of such as do live from under Family Government, and is a great discouragement to those Family Governours, who conscientiously endeavour to bring up their Youth in all Christian nurture, as the Laws of God and this Common wealth doth require: These are therefore ... to require you to acquaint the Select men of your Town, that the Court doth expect and will require, that the said Laws be accordingly attended... : and you are also required to take a list of the names of those young persons ... who do live from under Family Government, _viz._, do not serve their Parents or Masters, as Children, Apprentices, hired Servants, or Journey men ought to do, and usually did in our Native Country, being subject to their commands and discipline."[468]
[Footnote 467: _MSS. Records of the County Court for Middlesex_, III, 21.]
[Footnote 468: WHITMORE, _op. cit._ (1660-72), 260; also _ibid._ (1672-86), 149. There is a copy of one of the orders sent to the constables, differing slightly in capitalization and punctuation from the above, in the _MSS. Files of the County Court for Middlesex_, Dec., 1668.]
The manuscript files of Middlesex show that lists[469] of delinquent single persons were taken by the constables as required; and that some of them were summoned to appear before the court. Following is the "answer" of Robert Williams, whose name is in the list given in the margin: