The other side considers PSR to apply only to stars which are It is a unitary parliamentary republic, with Other major cities are Brno, Ostrava and Pilsen. It is a developed country[16] with an advanced,[17] high income[18] export-oriented social market economy based in services, manufacturing and innovation. The UNDP ranks the country 14th in inequality-adjusted human development. The year in science and technology involved some significant events.
Astronomy The work of Copernicus died is edited and released, as directed by the Congregation of the Index reading forbidden in March Earth sciences Francis Bacon notices the jigsaw fit of the opposite shores of the Atlantic Ocean. Medicine Nicholas Habicot, surgeon to the Duke of Nemours, publishes a report of four successful "bronchotomies" which he has performed; these include the first recorded case of a tracheotomy for the removal of a thrombus and the first pediatric tracheotomy, to extract a foreign body from a year-old's esophagus.
Cornelis Jacobszoon Drebbel[1] Dutch pronunciation: He was the builder of the first navigable submarine in and an innovator who contributed to the development of measurement and control systems, optics and chemistry. After some years at the Latin school in Alkmaar, around , he attended the Academy in Haarlem, also located in North-Holland. Teachers at the Academy were Hendrik Goltzius, engraver, painter, alchemist and humanist, Karel van Mander, painter, writer, humanist and Cornelis Corneliszoon of Haarlem.
Drebbel became a skilled engraver on copperplate and also took an interest in alchemy. They had at least six children, of whom four survived. Drebbel worked initially as a painter, engraver and cartographer. But he was in constant need of money be Rather than return to England with the ship, he stayed at what became Plymouth Colony.
He was hired in Southampton, England, as the ship's cooper, responsible for maintaining the ship's barrels. He was a signatory to the Mayflower Compact. He married fellow Mayflower passenger Priscilla Mullins, whose entire family perished in the first winter. It was written by the male passengers of the Mayflower, consisting of separatist Puritans, adventurers, and tradesmen. The Puritans were fleeing from religious persecution by King James of England. The Mayflower Compact was signed aboard ship on November 11, Signing the covenant were 41 of the ship's passengers[1][2] while the Mayflower was anchored in Provincetown Harbor within the hook at the northern tip of Cape Cod.
Storms forced them to anchor at the hook of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, however, as it was unwise to continue with provisions running short. This inspired some of the non-P Sir Thomas Bond ca. The exact dates of his birth, death and marriage are unknown. He is not to be confused with Thomas Bond, a 19th-century artist and the author of a book on Cornwall. He also became Comptroller of the household of Queen Henrietta Maria, the mother of Charles II, an appointment which it was suggested he had obtained by the payment of one thousand pistoles, a very large sum, to Henry Jermyn, a favourite of the Queen who had recently been created Earl of St Albans.
After the Restoration, Bond had a house in Pall Mall, assessed for Hearth Tax in as having twenty hearths, and a country estate in Pec The IBM used in the system was modified in several ways, the most obvious was the addition of a very primitive hardware interrupt mechanism. The was used by many paper mills,[1] oil refineries and electric companies. Events from the year in art. Events Anthony van Dyck, at the instigation of George Villiers, Marquess of Buckingham, visits England for the first time where he spends about four months and works for King James.
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Nautilus was a submarine first tested in Though preceded by Cornelis Drebbel's vessel[1]: Background Nautilus was designed between and [1]: He unsuccessfully proposed to the Directory that they subsidize its construction as a means to balance British seapower. His second, also unsuccessful, proposal to them was that he be paid nothing until Nautilus had sunk British shipping, and then only a small percentage of the prize money.
Fulton directed his next proposal to the Minister of Marine, who granted him permission to build. Propulsion was provided by a hand-cranked screw propeller. The hollow iron keel was the vessel's ballast Look up mayflower in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Mayflower was the ship that transported the Pilgrims from Plymouth to the New World in Mayflower may also refer to: Plants Crataegus hawthorn Hepatica Epigaea repens trailing arbutus Maianthemum canadense Cardamine pratensis cuckooflower or lady's smock Plants called mayflower orchid include: A possibility might be East Halton in Lincolnshire.
John Smith at Jamestown, Virginia Colony. The small, foot ship had passengers and a crew of about 30—40 in extremely cramped conditions. By the second month out, the ship was being buffeted by strong westerly Their leadership came from the religious congregations of Brownist Puritans who had fled the volatile political environment in England for the relative calm and tolerance of 17th-century Holland in the Netherlands.
They held Puritan Calvinist religious beliefs but, unlike other Puritans, they maintained that their congregations needed to be separated from the English state church. They were also concerned that they might lose their cultural identity if they remained in the Netherlands, so they arranged with investors to establish a new colony in America. The colony was established in and became the second successful English settlement in America, following the founding of Jamestown, Virginia in The Pilgrims' story became a central theme in the history and cultur John Robinson born was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons in He was baptised on 2 April His brother Thomas was MP for Helston.
One of the most destructive conflicts in human history,[14] it resulted in eight million fatalities not only from military engagements but also from violence, famine, and plague. Casualties were overwhelmingly and disproportionately inhabitants of the Holy Roman Empire, most of the rest being battle deaths from various foreign armies. These states employed relatively large mercenary armies, and the war becam Shenzong is the temple name used for several emperors of China.
It may refer to: This [manlike] Woman - hic being the masculine form of the demonstrative pronoun jokingly applied to the feminine noun is the name of a pamphlet published in in England that condemned transvestitism. Women wearing men's apparel was becoming increasingly common in that period, causing concern to the pamphleteer and other social conservatives. The pamphlet argued that transvestitism was an affront to nature, The Bible, the Great chain of being, and society. During the last few years of King James's reign, women were accused of dressing and behaving like men.
This occurrence was relatively small-scale and brief. The term Hic Mulier, used as a sexual insult, was introduced by a preacher named Thomas Adams in a pamphlet he published in King James commented on the fashion of women dressing in men's clothing. In , he commanded his clergy to teach, "against the insolencie of our women, and their wearing of broad brimmed hats, pointed dublets, their hair cut short or shorn, and some Our Lady of Atocha was a Spanish treasure galleon and the most widely-known vessel of a fleet of ships that sank in a hurricane off the Florida Keys in At the time of her sinking, the Atocha was heavily laden with copper, silver, gold, tobacco, gems, and indigo from Spanish ports at Cartagena and Porto Bello in New Granada present-day Colombia and Panama, respectively and Havana, bound for Spain.
The ship was named for the parish of Atocha in Madrid. Much of the wreck of the Atocha was famously recovered by an American commercial treasure hunting expedition in Following a lengthy court battle against the State of Florida, the finders were ultimately awarded sole ownership of the rights to the treasure. The treasure, which arrived by mule in Panama City, was so immense that it took two months to record and load it onto She was baptised at Baldock in September This information came to light with the discovery of Augustine Walker's will dated 19 April , in which he named his daughter Elizabeth and her children Mary, Ann and Sarah Warren.
His parentage and apparent birthplace in Hertfordshire are uncertain, but there is a Warren family that may be of that ancestry residing in the vicinity of Therfield. William Louis, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg. Pavel, Lilia Zabolotnaia Retrieved 29 April Die Geschichte Pommerns in German. Member feedback about Member feedback about IBM Winston Churchill Cavalier topic Coat of arms: Member feedback about Winston Churchill Cavalier: Toilet-related injuries and deaths topic A toilet.
Member feedback about Toilet-related injuries and deaths: Hazards Revolvy Brain revolvybrain. Thus he and his followers resisted political absolutism and paved the way for the rise of modern democracy. Hugo Grotius was able to teach his natural-law theory and a relatively liberal interpretation of the Bible. Consistent with Calvin's political ideas, Protestants created both the English and the American democracies.
Australia , New Zealand , and India. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the British variety of modern-time democracy, constitutional monarchy , was taken over by Protestant-formed Sweden , Norway , Denmark , and the Netherlands as well as the Catholic countries Belgium and Spain. Protestants have always played the decisive role in British and American politics. The Act of Settlement stipulated that all British monarchs and their spouses must be Protestants. Except for John F. Kennedy , a Catholic, all Presidents of the United States have been members of mainline Protestant churches or have had a Protestant background.
Protestants also took the initiative in creating religious freedom , the starting-point of human rights. Freedom of conscience had had high priority on the theological, philosophical, and political agendas since Luther refused to recant his beliefs before the Diet of the Holy Roman Empire at Worms In his view, faith was a free work of the Holy Spirit and could therefore not be forced on a person.
These colonies became safe havens for persecuted religious minorities, including Jews.
Protestant culture
Latin America , Japan , and Germany. The strongest link between the American and the French Revolution was Marquis de Lafayette , an ardent supporter of the American constitutional principles. Democracy, social-contract theory, separation of powers, religious freedom, separation of church and state — these achievements of the Reformation and early Protestantism were elaborated on and popularized by Enlightenment thinkers.
As all persons were created equally free, all governments needed the consent of the governed. They were not derived from a concept of autonomous man. Also other human rights were initiated by Protestants. He also founded the Red Cross. Protestants have always felt obliged to help people. They have founded hospitals, homes for disabled or elderly people, educational institutions, organisations that give aid to developing countries, and other social welfare agencies.
To Bismarck this was "practical Christianity".
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The arts have been strongly inspired by Protestant beliefs. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Part of a series on Christian culture Christian culture. Christian symbolism Early art Catholic art Church architecture Icons. American Catholic literature Bible fiction Christian drama Christian poetry Christian novel Christian science fiction Spiritual autobiography.
Evangelicalism Charismatic movement Neo-charismatic movement. Nondenominational churches House churches. The Early History of Harvard University". Archived from the original on The original Trustees of Princeton University "were acting in behalf of the evangelical or New Light wing of the Presbyterian Church, but the College had no legal or constitutional identification with that denomination. Its doors were to be open to all students, 'any different sentiments in religion notwithstanding. New York, New York: Retrieved February 12, Middlebury is considered the first "operating" college in Vermont as it was the first to hold classes in Nov It issued the first Vermont degree in ; UVM followed in After traveling for several days, they arrived at Massasoit's capital, the village of Sowams near Narragansett Bay.
After meals and an exchange of gifts, Massasoit agreed to an exclusive trading pact with the English; thus, the French were no longer welcome, though they were also frequent traders in the area. Squanto remained behind and traveled throughout the area to establish trading relations with several tribes. In late July, a boy named John Billington became lost for some time in the woods around the colony.
It was reported that he was found by the Nauset , the same group of Native Americans on Cape Cod from whom the Pilgrims had unwittingly stolen corn seed the prior year upon their first explorations. The English organized a party to return Billington to Plymouth. The Pilgrims agreed to reimburse the Nauset for the corn which they had taken in return for the Billington boy.
This negotiation did much to secure further peace with the Native Americans in the area. During their dealings with the Nausets over the release of John Billington, the Pilgrims learned of troubles that Massasoit was experiencing. Massasoit, Squanto, and several other Wampanoags had been captured by Corbitant , sachem of the Narragansett tribe. A party of ten men under the leadership of Myles Standish set out to find and execute Corbitant. While hunting for Corbitant, they learned that Squanto had escaped and Massasoit was back in power.
Several Native Americans had been injured by Standish and his men and were offered medical attention in Plymouth. They had failed to capture Corbitant, but the show of force by Standish had garnered respect for the Pilgrims and, as a result, nine of the most powerful sachems in the area signed a treaty in September, including Massasoit and Corbitant, pledging their loyalty to King James. In May , a vessel named the Sparrow arrived carrying seven men from the Merchant Adventurers whose purpose was to seek out a site for a new settlement in the area.
Two ships followed shortly thereafter carrying sixty settlers, all men. They spent July and August in Plymouth before moving north to settle in modern Weymouth, Massachusetts at a settlement which they named Wessagussett. Reports reached Plymouth of a military threat to Wessagussett, and Myles Standish organized a militia to defend them. However, he found that there had been no attack. He therefore decided on a pre-emptive strike, an event which historian Nathaniel Philbrick calls "Standish's raid".
He lured two prominent Massachusett military leaders into a house at Wessagussett under the pretense of sharing a meal and making negotiations. Standish and his men then stabbed and killed the two unsuspecting Native Americans. The local sachem named Obtakiest was pursued by Standish and his men but escaped with three English prisoners from Wessagussett, whom he then executed. Word quickly spread among the Native American tribes of Standish's attack; many Native Americans abandoned their villages and fled the area. As noted by Philbrick: It was some time before a new equilibrium came to the region.
Rather than strengthening their position, Standish's raid had disastrous consequences for the colony, as attested by William Bradford in a letter to the Merchant Adventurers: A second ship arrived in November named the Fortune , sent by the Merchant Adventurers one year after the Pilgrims first set foot in New England. It arrived with 37 new settlers for Plymouth. However, the ship had arrived unexpectedly and also without many supplies, so the additional settlers put a strain on the resources of the colony.
Among the passengers of the Fortune were several additional people of the original Leiden congregation, including William Brewster 's son Jonathan, Edward Winslow's brother John, and Philip Delano the family name was earlier "de la Noye" whose descendants include President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The Fortune also carried a letter from the Merchant Adventurers chastising the colony for failure to return goods with the Mayflower that had been promised in return for their support.
However, the Fortune was captured by the French before she could deliver her cargo to England, creating an even larger deficit for the colony. In July , two more ships arrived: Some of the passengers who arrived on the Anne were either unprepared for frontier life or undesirable additions to the colony and returned to England the next year.
According to Gleason Archer, [62] "those who remained were not willing to join the colony under the terms of the agreement with the Merchant Adventurers. They had embarked for America upon an understanding with the Adventurers that they might settle in a community of their own, or at least be free from the bonds by which the Plymouth colonists were enslaved.
Plymouth Colony
A letter addressed to the colonists and signed by thirteen of the merchants recited these facts and urged acceptance of the new comers on the specified terms. In September , another ship arrived carrying settlers destined to refound the failed colony at Weymouth, and they stayed temporarily in Plymouth. In March , a ship arrived bearing a few additional settlers and the first cattle. A division of cattle lists colonists divided into twelve lots of thirteen colonists each.
Ships arrived throughout the period between and carrying new settlers, though the exact number is unknown; contemporaneous documents claimed that, by January , the colony had almost people. In , the colony had an estimated males fit for military service, implying a total population of about 2, By , on the eve of the dissolution of the colony, the estimated total population of Plymouth County, the most populous, was 3, people. Plymouth was the first colony in the region but, by the time of its annexation, it was much smaller than Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Myles Standish was the military leader of Plymouth Colony from the beginning. He organized and led the first party to set foot in New England, an exploratory expedition of Cape Cod upon arrival in Provincetown Harbor. He also led the third expedition, during which Standish fired the first recorded shot by the Pilgrim settlers in an event known as the First Encounter. Standish had training in military engineering from the University of Leiden , and it was he who decided the defensive layout of the settlement when they finally arrived at Plymouth. Standish also organized the able-bodied men into military orders in February of the first winter.
During the second winter, he helped design and organize the construction of a large palisade wall surrounding the settlement. Standish led two early military raids on Indian villages: The former had the desired effect of gaining the respect of the local Indians; the latter only served to frighten and scatter them, resulting in loss of trade and income.
The first major war in New England was the Pequot War of The war's roots go back to , when a dispute arose between Dutch fur traders and Plymouth officials over control of the Connecticut River Valley near modern Hartford, Connecticut. Representatives from the Dutch East India Company and Plymouth Colony both had deeds which claimed that they had rightfully purchased the land from the Pequots.
A sort of land rush occurred as settlers from Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth colonies tried to beat the Dutch in settling the area; the influx of English settlers also threatened the Pequot. Other confederations in the area sided with the English, including the Narragansetts and Mohegans , who were the traditional enemies of the Pequots. The event that sparked formal hostilities was the capture of a boat and the murder of its captain John Oldham in , an event blamed on allies of the Pequots.
In April , a raid on a Pequot village by John Endicott led to a retaliatory raid by Pequot warriors on the town of Wethersfield, Connecticut , where some 30 English settlers were killed. This led to a further retaliation, where a raid led by Captain John Underhill and Captain John Mason burned a Pequot village to the ground near modern Mystic, Connecticut , killing Pequots.
Plymouth Colony had little to do with the actual fighting in the war. Edward Winslow was already known for his diplomatic skills, and he was the chief architect of the United Colonies. His experience in the United Provinces of the Netherlands during the Leiden years was key to organizing the confederation.
John Adams later considered the United Colonies to be the prototype for the Articles of Confederation , which was the first attempt at a national government. King Philip was the younger son of Massasoit and the heir of Massasoit's position as sachem of the Pokanoket and supreme leader of the Wampanoag. He was also known as Metacomet and other variations on that name.
He became sachem upon the sudden death of his older brother Wamsutta , also known as Alexander, in The cause of the war stems from the increasing numbers of English colonists and their demand for land. As more land was purchased from the Native Americans, they were restricted to smaller territories for themselves. Native American leaders such as King Philip resented the loss of land and looked for a means to slow or reverse it. The General Court of Plymouth began using military force to coerce the sale of Wampanoag land to the settlers of the town.
The proximate cause of the conflict was the death of a Praying Indian named John Sassamon in Sassamon had been an advisor and friend to King Philip; however, Sassamon's conversion to Christianity had driven the two apart. A jury of twelve Englishmen and six Praying Indians found the Native Americans guilty of murder and sentenced them to death.
Philip had already begun war preparations at his home base near Mount Hope where he started raiding English farms and pillaging their property. In response, Governor Josiah Winslow called out the militia, and they organized and began to move on Philip's position. One such attack resulted in the capture of Mary Rowlandson. The memoirs of her capture provided historians with much information on Native American culture during this time period.
The war continued through the rest of and into the next year. The English were constantly frustrated by the Native Americans' refusal to meet them in pitched battle. They employed a form of guerilla warfare that confounded the English. Captain Benjamin Church continuously campaigned to enlist the help of friendly Native Americans to help learn how to fight on an even footing with Philip's warrior bands, but he was constantly rebuffed by the Plymouth leadership who mistrusted all Native Americans, thinking them potential enemies.
After securing the alliance of the Sakonnet, he led his combined force in pursuit of Philip, who had thus far avoided any major battles in the war that bears his name. Throughout July , Church's band captured hundreds of Native American warriors, often without much of a fight, though Philip eluded him. Church was given permission to grant amnesty to any captured Native Americans who would agree to join the English side, and his force grew immensely. Eight percent of the English adult male population is estimated to have died during the war, a rather large percentage by most standards.
The impact on the Native Americans was far higher, however.
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So many were killed, fled, or shipped off as slaves that the entire Native American population of New England fell by sixty to eighty percent. In , the entire region was reorganized under a single government known as the Dominion of New England ; this included the colonies of Plymouth, Rhode Island , Massachusetts Bay , Connecticut , and New Hampshire. The union was dissolved after news of the Glorious Revolution reached Boston in April , and the citizens of Boston rose up and arrested Andros. The return of self-rule for Plymouth Colony was short-lived, however.
A delegation of New Englanders led by Increase Mather went to England to negotiate a return of the colonial charters that had been nullified during the Dominion years. The situation was particularly problematic for Plymouth Colony, as it had existed without a formal charter since its founding. Plymouth did not get its wish for a formal charter; instead, a new charter was issued, combining Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts Bay Colony, and other territories.
The official date of the proclamation was October 17, , ending the existence of Plymouth Colony, though it was not put into force until the arrival of the charter of the Province of Massachusetts Bay on May 14, , carried by the new royal governor Sir William Phips. The last official meeting of the Plymouth General Court occurred on June 8, The most important religious figure in the colony was John Robinson , an original pastor of the Scrooby congregation and religious leader of the separatists throughout the Leiden years.
He never actually set foot in New England, but many of his theological pronouncements shaped the nature and character of the Plymouth church. Robinson taught that men and women have distinct but complementary roles in church, home, and society as a whole. He referred to women as the "weaker vessel". He believed that a child's natural inclination towards independence was a manifestation of original sin and should thus be repressed. The Pilgrims themselves were a part of the English Separatists also known as English Dissenters who were Protestant Christians who separated from the Church of England.
The movement sought to practice Christianity as was done in the times of the Apostles. Following Martin Luther 's and John Calvin 's Reformation , they believed that the Bible was the only true source of religious teaching and that any additions made to Christianity had no place in Christian practice, especially with regard to church traditions, such as clerical vestments or the use of Latin in church services.
In particular, they were strongly opposed to the Anglicans' episcopal form of church government. They believed that the church was a community of Christians who made a covenant with God and with one another. Their congregations had a democratic structure.
Ministers, teachers, and lay church elders were elected by and responsible to the entire congregation Calvinist Federalism. Each congregation was independent of all the others and directly subject to God's or Christ's government theocracy , hence the name Congregationalism. It was this desire to worship from outside of the Anglican Communion that led them first to the Netherlands and ultimately to New England. Each town in the colony was considered a single church congregation; in later years, some of the larger towns split into two or three congregations.
Church attendance was mandatory for all residents of the colony, while church membership was restricted to those who had converted to the faith. In Plymouth Colony, it seems that a simple profession of faith was all that was required for acceptance. This was a more liberal doctrine than some other New England congregations, such as those of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, where it was common to subject those seeking formal membership to strict and detailed cross-examinations.
There was no central governing body for the churches. Each individual congregation was left to determine its own standards of membership, hire its own ministers, and conduct its own business. The church was undoubtedly the most important social institution in the colony. The Bible was the primary religious document of the society, and it also served as the primary legal document.
Education was carried out for almost purely religious purposes. The laws of the colony specifically asked parents to provide for the education of their children, "at least to be able duly to read the Scriptures" and to understand "the main Grounds and Principles of Christian Religion".
Plymouth Colony - Wikipedia
Most churches used two acts to sanction its members: Censure was a formal reprimand for behavior that did not conform with accepted religious and social norms, while excommunication involved full removal from church membership. Many perceived social evils, from fornication to public drunkenness, were dealt with through church discipline rather than through civil punishment. Church sanctions seldom held official recognition outside church membership and seldom resulted in civil or criminal proceedings.
Nevertheless, such sanctions were a powerful tool of social control. The Pilgrims practiced infant baptism. The public baptism ceremony was usually performed within six months of birth. Marriage was considered a civil ceremony, rather than a religious one. Such an arrangement may have been a habit that had developed during the Leiden years, as civil marriage was common in the Netherlands.
However, the Pilgrims saw this arrangement as biblical, there being no evidence from Scripture that a minister should preside over a wedding. Besides the theology espoused by their religious leaders, the people of Plymouth Colony had a strong belief in the supernatural. Richard Greenham was a Puritan theologian whose works were known to the Plymouth residents, and he counseled extensively against turning to magic or wizardry to solve problems. The Pilgrims saw Satan's work in nearly every calamity that befell them; the dark magical arts were very real and present for them. They believed in the presence of malevolent spirits who brought misfortune to people.
For example, in , a court inquest into the drowning death of Jeremiah Burroughs determined that a possessed canoe was to blame. Witchcraft was listed as a capital crime in the codification of the laws by the Plymouth General Court, but there were no actual convictions of witches in Plymouth Colony. The court records only show two formal accusations of witchcraft. The first, of Goodwife Holmes in , never went to trial. The second, of Mary Ingram in , resulted in trial and acquittal. Edward Winslow and Susanna White both lost their spouses during the harsh winter of —, and the two became the first couple to be married in Plymouth.
Governor Bradford presided over the civil ceremony. In Plymouth Colony, " courtships were usually initiated by the young people themselves, but as a relationship progressed toward something more permanent, the parents became more directly involved. Marriage was considered the normal state for all adult residents of the colony.
On average, most widows and widowers remarried within six months to a year. Most adults who reached marriageable age lived into their sixties, so effectively two-thirds of a person's life was spent married. Women in Plymouth Colony had more extensive legal and social rights compared to 17th-century European norms.
Women were considered equal to men before God from the perspective of the Church. God's grace was available equally to all professed Christians. Women were, however, expected to take traditionally feminine roles, such as child-rearing and maintaining the household. Plymouth women enjoyed extensive property and legal rights, unlike in Europe where women had few rights.
A wife in Plymouth could not be legally "written out" of her husband's will and was guaranteed a full third of the family's property upon his death. Women were parties to contracts in Plymouth, most notably prenuptial agreements. It was common for brides-to-be and not, notably, their fathers to enter into contractual agreements on the consolidation of property upon marriage. In some cases, especially in second marriages, women were given exclusive right to retain control of their property separately from their husbands.
Historians James and Patricia Scott Deetz cite a inquest into the death of Anne Batson's child, where the jury was composed of five women and seven men. Family size in the colony was large by modern American standards, [] though childbirth was often spaced out, with an average of two years between children. Most families averaged five to six children living under the same roof, though it would not be uncommon for one family to have grown children moving out before the mother had finished giving birth. Maternal mortality rates were fairly high; one birth in thirty resulted in the death of the mother, resulting in one in five women dying in childbirth.
In the case of a few families for which there are unusually complete records, only about one in five children seems to have died before the age of twenty-one. Furthermore, births in the sample [of about 90 families] come for the most part with relatively few 'gaps' which might indicate a baby who did not survive. All things considered, it appears that the rate of infant and child mortality in Plymouth was no more than 25 per cent". Children generally remained in the direct care of their mothers until the age of about eight years old, after which time it was not uncommon for the child to be placed in the foster care of another family.
Some children were placed into households to learn a trade, others to be taught to read and write. It seems that there was a theological reason for fostering children, as with almost every decision in the colony. It was assumed that children's own parents would love them too much and would not properly discipline them. By placing children in the care of another family, there was little danger of them being spoiled. Adolescence was not a recognized phase of life in Plymouth colony, and there was not a single rite of passage that marked transition from youth to adulthood.
Several important transitions occurred at various ages, but none marked a single "coming of age" event. As early as eight years old, children were expected to begin learning their adult roles in life by taking on some of the family work or by being placed in foster homes to learn a trade. At 16, males became eligible for military duty and were also considered adults for legal purposes, such as standing trial for crimes.
Age 21 was the youngest at which a male could become a freeman, though for practical purposes this occurred some time in a man's mid-twenties. Twenty-one was the assumed age of inheritance, as well, although the law respected the rights of the deceased to name an earlier age in his will. Actual schools were rare in Plymouth colony. The first true school was not founded until 40 years after the foundation of the colony. The General Court first authorized colony-wide funding for formal public schooling in , but only the town of Plymouth made use of these funds at that time.
By , though, five additional towns had received this funding. Education of the young was never considered to be the primary domain of schools, even after they had become more common.