Date: Fri 18-Aug-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDREA

Quick Words:

blue-laws-Sunday-history

Full Text:

There Was A Time When It Wasn't Hard To Be A Scofflaw

B Y A NDREA Z IMMERMANN

When was the last time you were arrested for playing cards, walking in your

garden, making your bed, cooking victuals, or being too boisterous while

riding in a tally-ho? Did you appear before a judge only to find out it was

your neighbor or relative who squealed on you for financial gain?

If it was Sunday in Connecticut, these and other acts of work, sales, travel,

and entertainment were strictly forbidden under the puritanic code. The Blue

Law statutes originated with the New Haven colony and, in 1672, every family

in the state was ordered to have a book of laws. Named for the blue paper on

which it was published, similar Sabbath laws were adopted by the other

American colonies. And some remain on the books today.

For those who tested and often flagrantly disobeyed the law, there was usually

a price to pay - in shillings, social life, or "after-life." But through the

centuries those of a more devilish nature would embrace their fun, and Newtown

was no exception. Town officials often had their hands full chasing local

scoff-laws.

The year 1802 seems to have been particularly good for catching lawbreakers in

Newtown, according to records in the Cyrenius Booth Library historical

collection. On December 10 of that year, Jonathan Beers Sherman was arrested

by Newtown's constable and pleaded guilty to charges of "breaking the fast"

and "play at cards" in the spring. He, along with partners in crime Eli Hard,

Daniel Burchard, Jotham Sherman, and Abram Botsford, had twice congregated at

the house of Israel Botsford for this "unlawful recreation." Fifty-five cents

of his fine went to the constable, 50 cents to the judge, $2.67 to the town

vicar, and $1.67 to the person who filed the complaint. That same year, grand

jurors heard Abraham B. Ferris and Abner Beardslee also confess to card

playing, "which is against a statute law of this state entitled an Act Against

Gaming."

Three Oxford residents were nabbed in 1807 for "convening and meeting

together...in the streets and elsewhere in said Newtown at a place known by

the name of Ragged Corner in Halfway River District (Not to attend upon the

public Worship of God nor for some work of Necessity or Mercy) and having so

met, did...travel to the dwelling house of Elisha Satin in said Newtown and

did then and there behave Rudely and Indecently by Searching said...dwelling

House for a Racoon ."

There is no missing the fact that Newtown residents broke the Sabbath laws

during the day in the following record of skinny dipping in the Housatonic

River in 1805.

"...Levi Booth and Joseph Booth of said Newtown...and John Judson of said

Newtown...Minors between the age of fourteen and twenty one, did leave their

respective places of abode in said Newtown and did on said Sabbath day meet

together in a Company in said Newtown, and did go to Ousatonic river, and did

then and there in said Newtown strip themselves naked, and go into the waters

of said river in said Newtown between the rising of the sun and the setting

thereof on said Sabbath day, and did then and there sport, play, and recreate

themselves in the waters of said river in said Newtown between the rising of

the sun, and the setting thereof of said Sabbath day..."

Zachariah Ferris, who was a justice of the peace in Newtown during the early

1800s, presided over many of the cases involving violation of the Connecticut

Blue Laws. In May of 1817, he was informed that "John Beers of said Newtown

did...[on] the Christian Sabboth or Lords Day, Train and drive a herd of

Cattle in and through that part of Newtown called and known by the name of

Zoar, that is to say three cows or cattle (not from necessity, Charity, or

Mercy), all which the wrong doings of the said John Beers is against the

authority and Dignity of this State and contrary to one certain Statute

Law..."

The two accompanying letters to the editor of The Newtown Bee indicate

baseball and the discharge of firearms were also thought to be appalling

behavior on the "day of rest." The letters were written by local clergy at the

turn of the century.

But as time went on, the blue laws were challenged, modified, and most

eliminated. People who observed the Sabbath on Saturday were exempted from

some Sunday laws, and more and more Connecticut businesses were permitted to

remain open. There is still, however, a blue law in effect that restricts the

sale, dispensing, or consumption of liquor on Sunday. Of course there are many

exceptions to this particular law, one being if the Sunday happens to coincide

with New Year's Eve or New Year's Day.