M. 3 Jan 1657 in Ipswich, Massachusetts
Husband: Samuel Hunt
D. 16 Feb 1707 in Ipswich, Massachusetts
Elizabeth Redding was one of the most colorful personalities in Ipswich, Massachusetts during its early years. Along with her husband, she found her way into many court records during the prime of her life.
Elizabeth was probably born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in about 1634, the daughter of Joseph and Agnes Redding. She appears to have been their only child, which was unusual in colonial New England. By the time Elizabeth came of age, she had moved to the town of Ipswich, and on January 3, 1657, she got married there to a man named Samuel Hunt.
Elizabeth was soon pregnant and gave birth to a son by the end of the year; she had four more children by 1670. The family was said to have a farm with an orchard, cornfields, and many outbuildings, as well as access to the water with a wharf on what became known as “Hunt’s Cove.” Samuel was sometimes at odds with authorities in Ipswich. During the 1660s, he refused to perform work ordered by the town militia, and was put in prison for several months. A couple of years later, he got into a fight with a neighbor, that led to him being jailed again.
Elizabeth had her own incidents that brought her into court, and one of the most noteworthy was when she accused another woman of stealing from her. The trouble started at the Ipswich meetinghouse on May 2, 1669. That day Elizabeth had one of her young boys on her lap during Sunday service as he played with her bodkin, a small metal tool that was used for threading drawstrings and cords. Elizabeth’s bodkin was engraved with her name, and was likely an object she treasured.
Elizabeth had her own incidents that brought her into court, and one of the most noteworthy was when she accused another woman of stealing from her. The trouble started at the Ipswich meetinghouse on May 2, 1669. That day Elizabeth had one of her young boys on her lap during Sunday service as he played with her bodkin, a small metal tool that was used for threading drawstrings and cords. Elizabeth’s bodkin was engraved with her name, and was likely an object she treasured.
Example of a 17th-century bodkin.
The boy dropped the bodkin, and Elizabeth couldn’t see where it went. She asked Sarah Roper, the woman sitting next to her, if she could see it on the floor, and she said no. But after Roper got home that day, she found the bodkin in the cuff of her own sleeve. This led to Elizabeth accusing Roper of stealing her bodkin, and she took her to court. In her defense, Roper claimed to have attempted to return it, but because of misunderstandings with others, it didn’t get handed over promptly. The ruling in court was that Roper was being honest, and they found her not guilty.
Elizabeth showed up a few more times in court cases, which suggested that she frequently got involved in other people's business. On April 24, 1673, she testified at Salem as witness in a case of one man suing another man for “too much familiarity” with his wife. Elizabeth told the court that she had a conversation with the woman in question, Sarah Roe, about her relationship with her husband. Then she described a visit with another woman as the two gossiped about the affair Roe was said to be having with the accused. Also that month in a different case in Ipswich, Elizabeth was mentioned as having spread a false rumor about a neighbor woman's infidelity, and she was later sued for slander by the woman’s father.
Elizabeth's appearances in such trials gives the impression of her being a busybody, but the following year, a case came up regarding the sexual misconduct of someone in her own home. A man was accused of impregnating a servant who worked for the Hunt family. Elizabeth took the side of the woman, implying the man was to blame, probably because she and her husband would collect the damages awarded to the woman since she was indentured to them.
Then there was a case on an entirely different matter involving Elizabeth and her 12-year-old daughter, also named Elizabeth. On May 5, 1674, the two were in court for disturbances they had caused at Sunday services. The accusation was that Elizabeth’s daughter had shoved another girl, Abigail Burnham, “so that she almost fell down,” and Elizabeth was charged with putting the girl up to it. A witness said that he had seen Elizabeth herself knocking into Burnham’s chair, and someone else testified she elbowed the girl in the neck. Elizabeth and her husband Samuel claimed that Burnham had bullied their daughter many times in the past. The ruling in court was that the parents of both girls needed to take better charge of their daughters, and no one was formally punished.
Elizabeth's feistiness translated into speaking up for herself, and one thing that distressed her was the place where she had to sit in the meetinghouse. By 1681, wealthier wives were allowed to sit in pews with their husbands near the front, but the other women had to stay in a section way in the back. So Samuel and seven other men petitioned to have a platform constructed that would raise the seats of their wives two feet higher. Presumably the men didn't act on their own, and their wives were the ones behind the request. It worked because the town approved it, and the women got higher seats.
Elizabeth’s husband died sometime before she did; she passed away on February 16, 1707. Her gravestone survives at the Old North Burying Ground in Ipswich, and the inscription reads: “A tender mother, a prudent wife, at God’s command resigned her life.” Not-too-accurate for a woman who reads differently in court records. Among Elizabeth's descendants are Mormon religion founder Joseph Smith and John Lithgow.
Children:
1. Samuel Hunt — B. 17 Nov 1657, Ipswich, Massachusetts, D. 11 Jan 1743, Tewksbury, Massachusetts; M. Mary Ruth Todd (1657-1717), 1 May 1678, Ipswich, Massachusetts
2. Elizabeth Hunt — B. 29 May 1661, Ipswich, Massachusetts; D. 9 Jul 1689, Rowley, Massachusetts; M. Francis Palmer (1657-1733), 3 Dec 1682, Essex County, Massachusetts
3. William Hunt – B. about 1663, Ipswich, Massachusetts; D. 12 Dec 1747, Ipswich, Massachusetts; M. (1) Sarah Newman (1665-1723), 9 Jun 1684, Ipswich Massachusetts; (2) Rose Spark (1673-1743), 6 Mar 1724, Ipswich Massachusetts
4. Joseph Hunt — B. 28 Oct 1665, Ipswich, Massachusetts; D. 12 Jan 1747, Mansfield, Connecticut; M. (1) Elizabeth Huntington; (2) Ann Pengry, 1703, Massachusetts
5. Peter Hunt — B. 14 May 1670, (probably) Ipswich, Massachusetts; D. before 1693
Sources:
Historic Ipswich (website)
Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Volumes III, IV and V, edited by George Francis Drew, 1912, 1913 and 1914
The Probate Records of Essex County, Massachusetts, 1917
Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England, 1650-1750, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, 1991
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