The Leonards of Lynn: A Case Study of the Integration of Outsiders Into a Puritan Community

This research paper was written by Tod Shacklett for a history class in June 1997.

Popular mythology conjures up images of Puritan New England as a pious, homogenous, agrarian community, a "Citty upon a Hill" intended to inspire the English homeland to turn to Puritan ways. (1) However, Puritan New England was more than a collection of small, agrarian communities. The harbors of New England supported shipping and fishing industries, and abundant timber and ore supplies inspired the Puritans of North America to pursue a colonial version of the English iron industry. These new American Ironworks required skilled labor; it was not possible simply to take the offspring of Puritan farmers and merchants and turn them into iron workers. The experienced, skilled laborers needed were mostly recruited from England and, generally, were not Puritans. Stephen Innes describes these iron workers as having "had a long, and apparently well-earned, reputation for stout-hearted truculence and profane living." (2) How, then, did these most un-Puritan individuals function in Puritan Society?

Essex County Court records concerning the Leonards, a family of immigrant iron workers, will be examined as a case study of the social integration of outsiders into a typical Puritan community. The Leonards do seem to epitomize the "truculent and profane" iron workers that Innes describes. The court cases involving the various Leonard family members often seem to be of a different, darker character than other, perhaps more typical, cases. While most Puritan lawsuits involved boundary lines and bad language, the Leonards were brought before the court charged with arson and highway robbery. As skilled and thus valued iron workers, the Leonard family was tolerated for pragmatic reasons. But the level of toleration shown by the community seemed to go beyond mere pragmatism. Even though the Leonard family was never fully integrated into the Puritan community, they were none the less accepted as members of that community.

The Puritans of New England were not renowned for their willingness to accept outsiders into their communities. According to The book of the general lauus and libertyes concerning the inhabitants of the Massachusets, individuals, and whole towns, were statutorily prohibited from allowing any stranger to reside within the jurisdiction for more than three weeks without permission from a magistrate. (3) As an illustration, in May 1663 John Emery was charged with harboring Quakers, and "also was presented on suspicion of breaking the law in entertaining Mr Greenland four months." (4) A cursory reading of the Essex court records reveals that Greenland was a doctor who was singularly unsuccessful in controlling his carnal lust. A more detailed recitation of his exploits is unnecessary here, but as a stranger to the community, Greenland's behavior made him undesirable to that community, and the community had an interest in, and took action toward, securing his removal. In fact, six citizens even went so far as to file an additional suit against Emery, "[f]or breach of a town order of Newbery, in entertaining Mr. Greenland to the great prejudice of the town." (5) But why would a community that refused to tolerate an amorous physician extend toleration to a family of rude, profane iron workers? The answer may lie in some combination of the Leonards' relationship to the church and the relative scarcity of the iron working skills that they possessed.