A contextual look at the 18th Century in Boston from some of John Rowe's 2,294 diary entries.
{1}
Rowe gives incidents of crimes and punishments, Sept. 11,
1764 : " The regiment appeared in the Common this afternoon.
One of the soldiers behaved saucily to liis captain, upon whicli
they called a court martial and ordered him to ride the wooden
horse ; but the mob got foul of the wooden horse and broke it,
so that the fellow escaped." Oct. 4, 1764. " Went after din-
ner upon Boston Neck and saw John and Ann Richardson set
on the gallows for cruelly and wilfully endeavoring to starve
their child [or children] ; the man behaved in the most auda-
cious manner, so that the mob pelted him, which was what he
deserved." March 21, 1765. " This day a woman was tryed
for murther of her bastard child, and it appearing to the
court she was married, she was acquitted." Jan. 11, 1770.
''This day a villain was pilloried for forcing a girl of ten years
age. The populace pelted him severely, but not so much as
his crime deserved." March 28, 1771. "This day the French
boy and a charcoal fellow stood in the pillory. The French
boy was to have been whipt, but the populace hindred the
sheriff doing his duty." Oct. 21, 1773. "Levi Ames was
hanged this afternoon, many thousand spectators attended the
execution." 1 Ames's offence was burglary; and other bur-
glaries where Rowe himself was the victim are noted in the
Diary (July 3, 1767 ; April 5, 1773 ; March 7, 1779). {1}

 {1} https://archive.org/stream/diaryofjohnrowe00pier/diaryofjohnrowe00pier_djvu.txt
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