Elizabeth Pain (c. 1652 – 26 November 1704), sometimes spelled Elizabeth Paine or Elisabeth Payne, was a settler in colonial

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

who was brought to trial after the death of her child. She was

acquitted In common law jurisdictions, an acquittal means that the criminal prosecution has failed to prove that the accused is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the charge presented. It certifies that the accused is free from the charge of an o ...

of the

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

charge but found guilty of

negligence Negligence ( Lat. ''negligentia'') is a failure to exercise appropriate care expected to be exercised in similar circumstances. Within the scope of tort law, negligence pertains to harm caused by the violation of a duty of care through a neg ...

, fined, and

flogged Flagellation (Latin , 'whip'), flogging or whipping is the act of beating the human body with special implements such as whips, rods, switches, the cat o' nine tails, the sjambok, the knout, etc. Typically, flogging has been imposed on a ...

. According to some writers and by popular tradition, aspects of Pain's life and her

gravestone A gravestone or tombstone is a marker, usually stone, that is placed over a grave. A marker set at the head of the grave may be called a headstone. An especially old or elaborate stone slab may be called a funeral stele, stela, or slab. The us ...

are considered an inspiration for the life and grave of character

Hester Prynne Hester Prynne is the protagonist of Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 novel ''The Scarlet Letter''. She is portrayed as a woman condemned by her Puritan neighbors for having a child out of wedlock. The character has been called "among the first and mos ...

in the novel ''

The Scarlet Letter ''The Scarlet Letter: A Romance'' is a historical novel by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850. Set in the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony during the years 1642 to 1649, the novel tells the story of Hester Prynne, who concei ...

'' by

Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne (né Hathorne; July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associat ...

.Shackleton, Robert (1916). ''The Book of Boston.'' The Penn Publishing Company, p. 11Barlowe, Jamie (2000). The Scarlet Mob of Scribblers: Rereading Hester Prynne Southern Illinois University Press,

Biography

Pain was a spinster who had a child

out of wedlock Legitimacy, in traditional Western common law, is the status of a child born to parents who are legally married to each other, and of a child conceived before the parents obtain a legal divorce. Conversely, ''illegitimacy'', also known as ''b ...

, considered evidence of illegal

fornication Fornication generally refers to consensual sexual intercourse between two people who are not married to each other. When a married person has consensual sexual relations with one or more partners whom they are not married to, it is called adu ...

. She later married Samuel Pain. On March 6, 1692, the child died. Pain was brought to trial for murder in 1693. She was found not guilty of murder but was found guilty of negligence in not seeking help. She was fined and ordered to be whipped with twenty lashes. According to court records:

Elisabeth Payne spinster being presented by the Grand Jury, in March last for murdering of her child was now brought to the Barr & Indicted by the name of Elizabeth Payne spinster for not having the feare of God before her eyes & being led by the Instigation of the diuil did on our about the 6th day of March last willfully murder her child Contrary to the Peace of our Soueraigne Lord the king his Crowne & dignity the laws of God and of this Jurisdiction holding up her hand at the Barr pleaded not Guilty & put herself on trial by God & the Country. Accordingly, after the Indictment & evidence produced were read Committed to the Jury and are on file the Jury brought in their verdict not Guilty according to Indictment but greatly negligent in not calling for help for the preservation of the child's life. The Court on Consideration of the Case for her fornication sentenced her to be whipped with twenty stripes paying & discharging the charge of her trial & fees of the Court stands Committed till the sentence be performed.Noble, John; Cronin, John F., eds. (1901). ''Volume 1 of Records of the Court of Assistants of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay, 1630-1692.'' Published by the County of Suffolk, Massachusetts

Posthumous fame

Pain's grave is at King's Chapel Burying Ground in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, and is engraved:

HERE LYES Y^e BODY OF ELIZABETH PAIN WIFE TO SAMUEL PAIN AGED NEAR 52 YEARS, DEPARTED THIS LIFE NOUEMB^R Y^e 26 1704

Pain's grave is in the same

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

mentioned in ''

'', which ends with a description of Hester Prynne's grave:

So said Hester Prynne, and glanced her sad eyes downward at the scarlet letter. And, after many, many years, a new grave was delved, near an old and sunken one, in that burial–ground beside which King's Chapel has since been built. It was near that old and sunken grave, yet with a space between, as if the dust of the two sleepers had no right to mingle. Yet one tomb-stone served for both. All around, there were monuments carved with armorial bearings; and on this simple slab of slate—as the curious investigator may still discern, and perplex himself with the purport—there appeared the semblance of an engraved escutcheon. It bore a device, a herald's wording of which may serve for a motto and brief description of our now concluded legend; so sombre is it, and relieved only by one ever-glowing point of light gloomier than the shadow:—

"ON A
FIELD Field may refer to: Expanses of open ground * Field (agriculture), an area of land used for agricultural purposes * Airfield, an aerodrome that lacks the infrastructure of an airport * Battlefield * Lawn, an area of mowed grass * Meadow, a grass ...
,
SABLE The sable (''Martes zibellina'') is a species of marten, a small omnivorous mammal primarily inhabiting the forest environments of Russia, from the Ural Mountains throughout Siberia, and northern Mongolia. Its habitat also borders eastern Kaz ...
, THE LETTER A,
GULES In heraldry, gules () is the tincture with the colour red. It is one of the class of five dark tinctures called "colours", the others being azure (blue), sable (black), vert (green) and purpure (purple). Gules is portrayed in heraldic hatch ...
"

Pain's headstone has "an engraved escutcheon" on which enthusiasts see art ofthe letter A (for

adultery Adultery is extramarital sex that is considered objectionable on social, religious, moral, or legal grounds. Although the sexual activities that constitute adultery vary, as well as the social, religious, and legal consequences, the concept ...

): it appears in the shield to the right of two lions.Petronella, Mary Melvin; Edward W. Gordon; Victorian Society in America New England Chapter (2004). ''Victorian Boston Today: Twelve Walking Tours.'' UPNE, Scholar Laurie Rozakis has argued that an alternate or additional source for the story may be Hester Craford, a woman flogged for

with John Wedg.Rozakis, Laurie (1986). Another possible source of Hawthorne's Hester Prynne. ''American Transcendental Quarterly'', 59:63-71

References

External links

Image of Pain's gravestone
via Celebrate Boston {{DEFAULTSORT:Pain, Elizabeth Burials at King's Chapel Burying Ground American people acquitted of murder People from colonial Massachusetts 1650s births 1704 deaths