AI-0015 – Jonas Clay 1643, Wife Mary In Court
Record Summary
Summary
Mary Clay is suspected of adultery and appears in the York, ME court.
Record Transcript
7.
Wee p[re]sent Mary Clay the wife of Jonas Clay for keeping Company with Robert Cooke In a suspitious manner, In respect of Incontinency as appears by her Entertaynement of him day & night, notwithstanding others of his neighbours have endeavoured & Prohibitions to draw him out of her Company, who invited him to their wife & home, while Cooke refused to hearen unto — Testis Griffith Mounthgour [?], Morgan Howell [?]
Whereupon an Act of separation is made by this Court betweene the said Cooke & the wife of Jonas Clay, upon the forfeiture of Tenn pounds as well each, & he is lyable to pay and make good, if hereafter A man appeare & the afores[ai]d Persons, have some signes privately, or unseasonably together.
13.
Wee p[re]sent Mary Clay the wife of Jonas Clay, for bodily frequenting of the Company of John Davis the Smyth, & sometimes harbour, In such a suspitious manner, as caused her neighbours to suspect them Incontinency.
It is Ordered by this Court, & hereby an Act of separation is made betweene the sd Davis & Mary Clay, upon the forfeiture of the sum of Tenn pounds from each Person, In case for the future It can appeare that they have Been So some privately, commonly & unseasonably together.
Asset
Source Citation
“York, Maine, United States records,” images, FamilySearch (https:// www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9S1-LQX3?view=fullText : Mar 6, 2025), image 103 of 333; Maine State Archives.
Historical Context
The wording imply that Jonas Clay was alive in 1655 and still married to Mary.
Research Notes
Documented facts: The court session was held in York on 20 Aug 1655. Mary Clay was the wife of Jonas Clay; Robert Cooke and John Davis were separately accused of suspicious association with her; neighbors suspected sexual impropriety; and the court ordered Mary separated from each man under monetary penalty.
Not documented by this page: that Mary committed adultery, that either man was her sexual partner, or that Jonas and Mary separated or divorced.
Modern-English rendering of the two Clay cases
Entry 7: The court presented Mary Clay, wife of Jonas Clay, for keeping company with Robert Cooke in circumstances that raised suspicion of sexual impropriety. She had received or entertained Cooke during both day and night, and others had apparently attempted to discourage the association. The court ordered Cooke and Mary Clay to remain apart, subject to a £10 forfeiture for violation of the order.
Entry 13: The court again presented Mary Clay, wife of Jonas Clay, this time for repeatedly keeping company with John Davis, a smith, in circumstances that led her neighbors to suspect sexual impropriety. The court ordered Davis and Mary Clay to remain apart. If they were subsequently found together privately, habitually, or at inappropriate times, each faced forfeiture of £10.
For genealogy, this as strong primary evidence that Jonas Clay and Mary were husband and wife at the date of this court session, while treating everything concerning Mary’s alleged sexual conduct as accusation/suspicion rather than established fact.