Author: John Ruston Pagan

Publisher:

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 0195144791

In 1663, an indentured servant, Anne Orthwood, was impregnated in a tavern in Northampton County, Virginia, an illegitimate pregnancy that sparked four related cases that came before the Northampton magistrates between 1664 and 1686. These cases illuminate the ways in which the Virginia colonists modified English common law traditions and began to create their own, and they also shed light on cultural and economic values in this community. Through these cases, the very reasons legal systems are created are revealed, namely, the maintenance of social order, the protection of property interests, the protection of personal reputation, and personal liberty.