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Eighteenth-Century Pennsylvania Women G The Role of Courthouses in the Lives of Eighteenth-Century Pennsylvania Women G. S> Rome studies describe how eighteenth-century courts, by embracing "ancient procedures" and time-honored routine, RECENThelped to reveal the intent of the law and the means by which society peacefully resolved its grievances. Moreover, through forms and ceremony courts defined and reinforced where participants "stood insociety, what obligations they owed to social superiors and inferiors, and what constituted the accepted norms ofsocial contact." But these studies neither explore the role of females in the legal apparatus nor admit the effect of the "verbalization functions" and "dramaturgical forms" experienced by women incourts. Thus, how ritualized "acts ofcontrition," "rituals of detestation," and "significant postures and gesticulations" explicit in courtroom settings were perceived by women, and whether they were internalized by them, have eluded us. 1New legal works touching on eighteenth-century women, while enhancing our knowledge of the law and women's legal rights, offer only partial help inclarifying the extent to which females participated in the legal system or how they responded to their experiences. 2 Even recent provocative accounts of the Revolution that have sought to analyze "the revolutionary experience of American women" and tochart the effect of the war upon them fall short of describing female participation inthe legal process. Linda Kerber, inparticular, identifies changes experienced by American women inlegal as well as intellec- tual and ideological terms, yet she makes no concerted effort toexam- ine closely the roles assumed by women in either criminal or civil procedures. She finds that "the courthouse remained a male domain 1A. G.Roeber, "Authority,Law, and Custom: The Rituals ofCourt Day inTidewater Virginia,1720 to 1750/' Williamand MaryQuarterly (WMQ) 37 (Jan. 1980): 29-52, esp. 30-31; Rhys Isaac, "Dramatizing the IdeologyofRevolution: Popular Mobiliza- tion in Virginia,1774 to 1776/' ibid. 33 (July 1976): 357-85. Also WilliamNelson, "The Larger Context ofLitigationinPlymouth County, 1725-1825," inDavidKonig, ed., Plymouth CourtRecords, 1686-1859 (Wilmington,Del.,1978), 1:1-138. The impor- tance ofaction and repetition in the education ofearlyAmericans is suggested by CliffordGeertz, "ThickDescription: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture," in The Interpretation of Cultures ... (New York, 1973), 3-32. 2 A convenient survey ofthese worksis provided by"MarylynnSalmon, "The Legal Status ofWomen inEarly America: AReappraisal, LawandHistoryReview 1(1983): 129-51. These studies have defined "the legalstatus of women" almost exclusively in terms of civillaw. 5 6 G.S. Rowe .... Women were present ... only as plaintiffs, defendants, or witnesses — as recipients, rather than dispensers, of justice." Penn- sylvania's legal practices inthe eighteenth century suggest itis not so much her conclusions as itis the inference and implications of her con- clusions that must be amended. 3 Court ritual and routine sometimes required women to exert influence equal to men. On occasion, their opinions and observations were deemed crucial — even superior — in some limited spheres within the court's jurisdiction. Furthermore, real opportunities for social, legal, economic, and political education existed for women inPennsylvania's courthouses. The importance of the courthouse to the Pennsylvania community was reflected inmany ways. Its functional and symbolic importance was established by its geographical setting, usually inthe center of a town. Johann Schoepf, a German traveler of 1783, was struck by the fact that the city of Reading "had four principal streets which stand exactly withthe compass-points, and where these cross is a fine Court- house." The structural impressiveness of courthouses also drew atten- tion to their importance. Philip Vickers Fithian was not surprised in 1775 to discover that the Yorkcourthouse was one of three "consider- able public Buildings" inthat town. Throughout the 1760s and 1770s, the inhabitants of Bedford, Cumberland, and Westmoreland counties struggled with particular urgency to insure that courts wouldbe accessi- ble. The effort of building such formidable structures to house their courts and the energy spent in securing and maintaining them dem- onstrate the symbolic and practical significance the early Pennsylva- nians attached to their courthouses. 4 Males viewed the courtroom as their domain. Judges habitually addressed the "Gentlemen" of their courts to enumerate the obliga- tions and responsibilities of their "countrymen," and conventionally called upon "every man" to aid them in the quest for order and 3 Linda K.Kerber, Women of the Republic: Intellectand Ideology inRevolutionary America (Chapel Hill,1980), 153. 4 Johann Schoepf, Travels in the Confederation, 1783-1784, 2 vols. (1788; reprint ed., New York,1968), 1:197. Robert G. Albionand Leonidas Dodson, eds., Philip Vickers Fithian: Journal, 1775-1776 (Princeton, 1934), 8. Also GottliebMittelberger, Journey to Pennsylvania, ed. Oscar Handlin and John Clive (Cambridge, Mass., 1960), 37. Chester County Records ofCounty Commissioners, April1763, Feb. 1764, vol. 1; Votes and Proceedings of the House ofRepresentatives of the Province ofPennsylvania ... October, 1763 (Philadelphia, 1964), 66; 1764, 161; 1766, 16; 1768, 25; 1771, 319, 321-22, 364; Pennsylvania Archives, 9 series, 138 vols. (Philadelphia and Harrisburg, 1852-1949), 1st ser., 4: 449 (hereafter cited as Pa. Arch.). The works by Roeber and Isaac, cited innote 1, elaborate on the role ofcourthouses in eighteenth-century America. Role ofCourthouses 7 stability. When the Reverend Robert Ayers came upon a court session inWestern Pennsylvania in1786, he commented only on the ''Number of Old &Young Men" going in and out of a small cabin. Ephraim Douglas, describing the opening of courts inFayette County in1783, observed that spectators behaved with good order and decency "to a man." 5 Pennsylvania courtrooms served as microcosms of the larger society and through legal forms and dramaturgical exercises reinforced the values, expectations, and priorities of that society. The exclusion of women from posts of power and honor incourt machinery and routine was consistent withmore sweeping assumptions and practices. Legal and historical restraints dictated that females could not be judges, sheriffs, constables, clerks, jurors, lawyers, or members of judicialad hoc committees. Women (and everyone else, for that matter) were con- stantly reminded that they lived inlargely a patriarchal, ranked, and deferential society. Women were bonded for good behavior as wellas for appearance in court, just as were men, but often male relatives or acquaintances had toput up money or security for them, and the male was ultimately responsible ifthe bond should be forfeit. George Hays of Cumberland County was held legally and financially responsible when Margaret Holliday of that same county failed toappear to testify in the October 1784 sessions. 6 Similarly, Pennsylvania practice sometimes allowed male relatives to appear incourt inplace offemale plaintiffs. John Keen, forinstance, appeared in the September 1784 term of the Philadelphia County general sessions for his wife Mildred, who had been charged with assault and battery. Inher stead he submitted to the court and paid a small fine levied against her. YorkCounty's Philip Grayble, the vic- timof a 1771 assault by three women and a male, appeared "inbehalf of the women" to voice their desire to plead guilty and accept their punishment. By the same token, those petitioning during court ses- sions forpardons or remittances offines and punishments for persons 5 Thomas McKean, ACharge to the Grand Jury by the Honorable Thomas McKean, Esquire at aCourt ofOyerand Terminer, and General Gaol Delivery.. .on the 21st DayofApril 1778 (Lancaster, 1778); Notes ofCharges Delivered toGrand Juries by ChiefJustice Thomas McKean, 1777-1779, Historical Society ofPennsylvania, Philadelphia (HSP); Alex- Addison, ander Charges to Grand Juries of the Counties ofthe FifthJudicial Circuit in \ the State ofPennsylvania (Washington, Pa., 1800), passim; Journal ofRobert Ayers, 1786, Papers ofthe Reverend Robert Ayers, Historical Society of Western Penn- sylvania, Pittsburgh (HSWP); Ephraim Douglas to John Dickinson, Feb. 2, 1784, Misc. Collections, HSWP. 6 Cumberland County Quarter Sessions (hereafter cited as QS) Dockets, October 1784, Cumberland Co. Courthouse, Carlisle. 8 G.S. Rowe convicted generally did not approach females. Such practices identified female subservience. 7 Nonetheless, like its society as a whole, Pennsylvania's legal system permitted — indeed, demanded — participation by women. Inshap- ing the legal processes, they wielded power, forged a sense of their own self-worth, and raised themselves above subservient status. Unlike many institutions ineighteenth-century Pennsylvania, courts were not segregated by sex or ethnic origins. Regularly attracted to local courts by administrative needs, Pennsylvania women participated in the proceedings of orphans courts, the licensing of taverns, bond- ing of servants, administration of wills,and the settlement of debts. They also observed the collection, adjustment, and distribution of taxes, and judgments about local road construction and maintenance. They came seeking divorces and redress from abusive masters and mistresses, and to participate incoroners' inquisitions. They hoped, as did men, to meet friends and neighbors
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