John and Francis, were lively urchins who frequently made matters interesting for the colonists, afloat and ashore. The family was radically bad throughout, but they have had not a few worthy descendants. Mrs. Billington married Gregory Armstrong, and their ante-nuptial agreement is the first such record known in America.
One of the most powerful influences exercised by the women pioneers was the influence for religion. Every pioneer woman was transfused with a deep, glowing, unwavering religious faith, and through all the terrible trials of those earliest days, as well as through those of the generations which followed, their faith never wavered, and at all times proved a bulwark of strength in seasons of trouble.
In 1630, we find the name of Lady Arabella Johnson, wife of Isaac Johnson, among those who came with the fleet of eleven ships to Massachusetts Bay, driven out of England by the religious persecution of the time. In this same colony of Pilgrims came one, Ann Dudley, the daughter of an old servant of the Count of Lincoln, father of Lady Arabella Johnson, and married to one Simon Bradstreet, who afterward became Governor of Massachusetts. She was a Puritan of the strictest Puritan type. She became quite famous as a poetess, and there were but few writers of that day. Governor Winthrop's wife was one of the early authors and when she lost her mind it was claimed by her Puritanical feminine friends that this was caused by her deserting her domestic duties and meddling with such things as were proper only for men.
Some idea of the severity of those days can be gained through the fact that in 1634, there was enacted a law which forbade any person, either man or woman, to make or buy any "woolen, silk, or linen with any lace on it, silver or gold thread, under the penalty of forfeiture of said clothes. Gold and silver girdles, hat bands, belts, ruffs, and beaver hats were prohibited, the planters being permitted to wear out such apparel as they were already provided with." Five years later another law prohibited "immoderate great breeches, knots of ryban, broad shoulder bands, and rayles, silk ruses, double ruffles and capes,"
