52 Ancestors #41 - She Wore the Pants in the Family

Dorothy Hoyt was my 10th great-aunt. She was the younger sister of my 10th great-grandfather, Thomas Hoyt. Her parents were John & Frances Hoyt and she was born on April 13, 1656. While researching the family, I found the following account in Walter Goodwin Davis's book, The Ancestry of Lydia Harmon.

"For her escapade of dressing up in men's clothes, when she was a young woman of twenty-one, the Puritan magistrates ordered her to be severely whipped. She had escaped from the jurisdiction, however, and her father, who doubtless connived at her departure, paid a fine of forty shillings in her behalf." 


It's hard to imagine being whipped for what one chooses to wear. I'm proud that her father stood up for her and helped her get away. 

John Hoyt
Thomas Hoyt & Mary Browne
Israel Hoyt & Grace Taprill
Dorothy Hoyt & Sampson Babb
Alice Babb & John Waterhouse
Lydia Waterhouse & Richard Garland
Alice Garland & Isaac Hayes, Sr.
Richard Hayes & Rebecca Greenwood
Sydney Hayes & Apphia Delphinia Cole
George Hayes & Anna Rowe
Eva Delphinia Hayes & Estes Gilbert Yates
Linona Alice Yates - my grandmother

SourceInformation: Ancestry.com.TheancestryofLydiaHarmon,1755­1836:wifeofJosephWaterhouseof Standish, Maine [database on­line]. Provo, UT: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005.
Original data: Davis, Walter Goodwin,. The ancestry of Lydia Harmon, 1755­1836 : wife of Joseph Waterhouse of Standish, Maine. Boston, Mass.: Stanhope Press, 1924.