Daniel and Provided Southwick, ſon and daughter to Lawrence Southwick, who were fined ten pounds, but their fines not being paid, and the parties (as is ſtated in the proceedings) "pretending they have no eſtates, reſolving not to worke and others likewiſe have been fyned and more like to be fyned"—the General Court were called upon in the following year, May 11, 1659, to decide what courſe ſhould be taken for the ſatisfaction of the fines.
This they did, after due deliberation, by a reſolution empowering the County Treaſurers to ſell the ſaid perſons to any of the Engliſh nation at Virginia or Barbadoes—in accordance with their law for the ſale of poor and delinquent debtors. To accompliſh this they wreſted their own law from its juſt application, for the ſpecial law concerning fines did not permit them to go beyond impriſonment for non-payment. Maſs. Laws, 1675, p. 51. Felt's Salem, ii., 581. Maſs. Records, iv., i., 366. Maſs. Laws, 1675, p. 6. Biſhop's N. E. Judged, 85. Hazard, ii., 563.
The father and mother of theſe children, who had before ſuffered in their eſtate and perſons, were at the ſame time baniſhed on pain of death, and took refuge in Shelter Iſland, where they ſhortly afterwards died. Maſs. Records, iv., i., 367. Hazard, ii., 564. Biſhop, 83. The Treaſurer, on attempting to find paſſage for the children to Barbadoes, in execution of the order of ſale, found "none willing to take or carry them." Thus the entire deſign failed, only through the reluctance of theſe ſhipmaſters to aid in its conſummation. Biſhop, 190. Sewel's Hiſt. of the Quakers, i., 278.
