Kittery Woman Accused of Having Puppies

Who says our ancestors were
prim and proper people?


Those who think gay marriage is a wild "adult" topic for public debate should tune in to what our ancestors were talking about before the Revolution. In 1760 a Kittery woman sued in local court when she was accused of having had relations with a dog.

We discovered the original hand-written document on eBay recently. The tattered single page, dated December 29, 1760, is a formal declaration from a woman accused of fornicating with a dog and giving birth to a litter of puppies. In this complaint, according to the eBay article, Hildah Emery of Kittery took her slander charge to the authorities. It reads, in part:

"…in said county single woman and spinster herein sweareth that pn or about the last day of April 1760 Uriah Nason of Kittery afors’d Did wittingly and willingly make and publish a lye to the defamation and damage of your complaint viz saying that he the sd Uriah did at the time afform’d did see Hildah Emery meaning your complain’t lie with and have carnal knowledge with Ghess Dahniel Emery’s dog a Zach Emery’s barn and that afterwards she went into the barn and had puppys by the said dog."

We hoped the local historical society could purchase the document, but the last time we looked, it was already selling a more than $480. The seller was from California and we don’t know, thanks to the eBay privacy system, who bought this unique local document.