I just found a web site on history of Plymouth Colony, under subheading of Women matters at http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-plymouth?specfile=/web/data/users/fennel l/fennell.o2w&act=surround&offset=986625&tag=Women+in+Plymouth+Colony&query=tria l - X. References to women being accused of a crime: The reference to the murder of Martha Clarke by her mother Alice Bishop, was perhaps the most intriguing reference found in the first four volumes of the Plymouth Colony Court Records (PCR 2:131-133). The records describe the murder in detail "wee found a woman child, of about foure yeares of age, lying in her shifte vppon her left cheeke, with her throat cut with diuerse gashes crose wayes, the wind pipe cut and stuke into the throate downward." The description of the murder demonstrates that Alice did not fully comprehend the consequences of her actions. When Alice Bishop was accused of murdering her daughter she made no recorded protest against the accusation. The reference further describes her trial and sentence of hanging "by the necke vntell her body is dead, which accordingly was executed" (PCR 2:134). Francesca Sutton