Such turmoil was, of course, unusual in the Sewall or any other Puritan home; but the spiritual paroxysms of his daughter Betty, as noted in previous pages, were more characteristic, and probably not half so alarming to the deeply religious father.  There seems to be little “sorrowfull remembrance” in the following note by the Judge; what would have caused genuine alarm to a modern parent seemed to be almost a source of secret satisfaction to him:  “Sabbath, May 3, 1696.  Betty can hardly read her chapter for weeping; tells me she is afraid she is gone back, does not taste that sweetness in reading the Word which once she did; fears that what was once upon her is worn off.  I said what I could to her, and in the evening pray’d with her alone."[95]

Though more mention is made in the early records about the endeavors of the father than of the efforts of the mother to lead the children aright, we may, of course, take it for granted that the maternal care and watchfulness were at least as strong as in our own day.  Eliza Pinckney, who had read widely and studied much, did not consider it beneath her dignity to give her closest attention to the awakening intellect of her babe.  “Shall I give you the trouble, my dear madam,” she wrote to a friend, “to buy my son a new toy (a description of which I enclose) to teach him according to Mr. Locke’s method (which I have carefully studied) to play himself into learning.  Mr. Pinckney, himself, has been contriving a sett of toys to teach him his letters by the time he can speak.  You perceive we begin betimes, for he is not yet four months old.”  Her consciousness of her responsibility toward her children is also set forth in this statement:  “I am resolved to be a good Mother to my children, to pray for them, to set them good examples, to give them good advice, to be careful both in their souls and bodys, to watch over their tender minds, to carefully root out the first appearing and budings of vice, and to instill piety....  To spair no paines or trouble to do them good....  And never omit to encourage every Virtue I may see dawning in them."[96] That her care brought forth good fruit is indicated when she spoke, years later, of her boy as “a son who has lived to near twenty-three years of age without once offending me.”

Here and there we thus have directed testimony as to the part taken by mothers in the mental and spiritual training of children.  For instance, in New York, according to Mrs. Grant, such instruction was left entirely to the women.  “Indeed, it was on the females that the task of religious instruction generally devolved; and in all cases where the heart is interested, whoever teaches at the same time learns....  Not only the training of children, but of plants, such as needed peculiar care or skill to rear them, was the female province."[97]