Elizabeth Pain

Elizabeth Pain (c. 1652 – 26 November 1704), sometimes spelled Elizabeth Paine or Elisabeth Payne, was a settler in colonial Boston who was brought to trial after the death of her child. She was acquitted of the murder charge but found guilty of negligence, fined, and flogged. According to some writers and by popular tradition, aspects of Pain's life and her gravestone are considered an inspiration for the life and grave of character Hester Prynne in the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Biography

Pain was a spinster who had a child out of wedlock, considered evidence of illegal fornication. She later married Samuel Pain.

On March 6, 1692, the child died. Pain was brought to trial for murder in 1693. She was found not guilty of murder but was found guilty of negligence in not seeking help. She was fined and ordered to be whipped with twenty lashes. According to court records:

Posthumous fame

Pain's grave is at King's Chapel Burying Ground in Boston, Massachusetts, and is engraved: