Document: Examination of Peter Jansen on a charge of committing a severe assault on his wife

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[ ] he [ ] and beat his wife [ ] responded [ ] because he was sitting there drinking [ ] made him mad [ ] cursing him as a scoundrel [ ] adulterer, so that he hit her on the head [ ] what he was doing with another man’s wife [ ] touching her breasts and putting his mouth on them, he answered that it would never be proven, and if there were witnesses that he would then have to endure it; he said furthermore never to have done anything shamefull with Trijn in the tap room. Whereupon he evokes God as his witness.

Trijntjen Pieters van Toumgen in East Friesland, housewife of the aforesaid Pieter Jansen Metselaer, asked why her husband had hit her, answered that she had found her husband drinking at Poul de Guardiaen’s and said, “well kid, you sit here eating and drinking, and don’t want to eat with me.” It was for this that he had hit her so. She went on to say to him, “I may well put up with your going out to drink a pint once in a while, but stay out of that house.” Whereupon he said, “I won’t stay out of that house.” The wife requested that the saloon or house of Poul de Guardian be forbidden her husband; that otherwise she would have no pleasure with him; that when she came in here he didn’t even greet her, kiss her or take her hand. All of which she offered to forgive him from the heart, and promised to bring him food and drink wherever he wanted it, just as long as it wasn’t in a whorehouse like Paul de Guardiaen’s. Pieter Jansen was asked at the session, if he couldn’t endure being in that house and in that barroom with Trijn, why didn’t he then, in order to keep peace with his wife, stay away from there; and whether he had something against his wife; and why he did not want to eat or drink with her?

He said she was always full of smart words and carped at him.

Pieter Jansen is given notice that he is to live, eat, drink and sleep with his wife as is befitting an honorable husband, or he is to bring in sufficient reasons why he should not do so. Furthermore, he is to see to it that he earns a living by his trade and honestly supports his wife and children. Ady ut supra.