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Which Hawthorne ancestor punished a Quaker woman with public whipping?
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Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne's ancestors in Salem, Massachusetts, were Puritans named Hathorne. He added a w to his name when he began writing.
The ancestor of Nathaniel Hawthorne who sentenced a Quaker woman to public whipping was his earliest American ancestor, William Hathorne.12
As a magistrate and a staunch defender of Puritan orthodoxy, William Hathorne’s actions were part of a legacy that the author later reflected upon with concern. Hawthorne famously contemplated whether the subsequent decline of his family’s prosperity was a form of retribution for this act, as well as for the role his ancestor John Hathorne played as a judge during the Salem witch trials.12