Family Genealogy and Black Sheep

I have been researching my family tree on and off since 2000.  We have come across a great deal of information.  It appears that Craig and my family NEVER left New England.  Sure some may have gone west but the majority stayed here.   We are New Englanders tried and true.  Craig is descended through William White, Mayflower Compact and from the first baby born in the New World, Peregrine White.  I am descended from multiple Revolutionary War soldiers and am the 8th great granddaughter of Roger Williams.  Also, I am descended through the Bucklins which were involved in the burning of the Gaspee.

Well, I came across some information on an ancestor named Margaret White Colwell born about 1635 and died 1717.  Her father's name was William White.  was excited to see perhaps if she was a White from the Mayflower, but alas no.....but there is even more curious information.

She was married 3 times!!!!  In that time period....As a woman.....Now, men often remarried frequently due to the rate of death in childbirth.  But for a woman???

Craig started teasing that I was descended through a Black Widow.  So I did some more poking about and found this interesting little tidbit:

In a separate incident, William's daughter, Margaret, already married to Robert Colwell, ran away with her married neighbor, Thomas Walling; both deserted their families. Colwell secured his divorce

2 July 1667; Margaret had returned to Boston and was ordered to be publicly whipped 15 stripes

and was fined £5 in October 1666. Colwell went to Long Island, Walling also obtained a divorce

and he married Margaret in 1669. After his death in 1674, her third husband, Daniel Abbott, took her to court. Apparently they reconciled, she was named in his will.

So she was not a Black Widow after all.  Just a tramp!!!!!  Wow.  In that day and age.... Can you imagine the scandal that must have caused in 1666??? Sad that I am more boring than my ancestor.