"Gatchells were evidently not of puritan strain...."

Apparently not. The following always makes me laugh:

In July 1879, Henry F. Waters wrote in the New England Historical and Genealogical Review: The Gatchell family were evidently not of puritan strain, as shown by the following extract from Salem records: "[at] a Towne meeting this 21th of the 6th month 1637"... "John Gatshell is fyend [fined] tenn shillings for building upon the Towne ground wth out leave [permission], and in case he shall cutt of [off] his lonng har of his head in to sevill [civil] frame in the mean time, shall have abated five shillings, his fien to be paid in to the Towne meeting w'thin too [two] monthes from this time and have leave to go on in his belding [building] in the meane time."

And this....

From History and Traditions of Marblehead, chapter 2, p. 13: The prejudice of the Puritans against the habit of wearing long hair is well known, and it seems that they were willing to enter into any compromise with Mr. Gatchell in order to remove the obnoxious habit. It appears, however, that he was not a man to submit to any such interference with his personal appearance, and, it is said, "continued the custom to his dying day, in spite of popular opinion and all the formal denunciation of Church and State."

And thus begins a long line of rebellion against "acceptable behavior".

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