Warning out of town was a widespread method in the United States for established New England communities to pressure or coerce "outsiders" to settle elsewhere (Benton 1911, pp. 106–113, 115, 117). It consisted of a notice ordered by the Board of Selectmen of a town, and served by the constable upon any newcomer who might become a town charge. When a person was warned out of a town, they were not necessarily forcibly removed (Benton 1911, pp. 51).
The first warning out in Plymouth Colony was recorded on June 6, 1654 in the village of Rehoboth (Tilton, 1918). Robert Titus was called into town court and told to take his family out of Plymouth Colony for allowing "persons of evil fame" to live in his home (Titus, 2004). The practice was common throughout the early Colonial Period, and died out in the early 19th century. In Vermont, for example, the law was changed to disallow "warning out" in 1817.
Read more about Warning Out Of Town: Legal Foundation
Famous quotes containing the words warning and/or town:
“No longer mourn for me when I am dead
Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell
Give warning to the world that I am fled
From this vile world, with vilest worms to dwell:
Nay, if you read this line, remember not
The hand that writ it; for I love you so,
That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot,
If thinking on me then should make you woe.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“And oh, I knew, I knew,
And said out loud, I couldn’t bide the smother
And heat so close in; but the thought of all
The woods and town on fire by me, and all
The town turned out to fight for me that held me.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)