The Scarlet Letter: Not Quite So Puritanical, It Seems

On the other hand -- my brave Mayflower ancestor, John Howland, who married the orphaned Elizabeth Tilley and had 10 children also, later in life, had to pay a fine for having an affair with woman not his wife.

Hester Prynne wearing The Scarlet Letter

So he wasn't exactly Mr Sqeaky-clean! He wasn't there for religious reasons; he just needed a job.