Marriage records, 1665-1800, Vol XXII (from various church records), Part 4

Author: Nelson, William, 1847-1914, ed
Publication date: 1900
Publisher: Paterson, N.J., The Press printing and publishing co.
Number of Pages: 824

USA > New Jersey > Marriage records, 1665-1800, Vol XXII (from various church records) > Part 4

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Jan Nicolet

her

Catrine

Jans mark

1 N. Y. Hist. Soc. Collections, First Series, I., 236.

2 Kalm says: ' Before the English settled here. they (the Swedes) followed wholly the customs of Old Sweden."-Travels, II., 123. In some of the New Jersey villages as late as 1749, " not a single Englishman, or people of any other nation," lived in them. - 16 .. II., 168.

xxxi

MARRIAGE CONTRACTS AMONG THE SWEDES.

On the 24th of the following May the contracted couple ap- pear before the Council, when Jan requests in writing and ver- bally, that he might be discharged from his promise of mar- riage, made to the aforesaid Catrine Jans on January 24, 1656, and that the same be declared null and void. He had asked her, he said, " with serious intention, upon honor and faith, to be his wife, and that he did not know else, but that she was a virtuous girl." About a month after, to. his direct question, she assured him to that effect, and "they would have been married if a preacher had been at hand." It subsequently be- came evident that she was not as she pretended to be. Catrine then confessed to the Council that in the fall of 1655 she had been engaged to a soldier, who was responsible for her condi- tion. The Commissaries adjudged that she had gone "outside of her first betrothal, from which she had not been released, neither by the death of the bridegroom nor by other lawful rea- sons, and had by her second betrothal deceived the plaintiff, contrary to the written law," and they gave judgment that the aforesaid Picolet be released from his betrothal and marriage contract aforesaid and they declared the same null, ineffectual, of no value and as if the same had never been made, passed, written nor signed." They moreover condemned Catrine to appear in Fort Casimir, and there, before the Council, to re- lease the plaintiff and with bent knees to ask the pardon of God and justice and promise henceforth to behave as a virtu- ous woman."

On June 16th the couple once more appeared before the Council, and having heard the above judgment, " the parties, giving each other the right hand, discharged one the other legally before the Council of the promise of marriage."1

The strict observance of the rule as to the publication of the banns in what was formerly New Sweden is illustrated by these citations :

December 29, 1655 .- Appears Toms Broen. as father and guardian of his daugh ter. Jannetje Tomas, and consents to the marriage between her and Willem

1 N. Y. Col. Does., XII., 144-146. On November 25 following, Lawrence Pieters. bachelor, from Leyden, about 23 years old, and the fickle C'atrine Jans. from Gottenburg. about 19 years old, appeared before the Council and announced their desire to enter into matrimony. They were confirmed in marriage by the Coun- cil on December 24. " after proclamation of the banns on the previous Sunday."- N. Y. Col. Docs .. . VII .. 154, 156.

Xxxii

MARRIAGE CUSTOMS IN NEW SWEDEN.

Maurits here present and requests that their legal bans might be published; the names being, of the bridegroom Willem Maurits. bachelor, from Walle Schier, about 33 years old, of the bride Jannetje Tomas spinster, born in New-Nether- land. about 16 years old. Witness Stuyte Andries. 1

July 7, 1656 .- Desiring to enter into matrimony Jacob Crabbe, bachelor, born in Amsterdam, and Geertruy Jacopsen from Immenes, widow of the late Roeloff de Haes, ask to have their matter attended to and declare besides. that they have no engagement with any body else.2

The Swedish Lutheran clergymen found it difficult to com- ply with the regulations of the Dutch rulers, and probably did so with an ill grace, that was resented by the new government. A curious case was that of the Rev. Laers Caerlsen ( Lokenius), who was brought before the court at Altena, April 14, 1662. From the proceedings it appeared that his wife had eloped in September, 1661. As he had " several children and a large house-hold, and so was in need of another wife, and thought that all that was necessary was to find one," and although "pursuant to the laws of our Fatherland he ought to have first asked and obtained a decree of divorce from the superior authority," he had not only waived that formality but had married himself to another woman. He protested that in this matter he "had proceeded lawfully therein and consent was given. I have fol- lowed the same custom, which others have followed here, who have not been called up on that account. I declare on my conscience, that it was not done with any bad intention ; had I known, that this self-marriage would be thus interpreted, I would have willingly submitted to the usages of the Reformed church, which were not known to me."3 During the period of his suspension Director-General Stuyvesant granted him a divorce and validated the second marriage, after which Mr. Laers was again invested with his gown.

Again, in 1674, another Lutheran minister, the Rev. Jaco- bus Fabricius, was suspended from his ministerial functions for one year, by the Governor-General and his Council, for hav- ing married a couple " without having lawful authority thereto and without publication of the bans."+

1 N. Y. Col. Docs., XII., 137.

2 Ibid., XII., 149.

3 Ibid .. XII., 366-7; Acrelius's New Sweden, 101.

3 N. Y. Col. Docs .. XII .. 512. For other notices of Mr Fabricius, see Acrelius's New Sweden, 177-180; Penn. Col. Records, I., 348.

xxxiii

MARRIAGE CUSTOMS IN NEW SWEDEN.

June 4-5, 1678, at New Castle .- Mr. Walter Wharton, a Justice of the Peace, was presented " for marrying himselfe or being married directly contrary to the Knowne Lawes of England & alsoe contrary to the Lawes and customes of this place and Province."1

June 30, 1679, Whoorekill .- Complaint was made to Gov. Andros regarding the conduct of Capt. John Aurey, a local Magistrate, president of the Court, and this pathetic incident was related, disproving the sarcastic incredulity of Rosalind :

" Hee Tooke vpon himselfe to Marry the widdow Clament to one Bryant Rowles, without publiquecation nothwithstanding she was out aske at Least a Month to another man, namly Edward Cocke ; The which when the said Cocke hard that she was marryed to another man said that it would be his death And presently went home fell sick and in forty eight hours dyed ; he left it on his death that her marrying was the cause of his dyeing."

Furthermore, it was alleged of Capt. Aurey :

" Hee took upon him to grant a Licence to Marry Daniel Browne to Sussan Garland widdow, without any publiqueation, which Marrige was effected, notwithstanding it is Generally knowne or at Least the said Daniel confesses that he knows no other but that he haue a wife living in England."2

The following simply-worded entry in the record of Holy Trinity (Old Swedes) Church, Wilmington, Del., by the re- tiring pastor, Ericus Biorck, in 1713, gives a picture of a mar- riage in those early times, which was doubtless a type of sim- ilar occasions in the region formerly known as " New Sweden," and a suggestion, as well, of the changing customs :

" The fourth Sunday after Easter the 3d of May, as with the church, Christ's prepared spiritual bride, so did Magister Hes- sellius enter matrimony with Jonas Walraven's daughter Vir- gin Sarah Walraven, which after three times publishing took place in Christina church, the above named Sunday when I preached the marriage sermon over them from John 3rd Chap., 29th verse : He that hath the, Bride, is the Bridegroom, etc., and Mr. Sandall, from Wicacoe, performed all the rest with

1 N. Y. Col. Docs., XII., 596. 2 Ibid., XII., 624.

XXXIV

MARRIAGE CUSTOMS IN NEW SWEDEN.

the speech to the bride at the house and the marriage cere- mony, etc., which I would not do on account of my love for and adherence to the customs of my Fatherland and its old cus- toms which I see are being done away with, such as crowning the bride, etc., through the introduction of these English cus- toms."1

A few weeks later (May 30), at a meeting of the same con- gregation it was enjoined upon them, as to

" Regulating espousals and marriages that they are not al- lowable according to church law before mature age, and not without consent of parents, and must be without compulsion or secrecy, and not before being well instructed in Christian doctrines."2

By the middle of the century, as the country became more generally settled by people of English descent, there was much falling away from the quaint Swedish customs, espec- ially among the young people, as will be noted hereafter.

III. MARRIAGE RITES IN ENGLAND.

Sundry provisions in the Anglo-Saxon statutes, frequent al- lusions in early English literature, and passages in the prayer book, appear to indicate that the earliest marriages in England were by capture, consented to or condoned by the bride ; or more generally by purchase, sanctioned by the village or gens, the bride's father selling or giving the bride,3 and perhaps in later times performing some sort of ceremony on the occa- sion.4 In the language of the old prayer book of the time of Edward VI. :

1 Records of Holy Trinity Church, 1890, 153. 2 Ibid., 178.

3 In "The History of English Law before the time of Edward I.," by Sir Fred- erick Pollock and Frederick William Maitland, Cambridge. 1899, II .. 365, a some- what different view is taken : " When light begins to fall upon the Anglo-Saxon betrothal, it is not a cash transaction by which the bride's kinsmen receive a price in return for rights over their kinswoman ; rather we must say that the bridegroom covenants with them that he will make a settlement upon his future wife. He declares, and he gives security for. the morning-gift which she shall receive if she 'chooses his will' and the dower that she shall enjoy if she outlives him." This practice, however, indicates an earlier custom of simple bride- purchase. as stated above in the text.

4 It is not unlikely that this practice in a public place is the real origin of the tradition attaching to the singular group or circle of stones called "The Wed- ding." described in Camden's Britannia. London 1695 col. St.

XXXV

EARLY MARRIAGE CUSTOMS IN ENGLAND.

I M. - take thee N .- , for my wife.

to have and to hold1

from this day forward?

for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in siekness and in health.

to love and to cherish, till death us do part.

and thereto I plight thee my troth.

With this rynge I the wed And this gold and silver I the geve3

and with my body I the worshipe, and with all my worldely eathelt I the endo we.

In that quaint satire on "the degeneracy of the times"- theme ever-old, and ever-new-published in London, in 1604 (reprinted in 1844), entitled " A Piece of Friar Bacons Brazenheads Prophesie," the writer tells us :

When I was but a boye. . When wooers met, It was a sport to see How soone the match was set. How well they did agree: When that the father gave the childe. And then the mother sat and smilde.

Dr. Lushington, in the House of Commons, March 17, IS35, thus explained the history and principles of the law of England in regard to marriage : " By the ancient law of this country as to marriages, the marriage was good, if celebrated in the presence of two witnesses, though without the interfer- ence of a priest. But then came the decision of the Council of Trent, rendering the solemnization by a priest necessary. At the Reformation we refused to accept the provision of the Council of Trent ; and, in consequence, the question was re- duced to this state-that a marriage by civil contract was valid ; but, there was this extraordinary anomaly in the law, that the practice of some of our Civil Courts required, in certain in- stances, and for some purposes, that the marriage should be celebrated in a particular form. It turned out that a marriage by civil contract was valid for some purposes, while for others

1 Habendum et tenendum-words essential to a conveyance.

2 Words of the present tense - rerba de presenti.

3 Evidence of bride-purehase. with the ring, and gold and silver.

4 Cathel, or catel: goods, property, possessions, treasure, or money. - Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, 10th ed., London, 1881, I., 235.

XxxVi

PUBLISHING OF THE BANNS.

-such as the descent of real property to the heirs of the mar- riage-it was invalid. Thus, a man in the presence of wit- nesses, accepting a woman for his wife, per verba presenti, the marriage was valid for some purposes ; but for others, to make it valid, it was necessary that it should be celebrated in facie ecclesia. This was the state of the law until the passage of the marriage act in 1754."

In the prayer book of Edward VI. (1553), it is ordered :

" First the banns must be asked three several Sundays or - holy days, in the service time, the people being present, after the accustomed manner."

The old ballad of Robin Hood and Allen a Dale refers to the same ancient custom :

That shall not be. the bishop he said, For thy word shall not stand; They shall be three times askt in the church, As the law is of our land.

The rule was that the banns, or intention of marriage, should be published, or " called out," in facie ecclesia, or in front of, or before, the church; in other words, in the most public place in the village, to ascertain if the proposed mar- riage met with the approval of the people-apparently a sur- vival of an earlier custom, when the consent of the bride's gens was requisite, to permit of her surrender to another gens or tribe. The rule was still further modified in time, by having the banns " called out" from the pulpit, before the congrega- tion, and, as education became more general, by simply post- ing the notices of intended marriage on, or at, the church door, which might be construed as a compliance with the ancient custom of publishing the banns in facie ecclesic. Various ceremonies " at the church door," as of espousals,1 dowry and the like, have been regarded as relics of a pagan sacrificial cere- mony ; and the marriage at the altar, within the church, is thought to be a trace of a primitive sacrifice at the domestic altar. Certain it is, that the church was many centuries in se- curing an influential part in the celebration of marriages in

1 A case of espousals at the church door was tried in 1254. See N. Y. Gen. and Biog. Record. III., 89.

EARLY WEDDINGS IN ENGLAND.

England.1 One of the earliest descriptions of a church wed- ding in England is this, from Chaucer :

I trow it were to longe yow to tarie.

If I yow tolde of every scrit and bond,

By which that sche was feoffed in his lond;

Or for to herken of hir riche array.

But finally y-comen is that day.

That to the chirche bothe ben thay went.

For to receyve the holy sacrement.

Forth comth the preest, with stoole about his necke,

And bad hir be like Sarra and Rebecke

In wisdom and in trouth of mariage;

And sayd his orisouns, as is usage,

And crouched hem, and bad God shuld hem blesse

And made al secur ynough with holinesse. Thus ben they wedded with solempnite.2

Another account of a wedding that actually took place sixty or seventy years later than the date of the Canterbury Tales, is described with an interesting minuteness in depositions made July 6, 1472, in which it is related that in 1451 or 1452, Sir William Plumpton and Joan Wintringham were privately married one morning before sunrise, in the parish church at Knaresburgh, by John Brown, perpetual vicar of that parish.

"Very early in the morning of the said Friday came the said Sir William and Joan to the parish church of Knaresburgh, - - and, they standing at the door of the chancel of the said church within the said church, the aforesaid John Brown came from the high altar in his vestments and solempnized marriage between them in the presence of the deponent, the said Sir William taking the said Joan with his right hand and repeat- ing after the vicar, Here I take the Fhennett to my wed- ded wife to hold and and to have, att bed and att bord, for farer or lather, for better for worse, in sicknesse and in hele,

1 " In the seventh century in England the church was making her voice heard about marriage." "By the middle of the twelfth century it was law in England that marriage appertained to the spiritual forum." "In 1200 Archbishop Hubert Walter published in a council at Lambeth a constitution which declared that no marriage was to be celebrated until after a triple publication of the church's ban." "At the Lateran Council of 1215 Innocent III. extended over the whole of Western Christendom the custom that had hitherto obtained in some countries, of ' publishing the banns of marriage.'" History of the English Law. by Pollock and Maitland, as cited, II., 366. 367. 370: Thrupp's " Anglo-Sax- on Home," 50-57; Palgrave's Hist. of the English Commonwealth, II., exxxvi.

2 Chaucer's Marchaundes Tale, 453-465 [Chaucer's Works, edited by Richard Morris, London, 1882, Vol. II., 332].

xxxviii

MARRIAGE CONTRACTS IN ENGLAND.

to dede us depart, and thereto I plight the my trouth, and the said Joan making like response incessantly to the said Sir William-that the said vicar, having concluded the ceremony in the usual form, said the mass of the Holy Trinity in a low voice in the hearing of the deponent."

A vivid touch of realism is imparted to the narrative by the additional information that " Sir William was clad in a garment of green checkery, and Joan in one of a red colour," she also having on "a grey hood."1

Although the church through hundreds of years was contin- ually seeking to gain entire control of the marriage ceremony, nevertheless marriage was still regarded as primarily a civil contract, until the passage of the Marriage Act of 26 Geo. II., and the ecclesiastical ceremony was largely subsidiary to the civil contract or espousals, which often preceded the actual mar- riage by a considerable period. A pre contract of this kind was, till 32 Hen. VIII., and again after 2 and 3 Edw. VI., considered an impediment to marriage with any other person.

In the early Chancery proceedings, formerly in the Tower of London, there are numerous bills of complaint grounded on alleged contracts of marriage, some of which date back as far as 1452. In these proceedings, however, the plaintiff's seek only to recover the actual losses and disbursements, without making any claim for blighted affections.

Maister Walter Leinster, Doctour of Phisik, complains of Maister Richard Narborough, Doctor of Law Sivill, for that he in the moneth of May in the ix. yere of the reigne of the Kyng oure soveraigne Lord (Edward IV. ) affianced one Lucy Brampston, the daughter-in-lawe of the said plaintiff, to have her to wife, and immediately thereafter informed her that he would " depart over the see unto Padowe, there to applye his stodye for the space of ij yeres," at the end of which time he promised to return to England and to " espouse the said Lucy according to the law of Holy Churche," at the same time es- pecially desiring the plaintiff to maintain the said Lucy and a

1 Plumpton Correspondence. A series of Letters, chiefly domestick, written in the reigns of Edward IV. Richard III. Henry VII. and Henry VIII, London, printed for the Camden Society, 1839, pp. Ixxvi-lxxvii.

Xxxix

AN OLD BREACH OF PROMISE SUIT.

maidservant to attend upon her, providing them with meat, drink, clothing, and all things necessary, until his return from beyond the sea, when he promised faithfully to repay the plaintiff all the costs and charges which he had incurred in that behalf. He did not return for ten years, and then refused either to marry Lucy, or to reimburse the plaintiff, "to the greate perell and jopardy of soule of the same Maister Richard." The complainant therefore brought suit :

For bedde and boorde for Lucy and hir mayde by the space of

x. yere by his agrement and special desire. paying by ye week iijs, iiijd. for them twayne

exxx marks

Item: For hir arayment yerely delivered to hir, to buy gownys. kirtells, smokkis, &c.

Xx. li.

x. marks

Item: For arayment of hir servande yerely delivered xiiijs. iiijd. Item: For necessary expences made uppon hir in tyme of hir sore and gret sekenes caused thrugh his onkyndnes and chaungeablenes, ful hard to escape with lyiffe. as al the cun- trey knowith wel; and as yet apperith on her. for evir sith she hath ben sekele thrugh sorowe and pensyffenes whiche she toke for his newfangles1

xiijli. xiijs. iiłjd.

The feudal laws, which gave the lord the control of the marriage of his ward, were manifestly opposed to the church's claim over marriages. True, the law of Normandy was to the effect that "if a woman be in wardship, when she shall be of an age to marry, she ought to marry by the consent and license of her lord, and by the counsel and consent of her rela- tions and friends, according to what the nobleness of her line- age and the value of her fief shall require." But within a short period after the Norman conquest the English lords asserted absolute control over their wards, male as well as female, an abuse so notorious that it called for restrictive enactments, as Henry I .. cap. 1, cited in Bracton ; Magna Charta2; the Stat- ute of Merton, 20 Hen. III. ; I Westminster, cap. 22 ; 2 Westminster, cap. 35. This control of wards and their estates by the feudal lords continued for centuries, despite adverse en- actments. A remarkable instance of this happened so lately as the time of Charles I., in the case of the earl, afterwards first duke of Ormond. "A long suit had subsisted between the lady Preston, grand-daughter and heiress at law of Thomas earl of Ormond, and her cousin, the heir male of the family,

1 The Antiquary. IV. (London, Nov. 1881). 1-6 7. No decision is recorded.

2 Particularly articles vi. vii and viii.

CONTROL OVER MARRIAGE BY THE FEUDAL LORDS.

for that part of the estate her grandfather had entailed to go with the title. At length the relations on both sides thought the best expedient to end this intricate dispute, was by uniting the young relations, who likewise had conceived a strong affec- tion for each other : yet, although the king approved highly thereof, did the earl of Warwick, who was grantee of the young lady's wardship, extort ten thousand pounds before he would consent to a marriage on every account so desirable."1

The primary interest of the lords in asserting control over the marriage of their wards must have interfered not a little with the church's claims to a supremacy in all that pertained to the marriage ceremony. It was evidently to the advan- tage of the feudal lords likewise to attach great importance to the idea that marriage was a civil contract. Not so much in their interest was the underlying principle, recognized in Eng- land from the earliest times, that consent by and between the parties was of the very essence of a valid marriage.2 This. again, was a recognition of the idea that marriage was a civil contract, between the two parties most interested, which not even the church could lawfully abrogate.3 Herein was the basis of what has always been known as the English " common law marriage." " If a man and woman agreed forthwith ( per verba de præsenti) to take each other as husband and wife, it was a good marriage by the common law.+ " In general,

1 Lectures on the Constitution and Laws of England, etc., by Francis Stough- ton Sullivan. LL. D. Second Edition. London: M, DCC, LXXVI. pp. 129-133. And see Co. Litt .. 78-79.

2 " Marriage being a divine Institution, to which only a full and free Consent of the Mind is necessary."-Moor, 170.

3 It was held by the schoolmen to whom Henry VIII. referred the question, in 1530: "A Marriage is compleated by the Marriage Contract, though it be never Consummated." "Since Marriage was a Sacrament of the Church, its Essence could only consist in the Contract; .... so Marriage is compleat, though its effect never follow." The canonists did not agree to this, regarding the consum- mation as essential .- Burnet's History of the Reformation of the Church of Eng- land, I., 100.

4 Co. Lit. 34 a; Dy. 369, a. R. ; 6 Mod. 155; Sal. 437; Carth. 99. So if a contract per verba de futuro be afterwards executed by consummation. Semb. Sal. 438; 2 Comyns's Digest. ed. 1793, 68. "The Dutchesse of Barr was married in a closet, without a Masse. by words onely of the Present tense, as I believe. I have read in the Historie of Thuanus." See letter of the Lord Keeper to the Duke of Buck- ngham, 22 March 1622, given in "Cabala. Mysteries of State, in Letters of the great Ministers to K. James and K. Charles," London, 1654, 106. See Pollock and Maitland, as cited, II., 368, 371.

THIE ENGLISH CHURCH'S CONTROL OVER MARRIAGES. xli

common reputation, and cohabitation as man and wife, or the acknowledgment of the parties, may be admitted as evidence of marriage in the temporal courts."1 " This Marriage is not a meer Nullity, because by the Law of Nature the Contract is binding ; and though the positive Law of Man ordains Mar- riage to be made by a Priest, yet that Law only makes this Marriage irregular, but not void, unless the positive Law of Man had expressly ordained it to be void.">

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Marriage records, 1665-1800, Vol XXII (from various church records), Part 4

Author: Nelson, William, 1847-1914, ed Publication date: 1900 Publisher: Paterson, N.J., The Press printing and publishing co. Number of Pages: 824

Author: Nelson, William, 1847-1914, ed
Publication date: 1900
Publisher: Paterson, N.J., The Press printing and publishing co.
Number of Pages: 824