[409] Mass. Col. Rec., I. 214; cf. Atwater, Hist. of the Col. of New Haven, 363; Bailey, Hist. Sketches of Andover, 74, 75; Weeden, Ecc. and Soc. Hist. of N. E., I, 113.
[410] Sewall, Diary, in 5 Mass. Hist. Coll., VII, 233.
[411] Earle, Customs and Fashions, 73, 74.
[412] Earle, Customs and Fashions, 77. "A poem, by Mrs. Emma Willard, entitled 'Bride-Stealing, a Tale of New England's Middle Ages,' is preserved in Everest's Poets of Connecticut. It gives a poetical account of one among many instances of 'stealing the bride' that occurred in the early days of the colony."—Hollister, Hist. of Conn., I, 438, note. See also Stiles, Windsor, 475; Weeden, Ecc. and Soc. Hist. of N. E., I, 295; and Huntington, Celebration of the 200th Anniversary of Hadley (Northampton, 1859), 43.
[413] See above, chap. x, sec. ii, p. 441, note 3.
[414] Earle, Customs and Fashions, 77-79, where several instances are discussed. See also Prime, Along New England Roads; Weeden, Ecc. and Soc. Hist. of N. E., II, 538.
[415] Nourse, Hist. of the Town of Harvard, Mass., 1732-1893 (Harvard, 1894), 498, gives details as to marriage fees received and entered in his record by the local clergyman. At first John Seccomb usually had 5 shillings; later, about 1750, his fee became "one pound old tenor;" still later generally "a dollar," or "half a dollar," and once a "pistareen." From 1760 Rev. Joseph Wheely usually records "2£ 5s." During the Revolution the ordinary charge was six shillings legal money.
[416] Sack-posset was compounded of milk, spirits, and other ingredients; and it was eaten with a spoon: Sewall's Diary, in 5 Mass. Hist. Coll., VI, 403, note. On the wonderful mixed drinks of the New England Puritans see Mrs. Earle's delightful chapter on "Old Colonial Drinks and Drinkers," Customs and Fashions, 163-83; and also Bliss, Side Glimpses from the Colonial Meeting-House, 12-28.
[417] Lodge, Short History, 462, 463; cf. Sanford, Hist. of Conn., 125. Bailey, Hist. Sketches of Andover, 74-78, gives interesting details as to weddings and marriage settlements; and Brooks, Olden Time Series: Days of the Spinning-Wheel, 32, 33, reprints specimens of marriage notices taken from newspapers of the eighteenth century. On these festivities, advertisements, and settlements see also Earle, Customs and Fashions, 60-77.
[418] Sewall's Diary, in 5 Mass. Hist. Coll., VI, 403.