[766] Thus Doyle, Eng. Colonies, I, 453, says the acts of the assembly of 1669/70, of which the marriage act is one, tended to make North Carolina "an Alsatia for ready and profligate adventurers." So also George Chalmers, Political Annals of the United Provinces: in Carroll, Hist. Coll. of S. C., II, 291, concludes, "From this remarkable law we may judge of their state of religion and morals." On the other hand, Hawks, Hist. of N. C., II, 152, 153, says of this statute: "It has given rise to some abortive efforts at wit, which, if genuine, would, we think, be sadly misplaced; and has, besides, sorely troubled the over-sensitive and camel-swallowers who thank God they are 'not as other men are;'" justly adding: "It is difficult to conjecture any other course, which under the circumstances, they could reasonably have adopted. The very fact that any plan was devised to afford a legal and decent mode of entering into the marriage contract, certainly implies that the moral sense of the community revolted at general concubinage." Cf. also Weeks, Church and State in N. C.: in J. H. U. S., XI, 244.
[767] Hawks, op. cit., II, 154. These are nearly the words of the charter of 1665: Poore, op. cit., II, 1397. Cf. also Weeks, op. cit., 244, 245.
[768] "Records of the Friends Monthly Meeting in Pasquotank Precinct": in N. C. Col. Rec., I, 688. There is a similar entry in 1711: ibid., 813. Two years earlier we find a "precinct" court—about the only part of the machinery of the "Fundamental Constitutions" which was ever made use of (Howard, Local Const. Hist., I, 129)—sentencing for adultery: "Ordered that Ellinor Mearle be punished by receiving Ten Stripes on her Back well laid & pay cost also Ex[=o]."—Records of Perquiman's Precinct Court, in N. C. Col. Rec., I, 626 (1705).
[769] N. C. Col. Rec., II, 212, 213.
[770] Ibid., 877, 878.
[771] Iredell-Martin, Public Acts of the Assembly (Newbern, 1804), I, 18, 19.
[772] N. C. Col. Rec., III, 110, 111.
[773] Ibid., 160. According to Cook, "Colonel Byrd, writing about 1728, says that in North Carolina, 'for want of men in holy orders, justices of the peace and members of the council were empowered to celebrate marriage.'"—Op. cit., 355, 356.
[774] Weeks, Church and State, 244, 245.
[775] The justice shall not act in any parish where a minister resides and has cure, "without permission first had and obtained from such Minister under penalty of five pounds proclamation money, to the use of the minister."—Iredell-Martin, Public Acts, I, 45; for the fee see ibid., 46.