“The minister’s salary shall be paid by rate levied on all the citizens. Sabbath work and travelling is forbidden; also all visiting on that day.
“Profane swearing punishable by ‘placing in the stocks; lying, by the stocks or by fine.’
“Fowling, fishing, and hunting, shall be free.
“Every wolf’s head shall be worth, to an Indian, twelve shillings or ‘a coat of duffels;’ to a white man, twenty shillings.
“Haunters of ale-houses shall be disciplined by the church.
“A motion of marriage to any man’s daughter, if made without obtaining leave, shall be punished by fine or corporal punishment, at the discretion of the court, so it extend not to the endangering of life or limb.
“Women shall not wear short sleeves; nor shall their sleeves be more than twenty-two inches wide:”[327] an enactment the object of which was, to prevent indecent extremes and extravagance in dress.
So runs this “quaint old volume of forgotten lore.” If some of these laws seem severe, as we scan them through the vista of two centuries, and in an age when sumptuary laws are perhaps too little known, it may be said in their defence, that they were quite upon a level with the kindred legislation of Europe, even in their most obnoxious features, while their progressive and liberal tone is as new and unique as the colony which gave them birth, and whose ideas they mirror.
In May, 1621, the first marriage in New England was celebrated.[328] Edward Winslow espoused the widow of William White, and the mother of Peregrine White, whose infant lullaby was the first ever sung by Saxon voice in New England.[329] “According to the laudable custom of the Low Countries,” says Bradford, “the ceremony was thought most requisite to be performed by the magistrate, as being a civil contract upon which many questions of inheritance do depend, with other things most proper for their cognizance, and most consonant to the Scriptures,[330] it being nowhere found in the gospel to be layed on ministers as a necessary part of their office. This practice continued, not only among them, but it was followed by all the famous churches of Christ in those parts to the year 1646.”[331]