Note 644 — Chapter XII · OBLIGATORY CIVIL MARRIAGE IN THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES (continued 2)
Reading edition
The judge was almost tempted to bargain with his intended spouse for affectionate treatment. Speaking with "Mr. Dan Oliver," Feb. 2, 1722, he says: "Told, I hoped she was not so Attached to her children, but that she would carry it Tenderly to me; or else there would soon be an end of an Old Man. I said, I su[=p]osed they would clothe her, Answered, no question; And would be Tender of me."—Ibid., 302. On Sewall's courtships and New England wedding customs see Howe, The Puritan Republic, chap. v, 111 ff.