Note 555 — Chapter XII · OBLIGATORY CIVIL MARRIAGE IN THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES
Reading edition
The whole of this curious law may prove instructive. It is enacted "That any person or persons that shall Comit Carnall Copulation before or without lawfull contract shalbee punished by whiping or els pay ten pounds fine apeece and bee Imprisoned during the pleasure of the Court soe it bee not aboue three daies but if they bee or wilbee married [i. e., a "delayed" marriage voluntarily solemnized or else marriage prescribed as a penalty] the one to the other; then but ten pounds both and Imprisoned as aforsaid; and by a lawfull Contract the Court vnderstands the mutuall consent of parents or guardians if there bee any to bee had; and a sollemne promise of marriage in due time to each other before two competent witnesses [this being the regulation of pre-contract already mentioned in the text]; and if any person or persons shall Comitt carnall Coppulation after contract and before Marriage they shall pay each fifty shillings and bee both Imprisoned," etc.—Plym. Col. Rec., XI, 172, 95, 46. Originally the punishment for fornication was left in the discretion of the magistrates: ibid., 12.