Note 565 — Chapter XII · OBLIGATORY CIVIL MARRIAGE IN THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES

"When a man is enamoured of a young woman and wishes to marry her, he proposes the affair to her parents.... If they have no objection, they allow him to tarry with her one night, in order to make his court to her. At their usual time the old couple retire to bed, leaving the young ones to settle matters as they can; who, after having sate up as long as they think proper, get into bed together also, but without putting off their undergarments, in order to prevent scandal. If the parties agree, it is all very well; the banns are published, and they are married without delay. If not, they part, and possibly never see each other again; unless, which is an accident that seldom happens, the forsaken fair one prove pregnant, and then the man is obliged to marry her, under pain of excommunication."—Travels in North America, 110, 111. Elsewhere he says that, while at first the practice may "appear to be the effects of grossness of character, it will, upon deeper research, be found to proceed from simplicity and innocence."—Ibid., 144. Cf. Adams, op. cit., 31, note; and Lodge, Short History, 438. The word "tarrying" is not always equivalent to "bundling," having a more general meaning. Nor was tarrying or bundling always restricted to one night; see Stiles, Bundling, 70, 71.