Note 386 — Chapter XII · OBLIGATORY CIVIL MARRIAGE IN THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES

At a "County Court at Charlestown," June 25, 1658, "Mr. Richard Russell at the request of the freemen of Charlestown is empowered to solemnize marriages and to take oaths in civil cases."—MSS. Records of the County Court of Middlesex, I, 133. See also Mass. Col. Rec., IV, Part I, 255 (1656), 322 (1658). The "associates," who sat with the "magistrates" to compose the county court, were often commanded to join persons in marriage: ibid., V, 139, 145, 101.