Note 394 — Chapter XII · OBLIGATORY CIVIL MARRIAGE IN THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES
Reading edition
Hutchinson, Hist. of Mass., I, 318; cf. Arnold, Hist. of Rhode Island, I, 498, 499; Green, Short Hist. of Rhode Island, 103. Trumbull, Hist. of Conn., I, 372, followed by Hollister, Hist. of Conn., I, 317, makes the following extraordinary statement: "Magistrates only were allowed to join people in the bands of wedlock. The governor (Andros) not only deprived the clergy of the perquisite from marriages, but soon superseded the laws for their support."