Note 398 — Chapter XII · OBLIGATORY CIVIL MARRIAGE IN THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES

Note by Whitmore, Andros Tracts, II, 37. "'Tis confessed," says Increase Mather referring to this incident, "that once or twice a Debauched Priest has appeared amongst them; particularly one Vardenbosch, who, besides the good work of Baptizing a noted whore or two of his acquaintance, made private Marriages without any previous publication of Banes (which is a nusance & Bane to all humane society); and yet so tender was the government as only to give them some Orall Rebukes, upon which the guilty Knaves have run away."—Mather, "A Vindication of New England," Andros Tracts, II, 36, 37. For the passage in Sewall's Diary referred to, see 5 Mass. Hist. Coll., V, 98. There is a discussion of the first clerical marriage in New England, with reference to Vanderbosk, in Historical Magazine and Notes and Queries, VIII, 279, 348.