Note 415 — Chapter XII · OBLIGATORY CIVIL MARRIAGE IN THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES

Nourse, Hist. of the Town of Harvard, Mass., 1732-1893 (Harvard, 1894), 498, gives details as to marriage fees received and entered in his record by the local clergyman. At first John Seccomb usually had 5 shillings; later, about 1750, his fee became "one pound old tenor;" still later generally "a dollar," or "half a dollar," and once a "pistareen." From 1760 Rev. Joseph Wheely usually records "2£ 5s." During the Revolution the ordinary charge was six shillings legal money.