Note 441 — Chapter XII · OBLIGATORY CIVIL MARRIAGE IN THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES

This practice may be illustrated by the following anecdote concerning the marriage of Ruth Wilkinson and William Hopkins at Providence, related by Mr. C. C. Beaman in Hist. Coll. Essex Inst., II, 116: "The lovers could not muster courage enough to speak to the 'awful Justice,' for Mr. Wilkinson (Ruth's father) held that office so dignified in former days. In the house or office it was the custom to post up 'Intentions of Marriage.' The timid lovers, who had often looked with an envious or emulous eye upon such important steps preliminary to a 'consumation devoutly to be wished,' wrote a notice of their 'intentions,' and placing it unobserved upon the table of the 'Justice,' watched to see how it would be regarded. 'Squire Wilkinson, as they saw by a peep through the door, took up the paper, read it, and deliberately posted it up in the proper location. There were some blushes on the cheeks of Ruth that day, probably, but the desired approbation thus ingeniously obtained soon led on to marriage."