Note 1197 — Chapter XVI · A CENTURY AND A QUARTER OF MARRIAGE LEGISLATION IN THE UNITED STATES, 1776-1903
Reading edition
It was retained in Vermont until 1864: Gen. Stat. (2d ed., 1870), 856. Cf. the acts of 1779 and 1784 in Slade, State Papers, 292, 484; and Laws of the State (1798), 380, 331; and in Maine until after 1858: compare Laws of the State (1821), I, 340 ff.; Rev. Stat. (1857), 390; Acts and Resolves (1858), 12 (new system introduced). A reactionary step was taken in the Rhode Island law of Jan., 1849. Hitherto the optional plan had prevailed; by this act, in all cases, solemnization is allowed only after at least one notice in a religious meeting: see Public Laws, 1848-1851, 757. The Pub. Laws (1844), 267, show the optional plan in force; but it does not appear in Rev. Stat. (1857), 312, 313, a certificate of qualification presented by the parties to the person conducting the ceremony taking its place.
The following is the form of notice required to be posted for fourteen days, when application is made to a lay officer—justice, warden, and later a judge—as given in the Pub. Laws of R. I. (1798), 481, 482:
"Know all men by these presents, that A. B. of —— and C. D. of —— have declared unto me their intentions of marriage.... I do therefore hereby make public the said intentions. If any person know any just cause or impediment why these persons shall not be joined together in marriage, they may declare the same as the law directs. Given under my hand and seal, at ——, this —— day of ——."