Note 9 — Chapter XVII · A CENTURY AND A QUARTER OF DIVORCE LEGISLATION IN THE UNITED STATES, 1776-1903
Reading edition
But an act of the preceding year "against adultery, polygamy, and lewdness" exempts from its penalties a person whose husband or wife has been absent seven years unheard of: Act of Feb. 17, 1785, Laws of the Com. of Mass., 1780-1816, I, 217, 218.