Note 16 — Chapter II

Some interesting documents, exhibiting the early care of the Society with regard to marriages, may bebe referred to in Letters, &c., of Early Friends, p. 259, 279, 283, &c. So early as 1659, at a meeting of Friends from four counties, an Epistle of Counsel and Advice was issued on this, and other subjects; recommending “that no marriage take place hastily or rashly; but in the fear of the Lord, and in the presence of many witnesses, according to Scripture example; that so no scandal or blemish may be laid upon the truth, but that all may be brought to the light; that a record in writing of the day, place, and year, be kept within the meeting where a marriage occurs, of which one or both are members; under which the witnesses may set their names.”