Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Whirlwind courtship.

Married on the 12th, inst., by the parties themselves, the Rev. J. D. Maxson, and Miss Elizabeth Maxson, after a long a tedious courtship of about one hour.
"Marshall County Illinois Marriages." Extracted from the Henry Courier, 12/18/1857.

4 comments:

Francis W. Porretto said...

So they courted for an hour? Well, how long were they affianced?

Col. B. Bunny said...

If one of both of the parties affianced himself or herself, they bound themselves to marry from that point forward. Thus, courtship would be superfluous to the consummation of the bond given. If the parents affianced their children that assumes the legal right to do so and, again, courtship would be superfluous. If they affianced themselves after courtship began and necessarily before the actual ceremony, it appears the period of affianciation was somewhere in the neighborhood of 59 minutes or less, assuming it is possible to court someone in something like one minute.

I hope that clears everything up.

rickl said...

Was there a shotgun involved?

Col. B. Bunny said...

That would have made it an exciting courtship.