[1] _Cæsar_ says, that several brothers, or a father and his sons, would
have but one wife among them. _Solinus_, indeed, says that the women in
Thule were common, the king having a free choice; and _Dio_ says the
Caledonians had wives in common; yet these assertions may well be
disputed. _Strabo_ describes the Irish as extremely gross in this
matter; _O'Conner_ says polygamy was permitted; and _Derrick_ tells us
they exchanged wives once or twice a year; while _Campion_ says they
only married for a year and a day, sending their wives home again for
any slight offense.--_Logan's Scottish Gael_, 5th Am. ed., p. 472.
[2] _A History of the Highlands, and of the Highland Clans_, etc. (Jas.
Browne, LL.D., Advocate, 4 vols. London, 1853), IV, 398.
"The law of marriage observed in the Highlands has frequently been as
little understood as that of succession, and similar misconceptions have
prevailed regarding it. This was, perhaps, to be expected. In a country
where a bastard son was often found in undisturbed possession of the
chiefship or property of a clan, and where such bastard generally
received the support of the clansmen against the claims of the feudal
heir, it was natural to suppose that very loose notions of succession
were entertained by the people; that legitimacy conferred no exclusive
rights; and that the title founded on birth alone might be set aside in
favor of one having no other claim than that of election. But this,
although a plausible, would nevertheless be an erroneous supposition.
The person here considered as a bastard, and described as such, was by
no means viewed in the same light by the Highlanders, because, according
to their law of marriage, which was originally very different from the
feudal system in this matter, his claim to legitimacy was as undoubted
as that of the feudal heir afterward became. It is well known that the
notions of the Highlanders were peculiarly strict in regard to matters
of hereditary succession, and that no people on earth was less likely to
sanction any flagrant deviation from what they believed to be the right
and true line of descent. All their peculiar habits, feelings and
prejudices were in direct opposition to a practice which, had it been
really acted upon, must have introduced endless disorder and confusion,
and hence the natural explanation of this apparent anomaly seems to be,
what Mr. Skene has stated, namely, that a person who was feudally a
bastard might in their view be considered as legitimate, and therefore
entitled to be supported in accordance with their strict ideas of
hereditary right, and their habitual tenacity of whatever belonged to
their ancient usages. Nor is this mere conjecture or hypothesis. A
singular custom regarding marriage, retained till a late period amongst
the Highlanders, and clearly indicating that their law of marriage
originally differed in some essential points from that established under
the feudal system, seems to afford a simple and natural explanation of
the difficulty by which genealogists have been so much puzzled.
"This custom was termed _hand-fasting_, and consisted in a species of
contract between two chiefs, by which it was agreed that the heir of one
should live with the daughter of the other as her husband for twelve
months and a day. If, in that time, the lady became a mother, or proved
to be with child the marriage became good in law, even although no
priest had performed the marriage ceremony in due form; but should there
not have occurred any appearance of issue, the contract was considered
at an end, and each party was at liberty to marry or hand-fast with any
other. It is manifest that the practice of so peculiar a species of
marriage must have been in terms of original law among the Highlanders,
otherwise it would be difficult to conceive how such a custom could have
originated, and it is in fact one which seems naturally to have arisen
from the form of their society, which rendered it a matter of such vital
importance to secure the lineal succession of their chiefs. It is
perhaps not improbable that it was this peculiar custom which gave rise
to the report handed down by the Roman and other historians, that the
ancient inhabitants of Great Britain had their wives in common, or that
it was the foundation of that law of Scotland by which natural children
became legitimatized by subsequent marriage.[3] And as this custom
remained in the Highlands until a very late period, the sanction of
ancient custom was sufficient to induce them to persist in regarding the
offspring of such marriages as legitimate."[4]
It appears, indeed, that as late as the sixteenth century, the issue of
a hand-fast marriage claimed the earldom of Sutherland. The claimant,
according to Sir Robert Gordon, described himself as one lawfully
descended from his father, John, the third earl, because, as he alleged,
"his mother was _hand-fasted_ and fianced to his father;" and his claim
was bought off (which shows that it was not considered as altogether
incapable of being maintained) by Sir Adam Gordon, who had married the
heiress of Earl John. Such, then, was the nature of the peculiar and
temporary connection which gave rise to the apparent anomalies which we
have been considering. It was a custom which had for its object, not to
interrupt but to preserve the lineal succession of the chiefs, and to
obviate the very evil of which it is conceived to afford a glaring
example. But after the introduction of the feudal law, which, in this
respect, was directly opposed to the ancient Highland law, the lineal
and legitimate heir, according to Highland principles, came to be
regarded as a bastard by the government, which accordingly considered
him as thereby incapacitated for succeeding to the honors and property
of his race; and hence originated many of those disputes concerning
succession and chiefship, which embroiled families with one another, as
well as with the government, and were productive of incredible disorder,
mischief and bloodshed. No allowance was made for the ancient usages of
the people, which were probably but ill understood; and the rights of
rival claimants were decided according to the principles of a foreign
system of law, which was long resisted, and never admitted except from
necessity. It is to be observed, however, that the Highlanders
themselves drew a broad distinction between bastard sons and the issue
of the hand-fast unions above described. The former were rigorously
excluded from every sort of succession, but the latter were considered
as legitimate as the offspring of the most regularly solemnized
marriage.
This practice obtained not only among chiefs, but common people.
Walter Scott, in the XXV chapter of the _Monastery_, in a note, says:
"This custom of hand-fasting actually prevailed in the upland days. It
arose partly from the want of priests. While the convents subsisted,
monks were detached on regular circuits through the wilder districts, to
marry those who had lived in this species of connexion. A practice of
the same kind existed in the Isle of Portland."
[3] This is a mistake in point of law. The principle of legitimation by
subsequent marriage, was first explicitly announced in an imperial
constitution of Constantine, and being wisely recognized by the church,
it was adopted by the canonists, through whom it passed into our law.
The attempt to introduce it into England failed, in consequence of the
attachment of the people to their ancient Saxon constitutions; and
hence, although it was recognized in the statutes of Merton, it was
subsequently discarded, and never afterwards found admission into the
municipal system of the neighboring kingdom. There can be no doubt
whatever that the principle is one which reason, morality and religion
must equally approve.
[4] Skene's _Highlanders of Scotland_, vol. I, chap. vii, 166, 167.
[5] In _Scottish Ballads and Songs_, by James Maidment, Edinburgh,
MDCCCLIX, under the title of _Luckidad's Garland_, p. 134, is a
remarkable picture of the old and new times in Scotland, eighty or
ninety years ago, three of the twenty-four verses of which the ballad is
composed, being descriptive of something akin to _bundling_. In a London
edition of _Hudibras_, also, published in 1811, is a note to line 913,
of Part I, Canto I. As both of these extracts, however, are somewhat too
_broad_ for our pages, we content ourselves with simply referring
thereto. In the same category, also, is the definition, in _Bailey's Old
English Dictionary_, of the term _free bench_, as prevailing in the
manors of East and West Embourn, Chaddleworth in the county of Berks,
Tor in Devonshire, and other places of the west.
[6] _History of Wales_ (by B. B. Woodward, B.A., London, 1853), p. 320;
who adds, also, p. 186, the following:
"The laws which treat of the violation of the marriage bond and those
which relate to chastity generally, recognize a degree of laxity
respecting female honor, and, yet more remarkably, an absence of
feminine delicacy, such as could scarcely be paralleled amongst the most
uncivilized people now. They are of such a nature, that though most
characteristic, they must be passed by with this general mention. The
distinction between the Celtic and Teutonic races is perhaps in no case
more plainly marked than in this: The Anglo-Saxon laws on this subject
(always excepting those of the _ecclesiastical_ authorities) are modesty
itself, notwithstanding their plain speaking, compared with those of the
Welsh legislators."
[7] _Gleanings through Wales, Holland, and Westphalia_, etc. (3d
edition, by Mr. Pratt, London, 1797), I, pp. 105-107.
[8] _North Wales, including its Scenery, Antiquities, Customs_, etc. (by
Rev. W. W. Bingley, A.M., 2 vols., 8vo, London, 1804), II, p. 282.
[9] _A Tour throughout North Wales and Monmouthshire_, etc., etc. (by
J. T. Barbor, F.S.A., London, 1803), pp. 103-9.
[10] _The Stranger in Ireland_, by John Carr.
[11] "On his way to Ireland he passed through Wales, and gives us a
slight sketch of the character of that people and country. _It must
afford no small gratification to a New England man to learn that the
practice of_ BUNDLING _is not peculiar to us, but that this pleasing
though dangerous art was probably imported from abroad_."--A review of
_The Stranger in Ireland_, in _Connecticut Courant_ for November 19th,
1806.
[12] In this connection we may give the following extract from _Ancient
Laws and Institutes of Wales_, etc., etc., printed by command of his
late Majesty King William IV, under the direction of the commissioners
on the Public Records of the Kingdom. MDCCCXLI. Folio. From page
369.--The Gwentian[13] Code.
"A woman of full age who goes with a man clandestinely, and taken by him
to bush, or brake, or house, and after connection deserted; upon
complaint made by her to her kindred, and to the courts, is to receive,
for her chastity, a bull of three winters, having its tail well shaven
and greased and then thrust through the door-clate; and then let the
woman go into the house, the bull being outside, and let her plant her
foot on the threshold, and let her take his tail in her hand, and let a
man come on each side of the bull; and if she can hold the bull, let her
take it for her _wynet-werth_[14] and her chastity; and, if not, let her
take what grease may adhere to her hands."
[13] _Gwent_, the appellation of the district in Wales inhabited by the
Silures, comprised the diocese of Landav.
[14] This word means _face shame_ or _face worth_.
[15] A good honest word, which although not exactly English, is at least
first cousin to our _quest_, and _quiz_, etc.
Worcester gives the following: "†Quēse, _v. a._, to search after.
_Milton_." [obsolete ē long, s like z.] Quĕst, _v. n._, to join search.
_B. Jonson_. †Quĕster, _n._, a seeker. _Rowe_.
Is it not allowable to derive from one of these words Quēsing, or
Quĕsting, pronounced Qweesting, and from the other Quĕsting [è short]?
So that he who went _queesting_ was simply _searching after_ a wife,
understood.
[16] These are two very small islands at the opening of the Zuider zee.
[17] From _The Student and Intellectual Observer_, London, November
number, 1868, p. 310, in article by Thomas Wright, F.S.A. Chapter
vii--_Womankind in all Ages of Western Europe_, etc.
[18] _Cottages of the Alps_ (London, 1860), pages 77, 91, 132.
[19] _New Voyage to North America, giving a full Account of the Customs,
Commerce, Religion and Strange Opinions of the Savages of that Country_,
etc., etc. Written by Baron Lahontan, Lord Lieutenant of the French
Colony at _Placentia_, in Newfoundland, now in England. London, 1703.
In describing the amatory customs of the Indians of this country, the
author says (Vol. II, p. 37):
"You must know further, that Two Hours after Sunset the Old
Supperannuated Persons, or Slaves (who never lie in their Masters' Huts)
take care to cover up the Fire before they go. 'Tis then that the Young
Savage comes well wrapt up to his Mistress's Hut, and lights a sort of a
Match at the Fire; after which he opens the Door of his Mistress's
Apartment and makes up to her bed: If she blows out the light, he lies
down by her; but if she pulls her Covering over her Face, he retires;
that being a Sign that she will not receive him."
[20] Verily, Peters's sarcasm savors as much of truth as humor when,
speaking of bundling, he says: "The Indians who had this method of
courtship among them in 1634, are the most chaste set of people in the
world. Concubinage and fornication are vices none of them are addicted
to, except such as forsake the laws of Hobbamockon and turn Christians.
The savages have taken many female prisoners, carried them back three
hundred miles into their country, and kept them several years, and yet
not a single instance of their violating the laws of chastity has ever
been known. This cannot be said of the French, or of the English,
whenever Indian or other women have fallen into their hands."
[21] "Great jealousy did they likewise stir up by their intermeddling
and successes among the divine sex; for being a race of brisk, likely,
pleasant tongued varlets, they soon seduced the light affections of the
simple lasses from their ponderous Dutch gallants. Among other hideous
customs, they attempted to introduce among them that of _bundling_,
which the Dutch lasses of the Nederlandts, with that eager passion for
novelty and foreign fashions natural to their sex, seemed very well
inclined to follow, but that their mothers, being more experienced in
the world, and better acquainted with men and things, strenuously
discountenanced all such outlandish innovations."
[22] By Washington Irving, p. 211. 4th Am. edition.
[23] Dr. Andrew Burnaby. _Travels through the Middle Settlements in
North America, in the years 1759 and '60_. London, 1775.
[24] _The Portfolio_ (Philadelphia, May 1816), p. 397.
[25] _Terences Plays_ were preferred to those of Plautus, for this
purpose, inasmuch as the latter were more obscure, and abounded in
obsoletisms, and therefore Terence was preferred in England as the
text-book for schools.
[26] Ireland.
[27] _The Reviewers Reviewed, or British Falsehoods detected by American
Truths_ (New York, published by R. McDermot and D. D. Arden, No. 1, City
Hotel, Broadway, 1815, 12mo, 72), pp. 34, 35.
[28] The Right Honorable Sir George Canning, the editor of the _London
Quarterly Review_.
[29] _Travels through the Interior Parts of America; in a Series of
Letters_ (by an officer; a new edition, London, 1781, 8vo), vol. II, pp.
37-40.
[30] _Anbury's Travels_, pp. 87, 88.
[31] _History and Genealogies of Ancient Windsor, Conn.,_ p. 495.
[32] The Rev. Alonzo B. Chapin, in his _History of Ancient Glastenbury,
Conn._ (p. 80), says that the church records, during the pastorate of
the Rev. John Eels [1759-1791], "compel us to believe that the influence
of the French war had been as unfavorable to morals as destructive to
life; and that the absurd practice of _bundling_ prevalent in those
days, was not infrequently attended with the consequences that might
have been expected, and that both together, aided by a previous growing
laxity of morals, and accelerated by many concurrent causes, had rolled
a tide of immorality over the land, which not even the bulwark of the
church had been able to withstand. The church records of the first
society, from 1760 to 1790, raise presumptions of the strongest kind,
that then, as since, _incontinence_ and _intemperance_ were among the
sins of the people. What the condition of things in Eastbury [an
ecclesiastical society in the east part of Glastenbury] was, we have no
means of knowing, _as that portion of the church records which treats of
this point, was long ago_ carefully _removed_. [N.B. Italics are our
own.] There is no reason, however, to suppose that this state of thing's
was peculiar to Glastenbury, for there is too much evidence that it
prevailed throughout the country."
Mr. Chapin's deductions from the revelations of the Glastenbury records,
will be fully justified by the experience and observation of every
antiquarian who has had occasion to _dig deep_ among the civil and
ecclesiastical records of almost any one of the older towns of New
England. We have before us, while writing, a copy, made some years
since, by ourselves, of the records of the first church of Woodstock,
Conn., covering the period from 1727 to 1777, in which are a large
number of entries, mostly the names of parties who made _confessions_ of
this sort before that church. These cases occur most frequently between
the years 1737 and 1770. Our own observation among the records of the
old churches in Windsor and East Windsor, is, in effect, the same, and
we have occasionally happened upon the original manuscript confessions
of individuals read to the church before they were formally admitted to
its communion.
[33] _History of Dedham, Mass_, (by Erastus Worthington, 1827), page
108. Under ministry of Rev. Jason Haven, ordained February 6, 1756.
"Revolutionary times having produced a disposition to investigate all
the former principles and opinions of men, in politics and church
government, Mr. Haven caused the mode of admission into the church to be
altered. This was done in 1793. The new method required the candidate to
be propounded to the congregation by the minister. If no objections
within fourteen days were made, he was then of course admitted. At the
same time the church covenant and creed was altered, and made very
general in its expressions. This creed had so few articles, that all
persons professing and calling themselves Christians, would assent to it
without any objections. The church had ever in this place required of
its members guilty of unlawful cohabitation before marriage, a public
confession of that crime before the whole congregation. The offending
female stood in the broad aisle beside the partner of her guilt. If they
had been married, the declaration of the man was silently assented to by
the woman. This had always been a delicate and difficult subject for
church discipline. The public confession, if it operated as a
corrective, likewise produced merriment with the profane. I have seen no
instance of a public confession for this fault, until the ministry of
Mr. Dexter [1724-1755], and then they were extremely rare. In 1781 the
church gave the confessing parties the privilege of making a private
confession to the church, in the room of a public confession. In Mr.
Havens ministry, the number of cases of unlawful cohabitation increased
to an alarming degree. For twenty-five years before 1781, twenty-five
cases had been publicly acknowledged before the congregation, and
fourteen cases within the last ten years. This brought out the minister
to preach on the subject from the pulpit. Mr. Haven, in a long and
memorable discourse, sought out the cause of the growing sin, and
suggested the proper remedy. He attributed the frequent recurrence of
the fault to the custom then prevalent, of females admitting young men
to their beds, who sought their company with intentions of marriage. And
he exhorted all to abandon that custom, and no longer expose themselves
to temptations which so many were found unable to resist.
"The immediate effect of this discourse on the congregation has been
described to me, and was such as we must naturally suppose it would be.
A grave man, the beloved and revered pastor of the congregation, comes
out suddenly on his audience, and discusses a subject on which mirth and
merriment only had been heard, and denounces a favorite custom. The
females blushed and hung down their heads. The men, too, hung down their
heads, and now and then looked out from under their fallen eyebrows, to
observe how others supported the attack. If the outward appearance of
the assembly was somewhat composed, there was a violent internal
agitation in many minds. And now, when forty-five years have expired,
the persons who were present at the delivery of that sermon, express its
effects by saying: 'How queerly I felt!' 'What a time it was!' 'This was
close preaching indeed!' The custom was abandoned. The sexes learned to
cultivate the proper degree of delicacy in their intercourse, and
instances of unlawful cohabitation in this town since that time have
been extremely rare."
[34] _Butler's History of Groton_ (Pepperell & Shirley), page 174. At a
church meeting, Feb. 29, 1739-40, the subject of compelling persons to
confess themselves guilty of an offense, of which they said, "if not
absolutely, yet next to impossible to convict them," was acted upon, and
some relaxation made in the rule before adopted; but a part of the
record is so worn as to be illegible.
Page 177. June 1, 1761. "The church also at this meeting, voted in
relation to the confession necessary to be made by parents, to entitle
their children to the rite of baptism, who might be supposed to have
committed the offence of which, in Mr. Trowbridge's time, they supposed
that, 'if not absolutely, yet next to impossible to convict them,' not
materially varying from a _seven-months_ rule heretofore adopted. These
regulations were signed by the moderator, and assented to by the pastor
elect."
Page 181. "During Mr. Dana's ministry [1761-1775] 124 persons (38 males,
86 females) were admitted to the church in full communion; 200 (77
males, 123 females) owned the baptismal covenant. Of the first class, 14
confessed having committed the offence aforementioned, and of the last
class, 66, a proportion not indicative of good customs and morals."
[35] A typographical mistake for _unruly_.
[36] But this was as late as 1785 to 1790, when the custom was very near
its end.
[37] Another, when in his 96th year, in speaking of his knowledge of the
custom, after answering all inquiries, voluntarily mentioned his own
personal experience. "In my younger days," said he, and his voice
trembled, more from emotion then age, "I was on the bed with as many as
five or six young women, but I thank God, that in all my long life I
have never had carnal knowledge of any but my lawfully wedded wives."
[38] A physician who kept school _on the Cape_ many years ago, says
(June, 1869): "It is forty years since I was engaged on the Cape in
teaching school, and a friend of mine then related to me some of his
experience in a long career of courtship which included _bundling_. The
family left the happy couple alone. After sitting up till nine or ten
o'clock, the lady secures the fire, takes a light and retires, saying,
you know the way up stairs, turn to the right, etc. At a proper time he
follows, finding her nicely snuggled under the bed clothes, having
previously put on a very appropriate and secure night dress, made
neither like a bloomer or mantilla, but something like a common dress,
excepting the lower part, which is furnished with legs, like drawers,
properly attached. The dress is drawn at the neck and waist with strings
tied with a very strong knot, and over this is put the ordinary
apparel."
[39] _Caines' Cases_, II, 219; Seger _vs_. Slingerland.
[40] In reply to a query addressed to Mr. Neal, who is still living at
Portland, Maine, as to whether this letter was a _bona fide_
communication, that gentleman says: "It was an actual communication from
a correspondent. Who that correspondent was, I never knew, but I never
entertained a doubt, and, in fact, find such internal evidence of good
faith, that I should never question the facts set forth."
[41] Sandy River is near Farmington, Franklin county, Maine.