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move out of the house; made some difficulties to accept an election sermon lest it should be an
obligation to her. the coach saying long, i made some excuse for my stay. she said she would be glad
to wait on me till midnight provided i should solicit her no more to that effect. this decision he
accepted. poor old wife seeking judge, with your hanging sleeves, your broken and drooping wings,
feebly did you still flutter around for a resting place to lay your weavy head in modesty. you
fluctuated to a new widow, madam harris, and she gave you a nutmeg as it grew, ever a true lovers
gift in shakespeares day. on january th, this letter was sent to mrs. mary gibbs, widow, at newton.
madam, your removal out of town and the severity of the weather are the season of my making you
this epistolary visit. in times past as i remember you were minded that i shouldmarry you by giving
you to your desirable bridegroom. some sense of this intended respect abides with me still and puts me

upon enquiring whether you be willing i should marry you now by becoming your husband. aged feeble
and exhausted as i am your favourable answer to this enquiry in a few lines, the candour of it will
much oblige, madam, your humble servt samuel sewall. this not too alluring loveletter brought a
favourable answer, for the judge assured her she writ incomparably well, and heaccompanied this praise
with a suitable and useful gift, a quire of paper, a good leathern ink horn, a stick of sealing wax and
wafers in a little box. he was even sharper in bargainging with widow gibbs thathe had been with other
matrimonial candidates. she had no property to leave him by will, but he astutel

y stipulated that her
children sign a contract that, should she die before him, they would pay him shethought him hard,
and so did her sons and her son in law, and so he was hard even for those timesof hard bargains and
hard marriage contracts in hard new england. he would agree to give her but a year in case of his
death. the value of wives had depreciated in his eyes since the a year widow denison. his gifts too were
not as rich as those bestowed on that yearned for widow. he had seen too many tokens go for naught.
glazed almonds, meers cakes, an orange, were good enough for so cheap a sweetheart. he remained very

stiff and peremptory about the marriage contract, the, and wrote her one very unpleasant letter about
it; and he feared lest she being so attached to her children might not be tenderto him when there soon
would be an end of the old man. at last she yeilded to his sharp bargain and they were married. he
lived eight years, so i doubt not mary was tender to him and mourned him when hedied, hard though
he was and wigless withal. we gather from the pages of judge sewalls diary manyhirts about the

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method of conducting other courtships. we discover the judge craftily and slylyinquiring whether his
daughter marys lover apparent had previously courted another boston maid; we seehim conferring with
lover gerrishs father; and after a letter from the latter we see the lover at super and drank to mary in
the third place. he called again when it was too cold to sit downstairs, and wastold he would be
wellcomm to come friday night. we read on saturday: in the evening sam gerrish comes not; we expected
him; mary dressed herself; it was a painfull disgracefull disapointment. a monthlater the recreant lover
reappeared and finally married poor disappointed mary, who died very complaisantly in a short time
and left him free to marry his first love, which he quickly did. we find the judge after his daughter
death higgling over her marriage portion with gerrish, sr., and see that grief for her did not prevent
him from showing as mush shrewdness in that matter as he had displayed in his own courtships. timid
betty sewall was as much harrassed in love as in religion. we find her father,when she was but
seventeen years old, making frequent investigation about the estate of one captain tuthill, a prospective

suitor who had visited betty and wished to speak with her. the judge had his hesitating daughter read
aloud to him of the mating of adam and eve, as a soothing and alluring preparation for the thought
of matrimony, with, however, this most unexpected result: at night capt. tuthillcomes to speak with
betty, who hid herself all alone in the coach for several hours till he was gone, so that we sought her
at several houses, till at last came in of herself and looked very wild. this action of pure maidenly terror
elicited sympathy even in the judges match making heart, and he told the lover he was willing to know
his daughters mind better. this was on january th, ten days later we find wild e

yed betty going out of