Colonial days in old New York / Alice Morse Earle.

  • Earle, Alice Morse, 1851-1911.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Colonial days in old New York / Alice Morse Earle. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and mollification, the pocket-handkerchief which was her husband’s wedding-gift to her. Two years later, Elsje (already a widow) appeared as plaintiff in a breach-of-promise suit; and offered, as proof of her troth- plight, a shilling-piece which was her second lover’s not more magnificent gift. Though not so stated in the chronicle, this handker- chief was doubtless given in a “ marriage- knot,”— a handkerchief in which was tied a gift of money. If the girl to whom it was given untied the knot, it was a sign of con- sent to be speedily married. This fashion of marriage-knots still exists in parts of Holland. Sometimes the knot bears a motto; one reads when translated, “ Being in love does no harm if love finds its recompense in love; but if love has ceased, all labor is in vain. Praise God.” Though second and third marriages were common enough among the early settlers of New Netherland, I find that usually attempts at restraint of the wife were made through wills ordering sequent loss of property if she married again. Nearly all the wills are more favorable to the children than to the wife. Old Cornelius Van Catts, of Bushwick, who