Chapter 5

So after all that has been said of the practice of bundling in our country, by foreign writers, travelers, and reviewers--after all the reproach that has been heaped upon us, now that we are able to get at the plain truth, it appears to be, though certainly a bad practice, not half so bad as the junketing and sitting up courtships that are known elsewhere. Nay, more. Though in the present state of society it is a practice that should be utterly discountenanced everywhere, still it would seem to have grown up out of the peculiar circumstances of our first settlers; to be confined _now_ to remote and small districts (for I have heard of only three instances, after all my inquiry); and to be rapidly going out of practice. Yet more; there can be no bad intentions, there can be no evil consequences, where respectable and modest women are not ashamed to acknowledge that they bundle. I am anxious to know the truth for the purpose of correcting both the _misrepresentations_ that are abroad, and the _practices_ that prevail here. Bundling, however, is known in other countries, where they have less excuse, and in Wales where they do _not_ bundle, as I have said before, it is no reproach for a woman to have had a child before marriage. It was so in Russia after Catharine established her lying-in hospitals.

In the next number of _The Yankee_ (August 20th) there is the following editorial paragraph:

BUNDLING.

There is a great outcry just now about the paper on bundling which was in the last _Yankee_. Now this very outcry proves the want of the very paper alluded to. The article is about bundling; and people who imagine bundling to be what it is not, a highly improper and unchaste familiarity, are offended with it; but the very purpose of that paper is to show that bundling is not what it is believed to be, that it is neither so common nor so bad, not a fiftieth part so bad as people have imagined.

APPENDIX II.

That the customs of courtship in many parts of the United Kingdom at the present day, are precisely what they were in some parts of New England, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, fifty years ago, is evident from the revelations of the _Royal Commission on the Marriage Laws_, in the year 1868. Dr. Strahan, a physician and surgeon, who for nearly forty years has practiced in the Scottish county of Stirling, testifies before the commission, that his attention was first drawn to the subject in consequence of observing the very great extent of immorality among the working classes, not only as evidenced by the large number of illegitimate children, but also by the still larger number of marriages after the woman was with child; and the number of children born within eight months of wedlock. He found, to his astonishment, that among the working classes (i.e., the agricultural laborers), nine out of ten women, when married, either had had illegitimate children, or were pregnant at the time of marriage. "I have," he says, "a large midwifery practice, and I very rarely attend a woman with her first child, where the child is not born within a few months of wedlock, or else she has had an illegitimate child before." He believes it is very common for women to allow themselves to be seduced in the hope of being married. They go on until they are _enceinte_, and then, if the young man is at all a decent fellow, the friends interfere and the marriage is hurried on. The sketch which Dr. Strahan supplies of Scotch courtships, explains all this part of his observation. Young men and women meet together at night, and the ordinary time is the middle of the night, when every one else is in bed. "It is universal," says Dr. Strahan to the commission, "among the working classes, to have this manner of courtship of which I speak; there is no other courtship, in any other form; the fathers and mothers will not allow their daughters to meet a young man in the day-time; the young man never visits the family, but the parents quite allow this; they have done it themselves before, and there is no objection to it. The young man comes, makes a noise at the window; the young woman goes out, they go to some outhouse; or perhaps the young man is admitted to the young woman's bedroom after all are in bed, and there is an hour or two of what is called courtship, but which would more properly be called flirtation, because it is not necessary that there should be any engagement to marry in these cases."

Lord Lyveden inquired: "Do these meetings take place at particular periods, such as harvest time, or is it over the whole of the year?"

_Answer_: "The whole of the year; very commonly the young man visits the young woman once a week."

Lord Chelmsford said: "In England that would be called _keeping company_. It is a very extraordinary way of keeping company when the parents allow their daughter to go out with the young man at midnight, or the young man to come into her bedroom."

_Answer_: "Yes; the parents know no other way of doing it. I have reasoned with the parents often when attending a case of illegitimate birth, pointing out to the parents how it is they have been led on, but they cannot imagine any other way of doing it; their daughters must have husbands, and there is no other way of courting."

Mr. Justice O'Hagan asking--"Does it prevail generally in Scotland?" was answered--"Universally among the agricultural laborers."

In reply to an inquiry by Mr. Dunlop, whether these young men lived under any kind of supervision and knowledge of their masters, or whether they could go out and in as they pleased, Dr. Strahan stated that "plowmen, for instance, very often live in _bothies_, or in the farm house; they get out after all are in bed, out of the window; or, if they live in a bothie, without any trouble. They go to the neighboring farm-house, they knock at the window, the girl comes to the window, and, if she know the young man--or, after a little parley, if she does not know him--she either comes out and goes with him to an outhouse, or he comes into her bedroom. You must remember that they have no other means of intercourse."

"That is the point you press so much?"

"Yes; a young woman cannot see either a sweetheart or an acquaintance in any other way. I believe if it was not for fear of being out at night, the girls would visit one another in the same way; they have no other means of visiting; the customs of the country are such that a young man could not be seen going in day-light to visit his sweetheart."

Mr. Justice O'Hagan: "If the father knew that the young man was coming into the house, and knew that he was with his daughter, would he not interfere?"

"He would lie comfortably in his bed, knowing that his daughter was in an out-house or barn with a young man, for perhaps two hours; shutting his eyes to it in the same way that a person in the higher ranks would shut his eyes to his daughter going out for a walk with a young man."

Dr. Strahan said also: "When you come to the middle class a young man would not marry a girl that had had a child to another man; and very probably he would not marry a girl that had had a child to himself; but in the lower classes it is not so; it is almost universal to marry a woman that has had a child, or that is with child to himself; but it is very frequent to marry a woman that has had a child to another man; the only objection is the burden of the child; the burden of the child might be an obstacle, but the disgrace would be none."

"Is it supposed," asked a commissioner, "that the woman, by marrying this other man, wipes off her disgrace with the former?"

"Yes; but it is so common that the disgrace is not so much as to prevent the young man marrying her."

The attorney-general: "It is hardly within our inquiry, but still it is interesting to know; can you tell me whether, in these cases, where the woman marries a man who is not the father of her child, any confusion, as to the parent of the previously born child, arises? Are they apt in law, to pass as the children of the subsequent husband?"

"No, I do not think so."

"The distinction is always kept up?"

"The distinction is always kept up; very often the illegitimate child goes by his own father's name, even among the other children; and I do not think there is apt to be any confusion of that kind."

Still, it seems that, in severely Calvinistic Scotia, the church does not wholly wink at this state of things. The sinning couple, after marriage, have to go through a certain whitewashing at church before they are admitted to what are called church privileges. They have to go before a kirk session, consisting of the minister and perhaps half a dozen elders, when they are _admonished_. If the parties are married, they appear but once; if not married, generally three times. They tender themselves for rebuke without invitation, as without it the child cannot be baptized, or admission given to the sacrament. They apply to the minister in private, and confess their fault, and he causes them to be summoned before the church session.

INDEX. African tribes, courtship among, 42 America, English misrepresentation of, 62. America, bundling in, 44 inherits bundling from Holland, 45. bundling not peculiar to, 13. bundling universal in 1750, 106.

Ballads against bundling, 81, 100. in favor of bundling, 88, 93. Brychan, a cloth, 23. Bundling, antiquity of, 14. Bundling, abuse of, in New England, 75. ballads on, 81, 88, 93, 100. ceased with eighteenth century, 106, confined to the lower classes, 107. Bundling, described by Lt. Anbury in 1777, 66. definition of, 13. decision of N. Y. Supreme Court on, 111. effect of, 75. in America, 44. in British isles, 14, 22. in Cape Cod, 110. in Holland, 35. Bundling in Maine about 1828, 117. in New England States, 48. in Wales, 23, 115. introduced in America from Holland, 45. mentioned by Rev. Sam'l Peters, 51. mentioned by Washington Irving, 49. mentioned by Dr. A. Burnaby, 1759, 58. mentioned by Sir Walter Scott, 20. not peculiar to America, 13. Bundling originating in poverty in Scotland and Ireland, 23. origin of, 14. originally confined to the lower classes in America, 65. practiced in Pennsylvania till late years, 109. preached against, 54. recollections of by old persons, 106. Bundling regarded as a serious evil, 106. sanctioned by parents, 69. sermon against, 77. two forms of, 13. universal now in lower classes of Scotland, 130. universal in America in 1750, 106. -up, in Wales, 42.

Cape Cod, bundling practiced there in 1827, 110. Central Asia, courtship in, 42. Confession in public necessary for baptism of children, 76. Courtship, customs of, in Great Britain, 127. Courtship among Welsh peasantry, 29. in Central Asia, 42. in the 14th century, 37. among N. A. Indians, 40. in Switzerland, 38. Cuckold, no word in Gaelic for, 21. Customs of courtship, different in the cantons of Switzerland, 39.

Dayaks of Borneo, courtship of, 42. Dorfen, in Switzerland, 39.

Empress Cartismandua, 21. Julia, 20. Epilogue on bundling at Westminster school, 1815, 61.

Free-bench, 22. French war, demoralizing influence of, 74.

Germans, respect of, for women, 21. Gordon, Sir Robert, 19. Sir Adam, 19. Great Britain, bundling common at the present day in, 126. Great Britain, immorality of lower classes in, 127. Gwent, a district in Wales, 34. Gwentian Code of Wales, 34.

Hand-fasting, a Scotch custom, 17, 19. common among all classes, 20. Highland law of marriage, 16. Highlanders, curious custom of the, 17. Holland, bundling in, 35, 36.

Illegitimacy not considered a disgrace in Scotland, 131.

Kiltgang in canton of Lucerne. 39. Kweesten, a Dutch custom, 36.

La Hontan, Indian custom described by, 41. Lichtgetren, in Switzerland, 39. Love and courtship in the 14th century, 37.

Maine, bundling in, 1828, 118. Marriage laws of Great Britain, royal commission on, 127. Marriage, Welsh laws relating to, 24.

Namzat bezé, an African custom, 42. Natural children legitimatized in Scotland, 18. New bundling song, a, 81. New England, bundling in, 48. New song in favor of courting, a, 88. New York Supreme Court on bundling, 111. N. Am. Indians, chastity of, 41-52. courtship among, 41.

Pennsylvania, bundling in, 109. Poem against bundling, a, 100. Polygamy among ancient nations, 15. in Great Britain, 15. Prostitutes, punishment of in Scotland and Germany, 21. Public confession of unlawful cohabitation made in New England, 75. records of, 75.

Quest, definition of and origin, 35. Queesting, 35.

Royal commission on marriage laws of Great Britain, 127.

Savage nations, amatory customs of, 40. Scotland, courtship of, 128. conjugal infidelity in, 17. admonition by church of, 133. Scotch and Irish moral character, 22. Scott, Walter, mention of bundling by, 20. Stubetegetren in Switzerland, 39. Sutherland, son of a hand-fast marriage claims earldom of, 19. Switzerland, courtship in, 38.

Tarrying, common in England, 64. in New England, 70. Texel, bundling in the island of, 36.

United States, bundling in the, 44.

Vlie and Wieringen, bundling practiced in islands of, 35.

Wales, bundling in, 23. described by Bingley, 28; by Barbor, 30; by Carr, 32; by Pratt, 25. chastity in, 115. Welsh laws relating to marriage, 24. Whore on the snow crust, the, 93. Wieringen, see Vlie. Wynet-werth, a Welsh term, 35.

FOOTNOTES.

[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.