[Footnote 612: _Plym. Col. Rec._, V, 116.] These illustrations would seem to show that the blighted hopes and disappointed affections of New England lovers were not judicially reckoned at an extortionate figure. But those were the days of "small change" in all domestic affairs. As a matter of fact, the colonists were a close-fisted, bargaining race;[613] and in no respect perhaps were they more prudent than in their matrimonial transactions. Sometimes very careful contracts were executed in court regarding the property rights of the future husband and wife.[614] Often before betrothal and almost invariably before wedlock an exact arrangement was made between the parents touching the marriage portion on either side. The "higgling of dowries," suggests Weeden, was one of the most "singular practices" of New England life.[615] Even paupers were provided a marriage portion at the county's charge.[616] No shrewder hand at a bargain existed than Judge Sewall, whose _Diary_ and _Letter-Book_ are crowded with illustrations of this and other matrimonial customs. In 1712 we find him planning a match between his daughter Mary and young Samuel Gerrish. So he dines with the father and "discourses" with him "about my Daughter Mary's Portion. I stood for making £550 doe: because now twas in six parts, the Land was not worth so much. He urg'd for £600. at last would split the £50. Finally Feb. 20. I agreed to charge the House Rent and Difference of Money, and make it up to £600."[617] [Footnote 613: For many proofs of the niggardly economy and exceeding "nearness" of the old New Englander see BLISS, _Colonial Times on Buzzard's Bay_; WEEDEN, _Ecc. and Soc. Hist. of N. E._; and especially the _Diary_ and _Letter-Book_ of SAMUEL SEWALL.] [Footnote 614: An example is afforded by the _Plym. Col. Rec._, IV, 163, where a stipulation is entered into between a widow and a widower about to marry. By this agreement the children are to remain "att the free and proper and onely dispose of theire owne naturall parents, as they shall see good to dispose of them." The wife is to retain "all her house and land goods & cattles, that shee is now possessed of, ... to dispose of them att her owne free will." If the husband die first, she is to have "one third pte ... of his estate that hee dieth possessed of ... during her life;" while in case of her death, the husband's property is to go to his heirs, "excepting her wearing apparrell and her bed and bedding ... which shee shall and may giue att her death to whom she pleaseth." For another such marriage agreement see _MSS. Early Court Files of Suffolk_ (1671), No. 1063. In the _MSS. Records of the Superior Court of Common Pleas for Middlesex_ (1707), I, 103, is a suit to recover a gift made to a fiancée as legacy.] [Footnote 615: WEEDEN, _Ecc. and Soc. Hist. of N. E._, I, 413; _cf. ibid._, I, 420, II, 541 ff.; also EARLE, _Customs and Fashions_, 62 ff., 43 ff.]