[Footnote 742: STREETER, _Papers Rel. to the Early History of Md._, 278, 279. This license may be compared with the bonds required by Governor Andros in New England or by the New York governors: see chaps, xii and xiv.] [Footnote 743: In the "book in the land office, entitled, _Liber_ No. 1": BOZMAN, _Hist. of Maryland_, II, 604, who gives the following example: "November 2d, 1638. This day came William Lewis, planter, and made oath, that he is not precontracted to any other woman than Ursula Gifford, and that there is no impediment of consanguinity, affinity, or any other lawful impediment to his knowledge, why he should not be married to the said Ursula Gifford; and further he acknowledgeth himself to owe unto the lord proprietor 1000 lb. tobacco in case there be any precontract or other lawful impediment whatsoever as aforesaid, either on the part of the said William Lewis or the said Ursula Gifford."] [Footnote 744: Among the thirty-six bills of the assembly of February, 1639/40, which according to Bozman were engrossed for a third reading, but not finally enacted into laws, was one giving the so-called "county court" jurisdiction in "all causes matrimonial, for as much as concerns the trial of covenants and contracts, and the punishment of faults committed against the same; and all offences of incest; attempting of another's chastity; defamation; temerarious administration; detention of legacies; clandestine marriage without banns thrice published or bond entered in the court."--BOZMAN, _op. cit._, II, 106, 128, 129. Since at this time there was but one organized county, St. Mary's, and this "county court" is made a tribunal of appeal in all civil common-law cases, the body is really the supreme provincial court, and it is given about the same jurisdiction thereafter exercised by the latter.] [Footnote 745: _Archives of Md.: Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly_, 1637-64, 97.] By the act of 1658, passed during the Fendall government, the civil ceremony is made legal. Persons desiring to be married have liberty to apply either to a magistrate or to a minister; but in all cases, under severe penalty, a certificate of the publication of banns at the county court, or in some church, chapel, or meeting, is required.[746] Banns or a license from the governor or lieutenant-general is prescribed by the act of 1662; and, as before, the ceremony may be performed by either a minister or a magistrate, but in presence of two witnesses. Otherwise the marriage is void.[747] Thus far no form of words at the nuptials had been prescribed. Therefore in 1666, by a statute which was to remain in force three years, a modification of the English ritual was adopted.[748]