_a_) The Views of Milton 85-92 _b_) Void and Voidable Contracts 92-102 _c_) Parliamentary Divorce 102-109 _d_) The Present English Law 109-117 PART III MATRIMONIAL INSTITUTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES CHAPTER XII. OBLIGATORY CIVIL MARRIAGE IN THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES 121-226 I. The Magistrate Supersedes the Priest at the Nuptials 125-143 II. Banns, Consent, and Registration 143-151 III. Courtship, Proposals, and Government of Single Persons 152-169 IV. Pre-contracts, Bundling, and Sexual Immorality 169-200 V. Breach of Promise and Marriage Portions 200-209 VI. Self-_Gifta_, Clandestine Contracts, and Forbidden Degrees 209-215 VII. Slave-Marriages 215-226 CHAPTER XIII. ECCLESIASTICAL RITES AND THE RISE OF CIVIL MARRIAGE IN THE SOUTHERN COLONIES 227-263 I. The Religious Ceremony and Lay Administration in Virginia 228-239 II. Optional Civil Marriage and the Rise of Obligatory Religious Celebration in Maryland 239-247 III. The Struggle for Civil Marriage and Free Religious Celebration in North Carolina 247-259 IV. Episcopal Rites by Law and Free Civil or Religious Celebration by Custom in South Carolina and Georgia 260-263 CHAPTER XIV. OPTIONAL CIVIL OR ECCLESIASTICAL MARRIAGE IN THE MIDDLE COLONIES 264-327 I. New York 266-308 _a_) Law and Custom in New Netherland 267-284 _b_) Law and Custom under the Duke of York 284-296 _c_) Law and Custom in the Royal Province 296-308 II. New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware 308-327 _a_) Law and Custom in New Jersey 308-315 _b_) Law and Custom in Pennsylvania and Delaware 315-327 CHAPTER XV. DIVORCE IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES 328-387 I. In New England 330-366 _a_) Massachusetts 330-348 _b_) New Hampshire, Plymouth, and New Haven 348-353 _c_) Connecticut 353-360 _d_) Rhode Island 360-366 II. English Divorce Laws in Abeyance in the Southern Colonies 366-376 Arbitration and Divorce in the Middle Colonies 376-387 CHAPTER XVI. A CENTURY AND A QUARTER OF MARRIAGE LEGISLATION IN THE UNITED STATES, 1776-1903 388-497