[142] "Then (the pror and Gov.) proposed to them the necessitie of a law ... about the marriages of negroes." _Col. Rec._, I, 598, 606, 610; _Votes and Proceedings_, I, 120, 121; Bettle, "Notices of Negro Slavery as connected with Pennsylvania," in _Mem. Hist. Soc. Pa._, VI, 368; Clarkson, _Life of Penn_, II, 80-82. Clarkson attributes the defeat to the lessening of Quaker influence, the lower tone of the later immigrants, and temporary hostility to the executive. More probably the bill failed because stable marriage relations have always been found incompatible with the ready movement and transfer of slave property; and because at this early period the slaveholders recognized this fact, and were not yet disposed to allow their slaves to marry. [143] _Stat. at L._, II, 22. _Cf._ Commonwealth _v._ Clements (1814), 6 Binney 210. [144] St. John Crèvecoeur, _Letters_, 221; Kalm, _Travels_, I, 391. Kalm adds that it was considered an advantage to have negro women, since otherwise the offspring belonged to another master. [145] MS. Rec. Christ Church, 4239, 4317, 4361, 4370, 4371, 4373, 4376, 4379, 4381, 4404, 4405; MS. Rec. First Reformed Church, 4158, 4315; MS. Rec. St. Michael's and Zion, 109. Among the Friends there are very few records of such marriages. _Cf._ however, MS. Journal of Joshua Brown, 5 2d mo., 1774: ... "I rode to Philadelphia ... and Lodged that Night at William Browns and 5th day of the mo^{th} I Spent in town and Was at a Negro Wedding in the Eving Where Several pe^r Mett and had a Setting with them and they took Each other and the Love of God Seemd to be Extended to them".... A negro marriage according to Friends' ceremony is recorded in MS. Deed Book O, 234, West Chester. _Cf._ Mittelberger, _Journey_, 106, "The blacks are likewise married in the English fashion." There must have been much laxity, however, for only a part of which the negroes were to blame. "They are suffered, with impunity, to cohabit together, without being married, and to part, when solemnly engaged to one another as man and wife".... Benezet, _Some Historical Account of Guinea_, 134. [146] St. John Crèvecoeur, _Letters_, 222.