Smock marriages

In the l8th century, widows sometimes remarried clad only in a smock, or sometimes wearing nothing at all. This custom was based on the notion that according to common law, a man who married a woman with few or no clothes would not be responsible for her debts or those of her first husband. The noted jurist Francis Wharton (1820-89) called this concept "a vulgar error."

These "smock marriages," which originated in England, were not uncommon in the New England colonies during the early 1700's. The custom varied according to the region, In some places, the marriage took place after the groom and his scantily clad bride had crossed a highway one or more times. In other areas, the bride, often naked, stood in a closet and put out one arm during the wedding ceremony. Sometimes the bride-groom lent wedding clothes to his bride-to-be, keeping her modest while he protected his money.

Mr. William C. Prime, in his delightful book, “Along New England Roads”, gives an account of such a marriage in Newfane, Vermont. In February, 1789, Major Moses Joy married widow Hannah Ward; the bride stood with no clothing on within a closet, and held out her hand to the major through a diamond-shaped hole in the door, and the ceremony was thus performed. She then appeared resplendent in brave wedding attire, which the gallant major had previously deposited in the closet for her assumption.

Mr. Prime tells also of a marriage in which the bride, entirely unclad, left her room by a window by night, and, standing on the top round of a high ladder, donned her wedding garments, and thus put off the obligations of the old life. In some cases the marriage was performed on the public highway.

In Hall’s “History of Eastern Vermont”, page 587, we read of a marriage in Westminster, Vermont, in which the widow Lovejoy, while nude and hidden in a chimney recess behind a curtain, wedded Asa Averill.

“Smock marriages” are recorded in York, Maine, in 1774, as shown on page 419 of “History of Wells and Kennebunkport”. It is said that in one case the pitying minister threw his coat over the shivering bride, one widow Mary Bradley, who in February, clad only in a shift, met the bridegroom on the highway, half way from her home to his.

Gee.. some great traditions have been lost over time.