[Footnote 756: _Ibid._, chap. xiii, § v.]
[Footnote 757: _Ibid._, 1715, chap. xliv, § xxv.]
It is significant that throughout the whole colonial period all persons in Maryland, except members of the establishment, should have had unrestricted liberty to contract civil marriage, only to have that liberty taken away after the Revolution began. By the reactionary law of 1777, "the rites of marriage between any white persons, subjects or inhabitants of this State, shall not be celebrated by any person within this State, unless by ministers of the Church of England, ministers dissenting from that Church, or Romish priests, appointed or ordained according to the rites ... of their respective churches, or in such manner as hath been heretofore used and practiced in this State by the society of people called Quakers."[758] This monument of religious conservatism has survived to our own time.
[Footnote 758: KILTY, _Laws_, 1777, chap. 12, sec. 5; also _Laws of Md._, 1763-87 (Annapolis, 1787), chap. xii, sec. v; _cf._ COOK, "Mar. Cel. in the Colonies," _Atlantic_, LXI, 357.]
No attempt is here made to describe wedding customs in the colonial era;[759] but the _Archives of Maryland_ contain a unique document, entitled "Articles of Courtship," which may serve as companion-piece and counterpart to the "Marriage Agreement" with which the domestic economy of Virginia, half a century later, has already been illustrated. In this instance Robert Harwood essays by formal indenture to compound a lawsuit and at the same time reclaim the reluctant affections of Elizabeth Gary, despite the fact that ungallantly he had sought to requite her fickleness through "slanders and unhandsome attempts." From the "Articles of agreement ... made the 24^{ th} of September 1657 between Peter Sharpe of Putuxent County in th^e Province of Maryland Chirurgeon of the one p^{ te,} and Robert Harwood of the Same County planter of the other parte," it appears that "there hath been a Suit Commenced by the Said Peter Sharpe before the Governour and Councell ... a gainst the abovenamed Robert Harwood on the behalf of Elizabeth Gary Daughter of Iudith now the wife of the Said Peter Sharpe, for reparation for Slanders, and undhandsome attempts charged to be acted and reported by the Said Robert Harwood to the great Detriment of the Said Elizabeth, and of the Said Peter Sharpe his wife and family;" and, on the other side, that Robert, "for his own Vindication, doth much insist upon a former promise of Marriage Grounded upon a Mutuall declared affection" between him and Elizabeth, "obtained after a long familiaritie and Sollicitation;" with which engagement the said Peter and Judith his wife "are much dissatisfied," but which they are nevertheless willing to see followed by wedlock, if Elizabeth really have the proper "affection and resolution of marriage to and with the Said Robert."