[Footnote 615: WEEDEN, _Ecc. and Soc. Hist. of N. E._, I, 413; _cf. ibid._, I, 420, II, 541 ff.; also EARLE, _Customs and Fashions_, 62 ff., 43 ff.]
[Footnote 616: Thus in 1638 "Mary Joanes was consented to be taken care of by the countrey, and at the countreyes charge."--_Mass. Col. Rec._, I, 230. Four years later "It was ordered the Treasurer should give Mary Joanes five pounds against her Marriage."--_Ibid._, II, 20.]
[Footnote 617: SEWALL, _Diary_, in 5 _Mass. Hist. Coll._, VI, 336. In like spirit the judge "dickers" with Joseph Dudley, whose daughter had been sought in marriage for Samuel Sewall, Jr.: _idem_, _Letter-Book_, in 6 _Mass. Hist. Coll._, I, 279-81; _Diary_, in 5 _Mass. Hist. Coll._, VI, 80.]
The worthy magistrate was not less thrifty in managing his own courtships, never for a moment allowing mere sentiment to get the better of prudence. From the outset he was lucky; for in 1676, according to tradition, he received as a dowry with his first wife, Hannah Hull, her weight in pine-tree shillings, which her father, the mint-master, measured out to him against her body in his own scales. In reality, his wife brought him much more than this fabled treasure; for six years after the wedding he came into the enjoyment of the mint-master's large estate, thus laying the foundation of his own fortune and official career.[618] Hannah lived with him more than forty years, bearing him seven sons and seven daughters. On her death the judge writes to a friend: "Wife expired on Satterday Oct. 19th, a little before Sun-Sett; and I lost my most constant lover, my most laborious Nurse; which produc'd a Flood of Tears in our Bed Chamber."[619]
[Footnote 618: "Her father died in six years, leaving his fortune, which was large for that time, to his daughter and his widow. It was practically one estate for the mother lived in the most affectionate intimacy in Judge Sewall's family."--WEEDEN, _Ecc. and Soc. Hist. of N. E._, I, 420; _cf._ HAWTHORNE, _Grandfather's Chair_ (Boston, 1893), chap. vi, 459-64.]
[Footnote 619: SEWALL'S _Letter-Book_, in 6 _Mass. Hist. Coll._, II, 83, 84 (letter of Jan. 25, 1718, referring to his wife's death in 1717); _cf._ the _Diary_, in 5 _Mass. Hist. Coll._, VII, 143, 144.]