Customs and Fashions in Old New England

								


     proposals in Writing and she upbraided me That I who had never

     written her a Letter should ask her to write. She asked me if I

     would drink, I told her yes. She gave me Cider Aples and a Glass of

     Wine, gathered together the little things I had given her and

     offered them to me, but I would none of them. Told her I wish'd her

     well and should be glad of her welfare. She seem'd to say she

     should not again take in hand a thing of this nature. Thank'd me

     for what I had given her and Desir'd my Prayers. My bowels yern

     towards Mrs. Denison but I think God directs me in his Providence

     to desist."
This love affair was not, however, quite ended, for the following Lord's
Day "after dark" Widow Denison came "very privat" to his house. This
Sunday visit betokened great anxiety on her part. She had walked in from
Roxbury in the cold, and when we remember how wolves and bears abounded
in the vicinity we comprehend still further her solicitude.



     "She ask'd pardon if she had affronted me.... Mr. Denison spake to

     her after signing his will that he would not make her put all out

     of her Hand and power but reserve something to bestow on her

     friends that might want.... I could not observe that she made me

     any offer all the while. She mentioned two Glass Bottles she had.

     I told her they were hers and the other small things I had given

     her only now they had not the same signification as before, I was

     much concerned for her being in the cold, would fetch her a plate

     of something warm; she refused. However I fetched a Tankard of

     Cider and drank to her. She desired that nobody might know of her

     being here. I told her they should not. She went away in the bitter

     Cold, no moon being up, to my great pain. I Saluted her at

     Parting."
With that parting kiss on that dark cold night, in "great pain," ended
the Judge's second wooing.
That he was sincerely in love with Widow Denison one cannot doubt,
though he loved his money more. Disappointed, he did not again turn to
courting until the following August--much longer than he had waited
after the death of his wife. He then proceeded in a matter-of-fact way
to visit Widow Tilley, whom he had early noted in meeting. He asked her,
at his third visit, to "come and live in his house." "She expressed her
unworthiness with much respect," and both agreed to consider it. He gave
her a little book called "Ornaments of Sion;" Mr. Pemberton applauded
his courtship; Mrs. Armitage said that Mrs. Tilley had been a great
blessing to them; the banns were published; and the Judge's third wooing
ended in a marriage on October 24th.
But the bride was very ill on her wedding night, and after several
slight sicknesses through the winter, died on May 20th, to her husband's
"great amazement." Again he was a-seeking a "dear Yoke fellow," and on
September 30th, "Daughter Sewall acquainted Madam Winthrop that if she