20 The definitive study of marriage seasonality in New England is by David Cressy. He reports the following results for six New England towns, including Dedham, which is illustrated in the graph (1638-99).

Image

 

Marriage Index (m = 100)

Month

Six Towns

Dedham

January

122

103

February

82

97

March

87

103

April

94

121

May

99

117

June

72

25

 

76

64

August

73

69

September

86

81

October

94

88

November

158

177

December

158

156

Total

1200

1200

(N)

(2217)

(256)

(The marriage index is based on the monthly mean; that is, the annual total of marriages is made proportionate to 1200, so that the monthly mean is 100.) Cressy’s findings are reproduced here so that they can be compared with other regions, below. Cressy’s six-town sample dilutes the distinctive Bay Colony pattern by including Plymouth and Boston. The classic Massachusetts pattern is more clearly visible in the town of Dedham. See David Cressy, “The Seasonality of Marriage in Old and New England,” JIH 16 (1985), 1–21; for similarities between New England and East Anglia, see Ann Kussmaul, “Time, Space, Hoofs and Grain: The Seasonality of Marriage in England,” JIH 15 (1985), 755-79.

21 Winthrop, Journal, I, 63 (17 April 1631).

22 Morison, Harvard College in the Seventeenth Century, II, 465-71.