6 Cheshire Quarterly Meeting Records, 2.ii.1685, ms. EFC 1/1, CHESRO, see also Arnold Lloyd, Quaker Social History, 1669-1738 (London, 1950), 58; Forde, “Derbyshire Quakers,” 138.
7 For two couples who were refused permission to marry for “not producing a Certificate from his relations of their consent,” see Chesterfield Monthly Meeting Records, ms. Q62b, NOTT.
8 Forde, “Derbyshire Quakers,” 14, Low Laughton Monthly Meeting, ms. EFC 3/2, 1735, CHES; William Penn and Gulielma Springett, Marriage Certificate, [4 Apr. 1672], Papers of William Penn I, 238-39.
9 Mean age at first marriage for Quakers in England and America, and also for other ethnic groups in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, was as follows in seven studies:
Sample |
Marriage Cohort |
Males |
Females |
Derbyshire Quakers |
wed before 1710 |
|
|
(Forde) |
wed after 1710 |
|
|
Nottinghamshire Quakers |
wed before 1710 |
|
|
(Forde) |
|
|
|
Pa. and N.J. Quakers |
wives born by 1730 |
|
|
(Wells) |
wives born 1730-55 |
|
|
|
wives born 1756-85 |
|
|
Philadelphia Elites |
1700-1775 |
|
|
(Kantrow) |
1776-1825 |
|
|
|
1826-75 |
|
|
Germantown Families |
1750-59 |
|
|
(Wolf) |
|
||
Pa. Schwenkfelders |
1735-64 |
|
|
(Kilbourne) |
|
||
N.J. and N.Y. Dutch |
1685-1759 |
|
|
(Kilbourne) |
|
These estimates, it should be stressed, refer to the mean age at marriage; median age was lower. All studies are of age at first marriage except Wolf who included remarriages. Sources include Forde, “Derbyshire Quakers,” 33; Wells, “Quaker Marriage Patterns in a Colonial Perspective,” WMQ3 29 (1972), 415-42; Kantrow, “The Demographic History of a Colonial Aristocracy,” 71; Wolf, Urban Village, 257; Lawrence Kilbourne, unpublished research reports on Schwenkfelder and Dutch families prepared for the author.