Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 January 1885 — A Curious Document. [ARTICLE]

A Curious Document.

In the records of the office of the Secretary of State at Columbia, S. 0., is the following petition, bearing date 1733, addressed to the Governor of South Carolina, and signed by sixteen maidens: The humble petition of all the Maids whose Names are underwritten: Whereas, we, the humble petitioners, are at present in a very melancholy condition of mind, considering how all the bachelors are blindly captured by widows and we are thereby neglected; in consequence of this our request is that your Excellency will, for the future, order that no widow presume to marry any young man until the maidens are provided for, or else to pay each of them a fine for satisfaction of invading our liberties, and likewise a fine to be levied on all bachelors as shall be married to widows. The great disadvantage it is to us maids is that the widows, by their forward carriage, do snap up the young men and have the vanity to think their merits beyond ours, which is a great imposition to us, who ought to have the preference. This is humbly recommended to your Excellency’s consideration, and we hope you will permit no further insults. And we poor maids, as in duty bound, will ever pray, etc.