Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 April 1905 — THE BRIDE’S PORTION. [ARTICLE]

THE BRIDE’S PORTION.

At One Time It Was Stated In the I Wedding Announcement. It was a common custom in the eighteenth century, especially during , the reign of George 11., to insert noI tices of marriage stating the bride’s portion in contemporary periodicals and newspapers both in England and Scotland. Almost every number of the Gentleman’s Magazine at that time contained several of these records, of which the following, in 1731, is a specimen: “Married, the Revd. Mr: Roger Waina, of York, about twenty-six year of age, to a Lincolnshire lady, upwards of j eighty, with whom he is to have £B,- ( 000 in money, £3OO per annum, and a coach and four, during life only.” Sometimes the notice merely describes the bride as a lady With a ( “good portion” or a “genteel fortune.” , One of the latest notices was in Aris’ ( Birmingham Gazette, July 14, 1800, I which recorded the marriage of Mr. Canning, undersecretary of ' state, to Miss Scott, "with £IOO,OOO fortune.”— London Telegraph.