no The Story of The Bronx 



In this new country, women were in the minority, and con- 

 sequently were in great demand. She must indeed be with- 

 out personal or mental qualities who reached the age of twenty 

 without being married, unless she were vowed to spinsterhood. 

 It is amusing to read of the quickness with which widows 

 remarried; there seems to have been no allotted period of 

 mourning for them — a few weeks or months sufficed; and 

 many of them changed their names three or four times as their 

 helpmates departed to the other and better world. Sarah 

 Willett, daughter of Thomas Cornell, must have been an 

 attractive widow; for she was so pestered and annoyed by 

 suitors, both Dutch and English, that she was obliged to appeal 

 to the court for protection from their ardent advances. She 

 finally married Thomas Bridges, an Englishman, and thus 

 disposed of her other admirers. 



Weddings were occasions of great jollification with both 

 Dutch and English, and the festivities were generally kept up 

 for several days; while rough jokes and rude jests were in- 

 dulged in to an extent that would shock our modern ideas of 

 propriety. Woe betide the unfortunate bridegroom who was 

 niggardly in inviting his friends to his wedding or who failed 

 to provide generously for them in food and drink, the latter 

 in especial! When it came to house-raising, corn-husking, 

 quilting, and similar affairs where numbers were required, a 

 whole neighborhood would join in and help, and the affair 

 would become a frolic, the host being careful to provide ample 

 quantities of cider, beer, and rum. 



Funerals were not the solemn occasions that they are with 

 us to-day, but in colonial days actually became festive affairs. 

 The friends and acquaintances gathered at the home of the 

 deceased, and were received with all honor — and a bowl of 

 punch. The services for the dead having been solemnized 



