there was published a regulation which deserves quotation in whole, both
for its quaintness of phraseology and for the light which it throws upon
female servitude in the colony, whether undergone because of ties of
blood or of bondage resulting from apprenticeship:

"Whereas divers persons unfit for marriage, both in regard of their
yeong yeares, as also in regard of their weake estate, some practiseing
the inveagleing of men's daughters and maids under gardians, contrary to
their parents and gardians likeing, and of mayde servants, without leave
and likeing of their masters: It is therefore enacted by the Court that
if any shall make any motion of marriage to any man's daughter or mayde
servant, not having first obtained leave and consent of the parents or
master so to doe, shall be punished either by fine or corporall
punishment, or both, at the discretions of the bench, and according to
the nature of the offence.

"It is also enacted, that if a motion of marriage be duly made to the
master, and through any sinister end or covetous desire, he will not
consent thereunto, then the cause to be made known unto the magistrates,
and they to set down such order therein as upon examination of the case
shall appear to be most equall on both sides."

While it would seem from the first part of this somewhat puzzlepated
enactment that "yeong yeares" were considered as disabling one from
"inveagleing" young ladies into the toils of matrimony, yet in cases
where it was evident that the objection of the master of the maid
servant was founded upon entirely personal grounds of his own gain there
was recourse to a tribunal for the obtaining of justice. This portion of
the law shows how careful were the old fathers of the country to
encourage marriage wherever this could be done with no risk to the
harmony of the settlement. We can also see how strict were the ideas of
female servitude. Not only had the parent or guardian absolute power
over the hand of the daughter or ward, but the master of an indentured
servant could at least obstruct her matrimonial designs. In all these
cases there was the same basal idea--the loss of service. The interest
of the father in his daughter, of the guardian in his ward, and of the
master in his maid servant were supposed to be identical and to be
founded on actual loss sustained through the transference of right of
service from them to an alien in the family. In this "fiction of the
law" one can see