"Walter1 Harris … married, first, probably about 1685, Mary (Hale) Benjamin, daughter of Samuel1 Hale and widow of Caleb Benjamin. … They were married probably not long before 25 February 1686/7, when the court at Hartford fined 'Walter Harris and Mary his wife for incontenance before marriage … forty shillings' (Hartford County Court Records, 4:123). The date of the marriage is bracketed definitely by two dates: 29 December 1684, when Samuel Benjamin, called 'son of widow Mary Benjamin,' died at Derby, Connecticut (Derby VRs), and 'some considerable time before' January 1686/7, derived from the 1709/10 testimony of Samuel and Ruth Welles regarding settlement of the estate of Mary's first husband, Caleb Benjamin, who died 6 May 1684."
