Family talk:Daniel Gunn and Hester Griswold (1)

marriage location [6 September 2016]

I removed the comment from the description: "The record that gives 14 Oct as the day of marriage does not indicate the location the ceremony takes place" since it appeared that the record being cited was an abstract anyways. By implication, inclusion in a town record carries some implication it occurred there, but often the minister sent return to all locations concerned and they would record it in multiple places. So this can be misleading.

When a marriage is recorded in multiple jurisdictions, there are two main clues to determine where it occurred. There are always exceptions, but generally, the location of the person performing the ceremony is a good indication, and otherwise, the best guess is the residence of the bride for a first marriage, residence of the groom for a second marriage. If one location is neither, that deserves extra consideration because some people traveled to get married by a relative or by an official more to their liking.

On Daniel's page, it says "Married to Hester Griswold on 14 October 1712 in Westfield, MA, by John More, Justice, Hampden County, Massachusetts." Is there evidence that John More was a Justice of the Peace in Hampden County?

Flipping through the pages of the vital records of Westfield, I don't see any other pages in the same time frame naming John More. I did not inspect each and every one. But the justices of the peace at that time seemed to be Joseph Persons and Col. John Pynchon and a few others. Meanwhile, Henry Reed Stiles History of Ancient Windsor, Vol. 2, p. 501 mentions a John Moore who "is prob. the 'John, Esq.', who d. 21 June 1718." Esquire, of course, being the title given to those who were Justices of the Peace, and this man being alive at the appropriate time in Windsor to perform the marriage, it seems probable he is the John More mentioned. Finding no indication of a John More, JP, in Westfield, and as Windsor is the bride's residence, it seems more than likely this is where the marriage occurred. --Jrich 23:24, 6 January 2015 (UTC)