A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812

The entries from October-November 1792 that open this chapter discuss the usual content of Martha’s diaries, with special attention to several marriages that occurred in the Ballard family during this time. Martha’s daughter Hannah married Moses Pollard, her niece Parthenia Barton married Shubael Pitts, and her son Jonathan married Sally Pierce. Jonathan married Sally after she initiated a paternity suit against him, while Hannah and Parthenia’s marriages were far less dramatic. Martha’s diary demonstrates that the children were free to choose their own spouses and that premarital sex was prevalent. The “unglamorous” ceremonies took place in front of a justice (Samuel Dutton and Daniel Cony for Hannah and Parthenia—notably not Joseph North). The ceremonies were small and attended only by family, oftentimes not even the entire family. Hannah’s wedding was not even attended by her husband’s parents or her sister Lucy and her family. The brides did not leave to live with their spouses until they “went to housekeeping” over a month after their weddings (165). The delay allowed for the bride and her parents to prepare the new household. One such preparation was quilting. Hannah and Parthenia worked diligently on quilts to take to their new households, thus positioning quilting as one of the “rites of marriage” (168).