Commonwealth v. Norcross
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
The indictment, in this case, alleged that the defendant was married to Mary Mallett, then living, and that he committed adultery with one Patty Davis, then the lawful wife of Nathaniel Davis.
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The indictment, in this case, alleged that the defendant was married to Mary Mallett, then living, and that he committed adultery with one Patty Davis, then the lawful wife of Nathaniel Davis. The cause came on to be tried before the Chief Justice, on the general issue, at the last November term in this county; when the Solicitor-General, to maintain the issue on the part of the commonwealth, offered one William Mallett as a witness to prove the solemnization of a marriage between the defendant and the said Mary Mallett, by the Rev. Dr. Morse, at Charlestown, in the county of Middlesex, in…
1Opinion of the Court
By the Court.
By the laws of the colony, and by those of the province under the last charter, the crime of adultery was animadverted upon, before any provision was made for recording marriages. So, by the statute of 1784, c. 40, a severe punishment is enacted for this crime, although the recording of marriages was not required until the statute of 1786, cited in the argument.
The recording of marriages was intended to perpetuate the evidence of the fact, after the witnesses present shall have died. But a copy of such record is not so satisfactory evidence as the testimony of witnesses. These…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Commonwealth v. LittlejohnMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1818
3Cited by22 opinions
- Ayers v. RatsheskyMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1913
- Commonwealth v. WatermanMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1877
- Cook v. StateSupreme Court of Georgia · 1852
- Commonwealth v. HaydenMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1895
- State v. RoswellSupreme Court of Connecticut · 1827
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