The people of the Isle of Portland seldom married anyone from the mainland. A young woman would betroth herself to a man of the island and live with him as his wife, on the understanding that he would marry her as soon as she found she was with child. Hone found the custom still kept in 1817, and the island’s married women told him of only one young man who had broken his word, and he had been driven off the island in disgrace.
The Portland Betrothal
Printed under 8 September · Isle of Portland, Dorset
No longer kept
young women betroth themselves to lovers of the same place
From Hone's Year Book, col. 1050. Read the original
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