SEC. 2. If such lessor, person, or party shall refuse or neglect to comply with the provisions of the foregoing section for the space of thirty days after notice in writing to him, or his agent having charge of such building, by the selectmen of the town in which such building is situated, that such building or any portion thereof so leased or let is not suitably provided and furnished according to the requirements of the foregoing section, he shall forfeit the sum of one dollar for each day of such refusal or neglect after the expiration of said thirty days.

[See page 109 for law relative to Doors to Public Buildings.]

REGISTRATION LAWS.

MARRIAGES.

GENERAL LAWS OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, CHAPTERS 180 AND 181.

SECTION 1. No man shall marry his father's sister, mother's sister, father's widow, wife's mother, daughter, wife's daughter, son's widow, sister, son's daughter, daughter's daughter, son's son's widow, daughter's son's widow, brother's daughter, or sister's daughter, father's brother's daughter, mother's brother's daughter, father's sister's daughter, or mother's sister's daughter.

SEC. 2. No woman shall marry her father's brother, mother's brother, mother's husband, husband's father, son, husband's son, daughter's husband, brother, son's son, daughter's son, son's daughter's husband, daughter's daughter's husband, brother's son, sister's son, father's brother's son, mother's brother's son, father's sister's son, or mother's sister's son.

SEC. 3. Every marriage contracted by parties within the degrees prohibited by the two preceding sections is incestuous and void, and the issue of such marriage illegitimate.

SEC. 4. All persons residing in this state proposing to be joined in marriage, shall before their marriage cause notice of their intention, with the full Christian and surnames, color, occupation, birthplaces, residences, and ages of the parties, their condition, whether single or widowed, whether first, second, or other marriage, and the full Christian and surnames, residences, color, occupation, and birthplaces of their parents, to be entered in the office of the clerk of the town in which they dwell. If there be no such clerk in the place of their residence, the like entry shall

be made with the clerk of any adjoining town, and the clerk shall record such notice in a book to be kept for that purpose.

SEC. 5. Such clerk shall deliver to the parties a certificate, under his hand, embodying the facts in the preceding section required to be entered in his office, and specifying the time when notice of intention of marriage was entered with him, which certificate shall be delivered to the minister or magistrate who is to marry said parties before he shall proceed to solemnize the marriage; and the fee of the clerk for making the record of notice, and issuing his certificate, shall be one dollar, to be paid by the parties.

SEC. 6. When parties living in this state shall go out of it for the purpose of being married in another state, and a marriage shall be there solemnized, and they shall return to this state to reside, they shall file a certificate or declaration of their marriage, including the facts required to be stated in the notice aforesaid, with the clerk of the town where either of them lived prior to their marriage within seven days after their return, under penalty of ten dollars, to be recovered for the use of any person who will sue for the same.

SEC. 7. Nothing contained in this chapter shall affect the right of the people called Friends, or Quakers, to solemnize marriages in the way usually practised among them; but all marriages so solemnized shall be valid.

SEC. 8. If any minister or justice of the peace shall join any persons in marriage without having first received a certificate of the town-clerk as herein before provided, he shall forfeit for each offence sixty dollars, to the use of the parent, master, or guardian of either of the parties who shall first sue therefor.

SEC. 9. Marriages may be solemnized by any justice of the peace in any county for which he is commissioned; throughout the state by any minister of the gospel who has been ordained according to the usages of his denomination, resides in this state, and is in regular standing with the denomination to which he belongs; and by any such minister residing out of the state who has been authorized to solemnize marriages within the state by a commission issued by the governor, with the advice and consent of the council; and within his parish by such minister residing

out of the state, but having a pastoral charge wholly or partly in this state.

SEC. 10. The persons joined in marriage by any minister or justice shall pay such minister or justice one dollar.

SEC. 11. If any person not authorized by this chapter to solemnize marriages shall join any persons in marriage, with or without a certificate, he shall be fined not exceeding three hundred dollars, one half to the use of the complainant.

SEC. 12. A copy of the record of any marriage, certified by any minister, justice, clerk of the people called Friends, or town-clerk, shall be received in all courts and places as evidence of the fact of such marriage.

SEC. 13. No marriage solemnized before any person professing to be a justice of the peace or minister of the gospel shall be void, nor shall its validity be in any way affected on account of any want of jurisdiction or authority in such supposed justice or minister, or on account of any omission or informality in the certificate of intention of marriage, if the marriage is in other respects lawful, and consummated with the belief on the part of either of the parties thereto that they have been lawfully married.

SEC. 14. The age of consent shall be, in the female, twelve years, and in the male, fourteen.

SEC. 15. Where the parents of children born before marriage afterwards intermarry, and recognize such children as their own, such children shall inherit equally with their other children under the statute of distribution, and shall be legitimate.

SEC. 16. Persons cohabiting and acknowledging each other as husband and wife, and generally reputed to be such, for the period of three years, and until the decease of one of them, shall thereafter be deemed to have been legally married.

SEC. 17. In all civil actions, except actions for criminal conversation, evidence of acknowledgment, cohabitation, and reputation is competent proof of a marriage.

SEC. 18. In actions for criminal conversation, and in indictments for adultery, bigamy, and the like, there must be proof of a marriage in fact.

CHAPTER 181.

SECTION 1. The secretary of state shall furnish to clergymen and others authorized to marry, to physicians, selectmen, townclerks, and clerks of the Society of Friends, suitable blanks for recording births, marriages, and deaths, so printed, with appropriate headings, as readily to show the following facts:

I. The record of a birth shall state its date and place of occurrence, full Christian and surname, color, and sex of child, whether living or still-born; the full Christian and surnames, color, occupation, residence, and birthplace of the parents.

II. The record of a marriage shall state its date and place of occurrence, the name, residence, and official character of the person by whom solemnized, the full Christian and surnames of the parties, the age, color, occupation, and residence of each, the condition (whether single or widowed), whether first, second, or other marriage; and the full Christian and surnames, residence, color, occupation, and birthplaces of their parents.

III. The record of a death shall state its date, the full Christian and surname of the deceased, the sex, color, condition (whether single or married), age, occupation, place of birth, place of death; the full Christian and surnames and birthplaces of parents; and the disease or cause of death.

SEC. 2. Every person authorized to unite persons in marriage shall make a record of every marriage solemnized before him, in conformity with the requisitions prescribed for blank records of marriages in the preceding section, and annually, in the month of April, deliver to the clerk of the town in which the marriage took place a copy of such record for the year ending on the last day of March next preceding. Every clerk of the Society of Friends shall make a like record of every marriage in said society, and annually, in the month of April, deliver to the clerk of the town where such marriage took place a copy of such record for the year ending on the last day of March next preceding. Every person before whom any marriage shall be solemnized between parties not resident in the town where the marriage is solemnized, shall forthwith make return of the record of such marriage to the