Poem describes the wedding of Young Jonathan Rudd, who wished to marry on a winter day in 1647 when there was a great deal of snow and no magistrate to be found. John Winthrop, a Mass. magistrate at the time, agreed to marry Jonathan and his bride, but had no jurisdiction in the town of Saybrook. He agreed to meet the wedding party at a brook outside of town. He stood on one side at the brook’s narrowest point while the bridal party stood on the other. The brook is still known as “Bride Brook.”[ [559]]

Before his wedding, he was found in Hartford 2 Apr 1640, when he appeared in court for “being intimate with Mary Bronson.” He was also fined for defective arms in 1635 and later for attending a drinking party. His wedding was his first appearance in Saybrook. He was listed as a leathersealer there on 4 Oct 1656.[ [559]]

Savage's: RUDD, JONATHAN, New Haven, perhaps 1640, certain. took o. of fidel. 1 Oct. 1644, Saybrook 1646, adm. freem. 1651 at hartford, M. in the winter of 1647, by John Winthrop of New London, wh. act. under commis. from mass. there, and made the young couple meet him half way, bec. the snow was so dep, and he had no authority at S. See Trumbull, Col. Rec. Ii. 558. Miss Caulkins, New london 48, tells the story, with docum. in full, and has also commeno. it in verse. He prob. d. 1668. his d. Patience m. 7 oct. 1675, Samuel Bushnell. Other ch. [[vol. 3, p. 585]] prob. were Mary, suppos, first b. wh. m. 12 Dec. 1666, Thomas Bingham; Jonathan; and Nathaniel.