The law of 1719, in New York, that no person under twenty-one should be married without the written consent of parent or guardian was a step in the direction of social control.

This law aimed not to make marriage choices for any young person but to safeguard such choice from possible harm.
The ancient family choice in marriage tried in the third place to give every one an equal chance to be married.

The families concerned, when the age thought to be marriageable had been reached, sought to give the young persons a place in the family order.

The idea of bachelors and maids of mature years was not only repugnant, it was an indictment of the vigilance and good offices of the elders.

When a certain Doctor Brickell practised medicine in North Carolina in about 1731, he declared that "She that continues unmarried until twenty is reckoned a stale maid, which is a very indifferent character in this country;" and in New England the unmarried man, as elsewhere, was subjected to special tax and social odium.
The family arrangement for marriage of the young did one thing, at least, in a time when women and girls enjoyed little protection or financial security outside of marriage--it set at work forces to provide husbands for many girls who would not be the first choice in a free competition for masculine favor.
=Some Ancient Spinsters, But Few.=--There were, however, some distinguished women of the older time who never married.