What is a “bondsman” to someone whos getting married?
A bit of history may help us to understand the nature of the marriage bond. In early colonial America, “marriage banns” were usually the formal process leading up to the wedding. Notice of the impending marriage was read from the church pulpit or posted at the church door over a set period of time. The purpose of this was to allow those who knew the bride and groom to object if there was a legal reason why the marriage should not take place (“speak now or forever hold your peace”). There were three principal legal barriers: either or both were not yet of legal age, either or both were already married, or the bride and groom were too closely related to marry under the laws of the jurisdiction. As America gradually became more of a frontier nation, often either the bride or the groom would not be well known in the community. To overcome this, the marriage bond soon replaced the banns.–http://www.wisegeek.com/wh
