Among the laws agreed upon in England for the governing of the Province of Pennsylvania was one providing for a registry of marriages, births, and deaths. Marriage licenses were issued from the Office of the Provincial Secretary, those listed in this work dating from 1742. Some earlier registers of licenses and some kept at a later date are missing, yet this work still features a base list of 6, 500 marriages, to which we have added a further 3, 500 marriages from articles in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography and The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine. All 10, 000 marriages are based on public records as opposed to church records.