Archive record
- This address
- http://www.lewestown.com/lewes_history/bride_groom.html
- Originally
- “Lewes’s Bride and Groom Trees” by Hazel D. Brittingham, Lewestown Publishers, 1997
- Original page
- Capture of 24 February 2001 at the Internet Archive
The article below is newly written and independently sourced. It is not the original author’s text; that remains under copyright and is linked above. A short extract from it is quoted, with attribution, further down this page.
The Bride and Groom Trees — a marriage marked in cypress
Two tall bald cypresses stand on the west side of Kings Highway in Lewes. They were planted about 1813, in a once-common tradition of marking an intended marriage with a pair of trees, one either side of an entrance. They have outlived the carriage house, the couple, and very nearly the custom.
A custom that has mostly vanished
Planting a pair of trees to mark a betrothal or a wedding was not unusual in the early nineteenth century. It was a gesture with a long horizon: two saplings either side of a gate, growing together, outlasting everyone present at the planting. The pair on Kings Highway were placed about 1813 to honour an intended marriage, one on each side of the entrance to a carriage house, in an account that names Margaret Coleman as the person who had them placed.
The custom has almost entirely gone, for the ordinary reason that people no longer expect to be attached to one plot of ground for the fifty years it takes a tree to become impressive. A couple planting cypresses in 1813 assumed a kind of permanence that has stopped being a safe assumption.
Why cypress was the right choice
Bald cypress is the correct tree for the job in coastal Delaware. It is a deciduous conifer, unusually tolerant of wet ground, resistant to rot, and extremely long-lived — the species includes some of the oldest trees in eastern North America.
Cypress is also the local building timber. The Maull House is sheathed in it and the Cannonball House is cypress-shingled; it was the wood you used in Lewes when you wanted something to survive the weather. Choosing it for a marriage token was choosing the most durable material the town knew.
What is left to see
The trees stand on the west side of Kings Highway, the road running out of the old town toward the ferry terminal — the same approach road that carries the floodlit Presbyterian church. Two hundred years on, mature bald cypress are substantial, and they are the last visible part of the arrangement they were planted to commemorate.
We have not been able to verify the identity of the couple, the carriage house or the property from independent records, and Mrs. Brittingham’s page is our source for the story. Whether the trees standing today are demonstrably the same pair planted in 1813 is likewise not something we can confirm. It is a good story, well attested locally, and it is offered on that basis.
From the original page at this address
“The pair of sturdy and lofty bald cypress trees towering on the west side of Kings Highway in Lewes are known as the Bride and Groom Trees. They were planted about 1813 in a tradition that was not uncommon in that day — to honor an intended marriage.”
Hazel D. Brittingham, “Lewes’s Bride and Groom Trees”, Lewestown Publishers, 1997. © Copyright 1997 Hazel D. Brittingham. Short extract quoted for commentary; the full original is at the Internet Archive.
Elsewhere in this archive: the cypress-built Maull House · the church on Kings Highway
Where this comes from
- Hazel D. Brittingham, “Lewes’s Bride and Groom Trees”, Lewestown Publishers, 1997, at the Internet Archive — the trees’ location on the west side of Kings Highway, the planting date of about 1813, the marriage tradition, the carriage house entrance, and the Margaret Coleman account. Her page is the source for this story.
- Wikipedia, Maull House — for the cypress-sheathed construction cited above as evidence of the timber’s local use.
This page rests almost entirely on a single source. The couple, the carriage house, the property and the continuity of the present trees with those planted in 1813 are not independently verified, and are presented as local tradition.
Planning a visit
Where to stay near historic Lewes
Kings Highway runs from the historic core out toward the ferry terminal. If you are coming to see it, this map shows current availability and prices in the area.
We may earn a commission from bookings made through this map, at no cost to you. It does not affect anything written above, and our historic walking guide has the practical visiting detail.