>>The title "Mrs." was simply a term of respect, and had no reference to the marriage relation,-- a lady of high social standing, whether married or single, being addressed as Mistress, or with the abbreviated form Mrs. << Noted after 1st 10 marriages recorded in Andover, MA 1647-1648 Source: [CHAPTER I -p. 76] HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ANDOVER. by Sarah Loring Bailey, 1880 OCR editing by Phylis Holmes, scanned and OCRed by David Blackwell http://www.usigs.org/library/books/ma/Andover1880