 Marriage was considered the normal state for all adult residents of the colony . Most men first married in their mid @-@ twenties and women around age 20 . Second marriages were not uncommon , and widows and widowers faced social and economic pressures to remarry . On average , most widows and widowers remarried within six months to a year . Most adults who reached marriageable age lived into their sixties , so effectively two @-@ thirds of a person 's life was spent married . 
