Date: 1712, 1715, 1719

"But Cordiala's vertuous Mein and Actions fasten'd his young Heart in the strong Bonds of an unalterable Affection, which he discover'd to her on all Occasions possible."

— Barker, Jane (1675-1743)

Date: 1713

"An equal Partner in the vanquish'd Earth, / A Brother, not impos'd upon my Birth, / Too weak a Tye unequal Thoughts to bind, / But by the gen'rous Motions of the Mind."

— Finch [née], Anne, Countess of Winchilsea (1666-1720)

Date: 1718

"Pierce this treacherous Heart, which Vice so long has held in Chains."

— Molloy, Charles (d. 1767)

Date: 1718

"Then Hymen's sacred Bonds shall chain / My Heart to her fair Bosom, / There, while my Being does remain, / My Love more fresh shall blossom."

— Ramsay, Allan (1684-1758)

Date: 1719-1720, 1725

"You see, my Lord, said he with a Sigh, that I have put it out of her Power to triumph over my Weakness, for I confess my Heart still wears her Chains; but e'er my Eyes or Tongue betray to her the shameful Bondage, these Hands should tear them out."

— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)

Date: June, 1720

"Faint-hearted Wights, wha dully stood afar, / Tholling your Reason great Attempts to mar; / While the brave Dauntless, of sic Fetters free, / Jumpt headlong glorious in the golden Sea."

— Ramsay, Allan (1684-1758)

Date: 1726

"[H]e promis'd me a thousand Fineries, gave me an handful of Gold, told me I should have a fine House of my own, a Coach and Servants, with all manner of Imbellishments to grace and adorn my Beauty; which Beauty (continu'd he) has chain'd my Heart, ever since the moment I beheld it in the Milline...

— Barker, Jane (1675-1743)

Date: 1734

"Such the Dalrymples, Father and the Son, / Whose virtuous Minds no servile Chains can wear."

— Hamilton, William, of Bangour (1704-1754)

Date: 1736

"To live without Restraint, is to live indeed, cry'd she, and I no longer wonder, that the free Mind finds it so difficult to yield to those Fetters, Priests and Philosophers would bind it in, and which were never forged by, nor are consistent with Reason."

— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)

Date: 1754

"What is the juxta-position of ideas? what is that chain which connects, by intermediate ideas that are the links of it, ideas that are remote, but figurative stile?"

— St John, Henry, styled first Viscount Bolingbroke (1678-1751)