No patience for the expense or hassle of a large wedding, but still want to get married? Harvard has three solutions: Janet Vellante, Kerry Curley, and Richard Backer. All are justices of the peace, authorized by the state to perform marriages.

Backer is the town’s most recent appointee. When a justice of the peace (JP) position became available last year, Backer applied. His application and appointment took only a few months, but his decision to become a JP took far longer.

Backer worked as an attorney for Fidelity Investments, then added volunteer work for a Boston-area hospice, and then left the corporate world. In his hospice work, he said, he needed to call in someone else if terminally ill people wanted to marry their partners before dying. “This serves my chaplaincy work,” he said, when asked why he decided to become a justice of the peace.

Although Backer hasn’t performed any marriages yet, he does have one scheduled for August, a couple who chose him from six JPs they had interviewed. They found his name on the Massachusetts Justices of the Peace Association website, which list JPs for each town.

Curley, co-owner of Team Realty in town, said that it made sense to him to be a justice of the peace because “as a realtor, I’m available 24/7.” People find out that he is a JP when Vellante, who is Harvard’s town clerk, gives the names of JPs to people who ask at Town Hall. Kerry said that in his four years as a JP, he has performed five marriages, the last one in 2006. “Our maximum fee is $75 in the town of Harvard, $125 if I go out of town,” he said, which is the maximum rate across the state. Curley said that JPs often charge less, depending on the circumstances.

Vellante said that town clerks aren’t automatically justices of the peace. They do issue the marriage license, though, which is required for any marriage. She has been a JP for three years and performed her most recent marriage last fall. When same-sex marriages were ruled legal in Massachusetts in 2004, four couples came to Town Hall to be married by Vellante.

Justices of the peace in Massachusetts are often called on to officiate at same-sex marriages, which many states do not allow by law and some religious officials will not do because of their religious or personal beliefs. JPs are prevented by law from turning down any marriage requests because of race or sexual orientation, and could lose their certification if they do so.

Each state has different laws about the powers of a JP, powers that have diminished since 1361 when the Justice of the Peace Act was passed in England to protect the king’s peace. Most countries that were under English control—from Australia to Wales—have JPs, although their roles are different in each country.

In the United States, “maintaining community order was a priority in the colonial era,” according to answers.com. “The justice of the peace in this period was responsible for arresting and arraigning citizens who violated moral or legal standards. By the early 1800s, the crimes handled by the justice of the peace included drunkenness, adultery, price evasion (selling below a minimum price fixed by law), and public disorder. Justices of the peace also served as county court staff members and heard grand jury and civil cases. The increasing number of criminal, slave, and tax statutes that were passed during the 1800s also broadened the enforcement powers of the justice of the peace.”