WORK IN PROGRESS

Some notes on England and Welsh 

Irregular and clandestine marriages

(Broadly based on a Wikipedia entry)

Marriage from William Hogarth’s A Rakes Progress
Image source Wikimedia

Defining the term ‘marriage’  is not as cut and dried as it might seem so these notes are only intended to be a brief introduction to a complicated subject.  The rules on marriage for Scotland, Northern Ireland and Éire are different and not covered by this article.

Couples living together without a legal ceremony are in what is called a ‘common law’ marriage but these days this doesn’t have any automatic legal benefits (see familylives.org).  The situation in earlier times is complicated and some legal protection may have existed.  Whereas a properly conducted marriage ceremony gives couples certain rights, particularly in regard to inheritance.

From 1563 to 1837 under church law a legal Church of England marriage needed to be

• performed in either the brides or grooms home parish (unless by licence)
• by an Anglican clergyman
• in front of two witnesses and
• announced in the church in each of 3 consecutive weeks prior to the date of the wedding.  This is known as the reading of the banns and gave a chance for anyone to object on legal grounds. (unless by licence)
• The wedding ceremony also had to be conducted between 8am and noon.
• In the case of minors the consent of the parent or guardian was also needed.
• The clergyman was also required to record marriages etc in a Parish Register.

If for any reason the wedding was not performed in either of their home parishes, or the reading of the banns  could not take place then the couple needed to buy a licence, which was more expensive than the fees for a banns wedding.  The license not only enabled a marriage to take place elsewhere but also without waiting for the 3 weeks readings of the banns.   (Non-conformists often used a licence in preference to the reading of Banns in a church of a different denomination.)

An “irregular” marriage was one that took place either away from the home parish of the spouses, or at an improper time.  It still needed to be conducted by an Anglican clergyman usually on Church premises and in front of two witnesses.

“Clandestine” marriages were those that had an element of secrecy to them: perhaps they took place away from a home parish, and without either banns or marriage license.

There were very many reasons why couples underwent clandestine or irregular marriages, for example it might be simply for speed or convenience or that the couple were marrying without parental consent or financial concerns. Where records of clandestine or irregular marriages exist they are not entirely trustworthy as people often gave false names or had an earlier date recorded for their marriage in order to cover an unplanned pregnancy.

The Marriage Duty Act 1695 put an end to irregular marriages at parochial churches by penalizing clergymen who married couples without banns or license. By a legal quirk, however, clergymen operating in certain small areas could not effectively be proceeded against, and  clandestine marriages would often be conducted there. The most widely known of these areas was the Liberty of the Fleet (Prison).  Other places conducting clandestine marriages include

• King’s Bench Prison, Southwark (also known as the Liberty of the Mint) ,
• Keith’s Chapel, Mayfair/Westminster,
• St George’s Chapel, Mayfair/Westminster,
• The White Tower (Tower of London) but these marriages had ceased by 1630,
• St Botolph without Aldgate and Holy Trinity Minories,
• St James Duke’s Place, Aldgate .

Fleet Marriage Churchmen confined in the Fleet Prison
Image by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne)
Source not known

It is important to note that by the 1740s, over half of all London weddings were taking place in the environs of the Fleet Prison. The majority of Fleet marriages were for honest purposes, when couples simply wanted to get married quickly or at low cost.

The earliest recorded date of a Fleet Marriage is 1613 (although there were probably earlier ones), while the earliest recorded in a Fleet Register took place in 1674. As a prison, the Fleet was claimed to be outside the jurisdiction of the church. The prison warders took a share of the profit, even though a statute of 1711 imposed fines upon them for doing so: it only moved the clandestine marriage trade outside the prison. There were, in fact, so many debtors that many lived in the area outside the prison (itself a lawless area which operated under the “rules of the Fleet”). Disgraced clergymen (and many who pretended to be clergymen) lived there, and marriage houses or taverns carried on the trade, encouraged by local tavern-keepers in the neighbourhood who employed touts to solicit custom for them. There were also many clerks who made money recording the ceremonies.

During the 1740s, up to 6,000 marriages a year were taking place in the Fleet area, compared with 47,000 in England as a whole. One estimate suggests that there were between 70 and 100 clergymen working in the Fleet area between 1700 and 1753. It was not merely a marriage centre for criminals and the poor, however: both rich and poor availed themselves of the opportunity to marry quickly or in secret.

Marriage Act 1753

The scandal and abuses brought about by these clandestine marriages became so great that they became the object of special legislation. In 1753, Lord Hardwicke’s Marriage Act was passed, which required, under pain of annulment, that banns should be published or a licence obtained; that, in either case, the marriage should be solemnized in church by a recognised clergyman; and that in the case of minors, marriage by licence must be by the consent of parent or guardian; and that at least two witnesses must be present. Jewish and Quaker ceremonies were exempt. Clergymen conducting clandestine marriages were liable to transportation.

This Act had the effect of putting a stop to these marriages, so far as England and Wales were concerned, and henceforth couples had to travel to Scotland, the nearest point being Gretna Green. This had substantial use until 1856, when Scottish law was changed to require 21 days’ residence. The Act did not extend to Scotland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man. Similar legislation was passed in the Isle of Man in 1757.

Annex

Although strictly outside the scope of this article we have included
the text below following some feedback we received.

1 July 1837 – Introduction of General Civil Registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths in England and Wales.  Couples could now choose to have a church ceremony or one in front of a registrar; in either case the marriage has to be formally registered.  The registers can be readily searched using freebmd.org.uk.

The Age of Marriage Act 1929 increased the age of marriage to sixteen with consent of parents or guardians and 21 without that consent.  Until this point, a person could marry if they had attained the legal age of puberty (14 for males 12 for females) .

The Marriage Act 1949 prohibited marriages during evenings and at night (previously the Marriage Act 1836 had forbidden marriages between the hours of six in the evening and eight in the morning). This prohibition was repealed on 1 October 2012.

The Family Law Reform Act 1987 made revisions to The Marriage Act 1949, which had the effect of reducing the age of marriage without parental consent to 18.

The Marriage Act 1994  allowed marriages to be solemnized in certain “approved premises”; prior to the act, marriage ceremonies could only be conducted in churches and register offices.