Clandestine Marriage in England, 1500-1850A&C Black, 1995 M01 1 - 196 pages While marriages were supposed to be celebrated publicly by priests, in churches where the parties were known, many couples had reasons -- among them parental disapproval, religious nonconformity, property considerations and previous entanglements -- to marry in other ways. Nor was this difficult where there was no unified marriage code, where a simple exchange of vows might constitute a valid marriage, and where unbeneficed priests were prepared to perform the ceremony in return for a drink. Clandestine marriage had represented a problem to the church and state, and to the rights of property, since the middle ages, eluding a variety of attempts to control it. By the eighteenth century it had become a scandal, with Fleet parsons marrying thousands of couples a year. In 1753 Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act nullified such irregular marriages, only to drive them to adopt other guises until the introduction of civil marriage in 1836. In this intriguing book Brian Outhwaite explores the nature and scale of clandestine marriage. He describes why it attracted so many customers and why it was so hard to suppress. Clandestine Marriage in England, 1500-1850 provides a new perspective on a central social and religious institution. |
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aforesaid amendments amongst Anglican annulling Archbishop Archbishop of Canterbury argued argument attempts Bill Bishop bride Cambridge canons ceremony Church Courts Church of England Church or Chapel clause clergy clerics Cobbett Commons complained consent contract couples debate Dissenters E. A. Wrigley Early Modern ecclesiastical courts eighteenth century entry eventually example Fledborough Fleet Fleet Marriages Handfasting Hardwicke Hardwicke's Act Henry Fox History HLRO House of Lords Ibid illegitimacy irregular marriages issue later lawless churches London Lord Chancellor Marriage Act marriage licences marriages by licence marriages of minors married Matrimony measure minister offenders Outhwaite Oxford parents or guardians Parish Church Parish or Chapelry Parliament parliamentary parties Persons preventing clandestine Marriages priests proposed provisions Publication of Banns published Quakers reform repeal Road to Divorce Sandon Hall Secker sexual Shebbeare Society solemnised solemnized Special Licence statute surrogates Thoroton Society void Walpole weddings whilst William Whiteway Wrigley and Schofield
References to this book
Convents and the Body Politic in Late Renaissance Venice Jutta Gisela Sperling No preview available - 2000 |