[1300] Cardwell, Documentary Annals, II, 200-207, gives Bishop Wren's "Orders and Directions" for the diocese of Norwich, 1636:

"XI. That they go up to the holy table at marriages at such time thereof as the rubric so directeth, and that the new married persons do kneel without the rail, and do at their own charge, if the communion were not warned the Sunday before, receive the holy communion that day, or else to be presented by the minister and churchwardens at the next generals for not receiving.

"XII. That no minister presume to marry any persons, whereof one of the parties is not of his parish, unless it be otherwise expressly mentioned in the license; nor that he marry any by virtue of any faculties or license, wherein the authority of an archdeacon or official is mentioned, sub poena suspensionis."

[1301] Waters, Parish Registers in England, 11, 16. Cf. Lathbury, Hist. of the Book of Common Prayer, 310, and the authorities there cited. Jeaffreson, Brides and Bridals, II, 69, gives the form of marriage contract prescribed by the Directory.

[1302] For a fair estimate of the character of the "Barebone's Parliament," see Inderwick, The Interregnum, 15-17; Jenks, Const. Experiments, 69-75.

[1303] This marriage act of August 24, 1653, is contained in Scobell's Acts and Ordinances of Parliament, 236-38, though, to the disgust of the historical student, not in any of the various editions of the Statutes. I have here used a copy of the act contained in a contemporary newspaper entitled Several Proceedings of Parliament, from Tuesday the twenty-third of August, to Tuesday the thirtieth of August, 1653, found in the fine collection of seventeenth-century pamphlets in the Sutro Library, San Francisco. An inaccurate copy of the principal provisions of the act is given by Burn, Parish Registers, 26-29; and there is a good summary in Friedberg, Eheschliessung, 322, 323. On this act and the views of the Independents see Cook, "The Marriage Celebration in Europe," Atlantic Monthly, LXI, 255-57.

[1304] Hence the ridicule of Butler, Hudibras, Part III, c. 2, 303-10 (Boston, 1864), II, 18:

[1305] Cf. Friedberg, Eheschliessung, 322, 330. After the restriction was removed in 1656, marriages were frequently solemnized before the mayor and the minister of the parish jointly: Burn, Parish Registers, 162, 163, note; Waters, Parish Registers in England, 16. In 1658, according to the register of St. Giles in the Fields, a marriage was celebrated by William Jervis, D.D., before witnesses, and then follows this entry: "That also the sd. marriage ... hath its consummation before John Lord Berksted, Lord Lieutenant of the Tower of London" according to the act of parliament, and before Sir Jno. Sedley of the county of Kent. Apparently this was a double celebration: Notes and Queries, 3d Series, I, 228. For this case see also Jeaffreson, Brides and Bridals, II, 71, who affirms that usually the "wedding was religiously solemnized in church, after or before the performance of the purely civil affirmation in the magistrate's parlour, ... in accordance with the instructions of the 'Directory of Public Worship;'" and it seems that the celebration was sometimes conducted according to the Book of Common Prayer: Lathbury, Hist. of the Book of Common Prayer, 310.

[1306] Scobell, Acts and Ordinances, 1656, c. 10, p. 394. Cf. also Burn, Parish Registers, 29. In 1658 it was permitted to use the "accustomed religious rites" if the parties preferred: Wood, The Wedding Day, 279.

[1307] Inderwick, The Interregnum, 46.

[1308] The act of 1650, c. 43: Scobell, Acts and Ordinances, 150, 151, contains a general provision for such a commission in cases of pretended marriages.

[1309] Inderwick, op. cit., 183, 184.

[1310] See the case of "John Buck and Mary his wife" in Inderwick, op. cit., 183. That the justices took a hand in these cases appears to be a reasonable conjecture.

[1311] Something had, however, been done to check this evil by Tudor legislation. The act of 3 H. VII., c. 2, Statutes at Large (Ruffhead), II, 69, provides that if anyone take away against her will any woman, whether maid, widow, or wife, "having substances, some in Goods moveable, and some in Lands and Tenements, and some being Heirs apparent unto their ancestors," and marry her or cause her to be married or deflowered, or in any way aid or abet the same, he shall be guilty of felony; and the act of 39 Elizabeth, c. 9, Statutes at Large, II, 689, deprives such offenders of benefit of clergy. Again by 4 and 5 Philip and Mary, c. 8, Statutes at Large, II, 515, the abduction of a maid under sixteen is punishable by two years' imprisonment or a fine to be fixed by the Star Chamber; while the taking away and marrying or deflowering any woman child under that age is punishable with five years' imprisonment or a fine as in the first case. For these and the earlier statutes regarding rape see The Lawes Resolutions of Womens Rights, 376-90.

These acts, it should be noted, are quite restricted in their range and besides, by 1653, they seem to have become practically a dead letter; although in 1753 Attorney General Ryder declares they are still in force: Hansard, Parliamentary History, XV, 3-5; and so does the act of 1650, c. 43: Scobell, Acts and Ordinances, 151. On the other hand, the act of the Commonwealth applies to all minors under twenty-one, men or women, whether heirs or possessors of property or not; the penalties were severe; and the fraudulent or forcible marriage is void.

[1312] The MSS. of the Duke of Northumberland in Reports of the Hist. Manuscript Commission, III, 55, 59, 61, show entry before the Star Chamber of three such cases: On June 3, 1608, "Atty Gen. v. Thos. Mollineux, Riot and other Misdemeanors in marriage of daughter of Mr. Brooke against his will." Feb. 5, 1611-12, "Atty Gen. v. Humphry and Margaret Chatterton et al. Conspiring to deceive Lord Cavendish of his son, Sir William, aged 14, and King of his Wardship. Supposed contract of marriage between Sir William Cavendish and Margaret Chatterton, a waiting maid." Jan. 1612-13, "Elizabeth de la Fountaine, widow, v. Stephen Harvie et al. Practicing to steal away and marry plaintiff's daughter, aged 8."

[1313] The act (1650, c. 43) in Scobell's Acts and Ordinances, 150, 151.

[1314] Inderwick, op. cit., 40-43: citing State Papers, 1649-50; and Whitelock, op. cit., III, 293, 319.

[1315] For examples of marriages annulled by the quarter sessions under this act see Jeaffreson, Middlesex County Records, III, 233, 234, 264; also Inderwick, op. cit., 43, 45.

[1316] Roberts, The Social History of the People of the Southern Counties of England in past Centuries (London, 1856), 204, 205.

[1317] Burn, Parish Registers, 140 n. 1. By the code of Theodosius, already cited (above, p. 295), when the betrothal was sealed with a kiss, the lover received one-half of the gifts; but the woman, "whether kissing or not kissing, whatsoever she gave, she may ask and have it again": ibid., 140. Compare The Lawes Resolutions of Womens Rights, 71, 72 (on "Wooing" and the "Condiments of Love").

[1318] The following is a specimen of such entry by a justice, taken from the parish register of Shudy Camps, in Cambridgeshire (Burn, op. cit., 26):

"Cambsh.—These are to certifie all whom it may concern y^t Jn^o Wignald Clerke (being elected Register of y^e parish of Shudy Camps by y^e Inhabit^ts. of y^e same Parish as hath appear'd unto me by a Certificate under y^e hands of y^e Inhabitants thereof) did come before me Tho. Benett Esq^r. one of y^e Justices for y^e peace of y^e s^d Countie and did take his oath for y^e due Execution of his office acc^g to y^e late Act of Parliam^t in y^t case made and provided. Which s^d John Wignald I do hereby constitute Register thereof. Accordingly witness my hand and seal this 10 of Jan. 1653. Tho. Benett."

For similar certificates see Stavert, Parish Register of Burnsall-in-Craven, 88; Cowper, The Booke of Register of the Parish of St. Peter in Canterbury, 89; and Waters, Parish Registers in England, 14.

[1319] The fees for registration authorized are for each marriage 12d.; publication and certificate of marriage, 12d.; each birth or death, 4d.; and no charge in case of persons living by alms.

[1320] The parish register of Boston, Lincolnshire, shows "that during the years 1656, 1657, and 1658 respectively the number of marriages proclaimed in the market-place were 102, 104, and 108, and of those announced in the church, 48, 31, 52."—Wood, The Wedding Day, 278, 279.

[1321] The English clerk of the peace keeps the records of the quarter sessions and in a measure corresponds to the county clerk in the United States; cf. Howard, Local Const. Hist., I, 315.

[1322] Burn, Parish Registers, 52.

[1323] Waters, Parish Registers of England, 17.

[1324] The registration for the period of the act is very full in Hoveden, The Register Booke ... of the Cath. and Met. Church of Christe of Cant., 58, 59; Margerison, The Registers of the Parish Church of Calverly, II, 117-24; Stavert, The Parish Register of Burnsall-in-Craven, 87-104. In Phillimore's Gloustershire Parish Registers, I, 9, there are no entries for 1653-54 and for several years before, while they are relatively full thereafter. Bulwer's Parish Registers of St. Martin-cum-Gregory in the City of York, II, 78-87, have a full record both before and after 1660. The same is true of Cowper's Booke of Register of the Parish of St. Peter in Canterbury, 89-92, for the period 1640-60; while before 1640 there are fewer entries, and after 1660 a much less complete record. In Sanders's Registers of Eastham, Cheshire, 75-85, the record begins in 1654 after an interval of ten years; but his Registers of Bebington, County Chester, 129, show a blank for the years 1654-56. Radcliffe's Registers of St. Chad, Saddlworth, supplement, 450-53, 444-49; and the Register Booke of Inglebye iuxta Grenhow, 165-69, are full and very interesting. Compare the other registers named in Bibliographical Note X, showing a few entries each year.

[1325] John Graunt, Natural and Political Observations (3d ed., Oxford, 1665), 158, 159 (Appendix). For calling my attention to this passage I am indebted to the kindness of Professor Charles H. Hull. In the "Introduction" to his edition of Petty's Economic Writings (Cambridge, 1899), I, xxxiv ff., lxxv ff., lxxx ff., may be found an account of Graunt's life and works.

[1326] "The Table of the Parish of Tiverton" (Graunt, Natural and Political Observations, 158, 159):

Graunt's "Table for the Country Parish"—identified by Hull with Romsey in Hampshire (Petty, Economic Writings, II, 412)—affords similar evidence. The table for Cranbrook in Kent ends in 1649.

[1327] Burn, Parish Registers, 40; cf. Waters, Parish Registers of England, 10, 11.

In some books many entries are lacking, or there are breaks for several years together. Often the record is so carelessly made as to be of little value, even when not entirely illegible. Thus at St. Ewe, the "parishioners refusing to allow 5s. per annum for keeping a register, there was none kept for the years 1675-6-7," except two entries: Burn, op. cit., 41. The clerk of Plungar, Leicestershire, made use of the registration book for wrapping paper; and Burn gives many other similar illustrations in his unique volume: ibid., 41 ff.

[1328] See chap. viii, pp. 359 ff., above.

[1329] The most interesting published records of the period which I have seen are those contained in the Register Booke of Inglebye iuxta Grenhow (Canterbury, 1889), extending from March 13, 1654, to May 3, 1659. They are written in English. The next entry thereafter, without a word of comment on the change, is in Latin, as if appropriately to mark the return of the ancien régime. Extracts from various records will be found also in Burn, op. cit., 25, 26, 52, 54, 160 ff.; and of these several are reproduced by Friedberg, Eheschliessung, 327, 328. See also Reports of the Hist. Manuscripts Commission, V, 594 (Par. Registrar, Mendlesham, Suffolk, 1653-57); Notes and Queries, 2d series, III, 306, 307; 3d series, V, 526 (from Wilkinson's Hist. of the Parochial Church of Burnly, 1856); 3d series, I, 228; Gentleman's Magazine, LIV (1784), 8, giving a certificate of a marriage at Stratfield Saye, Southampton, October 2, 1654. It is printed in Jeaffreson, Brides and Bridals, II, 68, 69, note. Compare the registers cited in Bibliographical Note X.

[1330] Henry Scobell was clerk to the Parliament until 1658, and compiler of the "Collections of Acts and Ordinances" of the revolutionary period.

[1331] Waters, op. cit., 16, 17; Burn, op. cit., 160; quoted also by Friedberg, op. cit., 328, note; and Jeaffreson, op. cit., II, 72, 73, note.

[1332] Register Booke of Inglebye iuxta Grenhow, 75.

[1333] Notes and Queries, 2d series, III (1857), 306, 307. For another certificate of the same kind, of a marriage published in the market-place, see Gentleman's Magazine (1784), 8; also quoted by Friedberg, op. cit., 327, 328, note; and other examples may be found in Sanders's Parish Registers of Eastham, 76, note; and Jeaffreson's Middlesex County Records, III, 223.

[1334] The output of controversial literature on this subject may have been great, as Friedberg (op. cit., 328 n. 2) suggests; but the number of pamphlets preserved does not seem to be large. In the valuable collection of the Sutro Library, containing thousands of pamphlets covering nearly every possible question debated at the time, I have been able to discover but two pieces on the civil-marriage law. One of these, a copy of the periodical entitled Several Proceedings of Parliament, publishes the act, which had just passed, without a word of comment. Friedberg had a similar experience in the Berlin Library.

[1335] Flecknoe's Diarium (1656), 83, contains the following, quoted also by Burn (op. cit., 163), Jeaffreson (op. cit., II, 74, 75), and Friedberg (op. cit., 329):

"On the Justice of Peace's Making Marriages And the Crying Them in the Marcket.

1

2

3 and 4

[Indecent stanzas.]

5

6

7 and 8

[Two stanzas with indecent references.]

9

10

11

[1336] Wootton, Linc.: Burn, Parish Registers, 26 n. 1.

[1337] Burn, op. cit., 161.

[1338] Ibid., 161. See similar examples in Waters, Parish Registers in England, 18, 19.

[1339] Friedberg, Eheschliessung, 325; Geschichte der Civilehe, 13, 14.

[1340] Milton, Prose Works (Bohn, 1848), III, 21, 22. This volume contains a series of discussions on marriage and divorce, which together embody all the learning which the Puritan could produce in support of his theories: The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce; The Judgment of Martin Bucer; Tetrachordon; Colasterion, etc.

Milton does not anywhere discuss the form of solemnization (cf. Friedberg, op. cit., 327, note). In his "Exposition on Places of Scripture which treat of Marriage" (Works, III, 341-46), after considering the definitions given by many writers, he produces one of his own. "Marriage," he says, "is a divine institution, joining man and woman in a love fitly disposed to the helps and comforts of domestic life." But he rejects the doctrine of the Fathers and canonists that marriage is a "remedy." The "internal Form and soul of this relation is conjugal love arising from a mutual fitness to the final causes of wedlock, help and society in religious, civil, and domestic conversation, which includes as an inferior end the fulfilling of natural desire, and specifical increase."—Ibid., 342.

[1341] 12 C. II., c. 33: Statutes at Large, III, 24. Cf. Friedberg, op. cit., 330. It is curious to see Ashton, The Fleet: Its River, Prison, and Marriages (London, 1889), 332, referring to this act as designed merely to legalize common law or private marriages before witnesses, making no mention whatever of the act of 1653.

[1342] 5 and 6 W. III., c. 21: Statutes at Large, III, 358-62.

[1343] It should be remembered that even in case of the secret or irregular marriages the priest often officiated. The great object was to avoid publicity. Hence churches which were or claimed to be free from the visitations or oversight of the bishop allowed marriage without banns or license. This became a lucrative source of revenue. For example, in the church of St. James, Duke's Place, between 1664 and 1691, about forty thousand marriages were thus celebrated; and many were celebrated at Trinity Minores: Burn, Fleet Marriages, 2-5; idem, Parish Registers, 146; Friedberg, Eheschliessung, 332-35. Cf. also Jeaffreson's chapter on "Prisons and 'Lawless' Churches," in Brides and Bridals, II, 115-21.

[1344] 6 and 7 W. III., c. 6, § 52: Statutes at Large, III, 370. Cf. Hammick, Marriage Law of England, 10; also Jeaffreson's chapter on "Taxes on Celibacy," op. cit., II, 78 ff., and 131 ff., 167 ff.

[1345] Violations of the law did not, however, invalidate the marriage: Lecky, England in the 18th Century, I, 531.

[1346] Cf. Jeaffreson, op. cit., II, 168, 169.

[1347] Extract from 7 and 8 W. III., c. 35: Statutes at Large, III, 422.

[1348] "But this penalty was not renewed at each violation of the act, and the offender was able by a writ of error to obtain a delay of about a year and a half, during which time he carried on his profession without molestation, made at least 400 l. or 500 l. and then frequently absconded."—Lecky, Hist. of Eng. in the 18th Century, I, 533; cf. Burn, Fleet Marriages, 6.

[1349] For full details as to the history of the Fleet, see Ashton, The Fleet: Its River, Prison, and Marriages, especially 233 ff., 237 ff., 331 ff. "The rules of liberties of this comprehend all Ludgate-Hill to the Old Bailey on the north side, and to the Cock-alley on the south; both sides of the Old Bailey to Fleet-lane; all Fleet-lane and the east-side of the marcket, from Fleet-lane to Ludgate Hill."—Harrison, New and Universal Hist. of London (London, 1776), II, 447; Friedberg, 336 n. 4. Cf. also Jeaffreson, op. cit., II, 122 ff.

[1350] Burn, op. cit., 7, 8; Ashton, op. cit., 332, 338; Tegg, The Knot Tied, 202. These chaplains "of course, married people after publication of banns in their own chapels according to law;" and doubtless some of the weddings before them were entirely respectable. Such was probably the marriage in the Fleet of George Lester and Mistress Babbington as early as 1613: Burn, op. cit., 5; Ashton, op. cit., 335, 338; Tegg, op. cit., 199. But in these chapels as well as out of them clandestine marriages were solemnized. Here is an example from the Original Weekly Journal of Sept. 26, 1719: "One Mrs. Anne Leigh, an heiress of £200. per annum and £6000. ready cash, having been decoyed away from her friends in Buckinghamshire, and married at the Fleet chapel against her consent; we hear the Lord Chief Justice Pratt hath issued out his warrant for apprehending the authors of this contrivance, who had used the young lady so barbarously, that she now lyes speechless."—Burn, op. cit., 7 n. 2; also Ashton, op. cit., 338, 339. Celebration in the Fleet chapel, not elsewhere, was put an end to by the act of 10 Anne, c. 19. Cf. Hammick, The Marriage Law of England, 11; Burn, op. cit., 8.

[1351] Ashton, op. cit., 340.

[1352] The following is a copy of the "hand-bill" of Peter Symson taken from Burn's Fleet Marriages, 54:

Symson, as he says, was not a prisoner. Like "many of his fellows," he was witness in a bigamy trial in 1751. He was asked: "Why did you marry them without license?"

"Symson—Because somebody would have done it, if I had not.... Never had a benefice in my life. I have had little petty curacies about £20 or £30 per year. I don't do it for lucre or gain.

"Court—You might have exposed your person had you gone on the highway, but you'd do less prejudice to your country a good deal. You are a nuisance to the public; and the gentlemen of the jury, it is to be hoped, will give but little credit to you."—Burn, op. cit., 55; Ashton, op. cit., 357, 358. On Symson (or Symsen) see also Jeaffreson, op. cit., II, 152.

[1353] Friedberg, op. cit., 341; quoted also by Ashton, op. cit., 359; and Burn, op. cit., 59.

[1354] Pennant, Some Account of London (3d ed., 1793), 232; Ashton, op. cit., 344; also in Burn, op. cit., 16, note.

[1355] Lecky, Eng. in 18th Century, I, 5-31; Burn, op. cit., 8; Friedberg, op. cit., 341, who quotes the following from the Weekly Journal, 1723, June 29: "Several of the above mentioned brandy-men and victualers keep clergymen in their houses at 20 shillings per week each, hit or miss, but its reported that one there will stoop to no such low conditions, but makes at least 500 pounds per annum of Divinity-jobs after that manner." Cf. also Tegg, The Knot Tied, 205, note, for the same extract.

[1356] John Gainham, the "wrynecked parson," as he is frequently called in the contemporary newspapers, rejoiced in the significant title of "Bishop of Hell." When asked by an advocate whether he was "not ashamed to come and own a clandestine marriage in the face of a court of justice," he blandly replied: Video meliora, deteriora sequor. The following lines from the "Morning Walk, 8°, 1751" (Burn, Parish Registers, 155), may be compared with similar lines reprinted by Ashton (op. cit., 345, 346):

[1357] On Gainham see Burn, Parish Registers, 155, 156; idem, Fleet Marriages, 49-53; Ashton, The Fleet, 344-47; Friedberg, Eheschliessung, 339, 340; Jeaffreson, Brides and Bridals, II, 151.