Author Topic: Could widow marry deceased husband's brother?  (Read 14101 times)

Offline BridgetM

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Could widow marry deceased husband's brother?
« on: Monday 06 June 11 12:45 BST (UK) »
Was it legal in 17th century England for a widow to marry her deceased husband's brother?  If so, did the Church of England also allow it?  What about the Catholic Church?  (The time period I'm interested in is about 1620-1650.)

Thanks,
Bridget

Offline Seoras

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Re: Could widow marry deceased husband's brother?
« Reply #1 on: Monday 06 June 11 12:48 BST (UK) »
Not sure Bridget but Henry VIII married his dead brother's wife.
SCOTLAND: Wardlaw Steen/Stein Tweedie McBride McEwan Pate/Peat Brown Somerville Bishop Farier/Ferrier Wood  Torrance Gibb Ross Dunlop Downs Richardson Ramsey Story Snaddon/Sneddon Auld Allan McLean McInnes Mason Law Lawson Kerr Cockburn Christie Ballingall Wardrope Weir Wallace Scott.
IRELAND: Welsh Clifford Lee Allingham Keane Dale Robinson Greer McVey Bingham Skelton Carson Broomfield Clark McEwan/McKeown McCreary McLaughlan.
YORKSHIRE: Cudworth Smith Cope Coulton Hainsworth

Offline toni*

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Re: Could widow marry deceased husband's brother?
« Reply #2 on: Monday 06 June 11 12:51 BST (UK) »
Holman & Vinton- Cornwall, Wojciechowskyj & Hussak- Bukowiec & Zahutyn, Bentley & Richards- Leicester, Taylor-Kent/Sussex  Punnett-Sussex,  Bear/e- Monkleigh Gazey-Warwicks

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Offline BridgetM

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Re: Could widow marry deceased husband's brother?
« Reply #3 on: Monday 06 June 11 12:54 BST (UK) »
Thanks, Toni.  I thought I had read that somewhere.  But this just mentions the Church of England.  Would the Catholic Church have had the same prohibitions?


Offline toni*

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Re: Could widow marry deceased husband's brother?
« Reply #4 on: Monday 06 June 11 13:04 BST (UK) »
personally i thought they would have
Catholics seem to be more Strict then Christians (yes i know they are effectively the same thing i got jumped on before for saying that) what i mean is Catholics don't agree with abortions or women priests or divorce whereas Christians do
however that is my opinion and i do not know maybe they encouraged it so that the wife and kiddies were taken care of within the family.

 
Holman & Vinton- Cornwall, Wojciechowskyj & Hussak- Bukowiec & Zahutyn, Bentley & Richards- Leicester, Taylor-Kent/Sussex  Punnett-Sussex,  Bear/e- Monkleigh Gazey-Warwicks

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Offline stanmapstone

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Re: Could widow marry deceased husband's brother?
« Reply #5 on: Monday 06 June 11 13:12 BST (UK) »
For listings (back to biblical times) of forbidden relationships due to Affinity or Consanguinity see
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~framland/acts/affinity.htm

Stan
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Offline Jeuel

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Re: Could widow marry deceased husband's brother?
« Reply #6 on: Monday 06 June 11 16:54 BST (UK) »
But plenty of people did marry their deceased spouse's siblings, I've got plenty of examples in my research. The fact that something is forbidden/illegal doesn't mean it doesn't happen!

Chowns in Buckinghamshire
Broad, Eplett & Pope in St Ervan/St Columb Major, Cornwall
Browning & Moore in Cambridge, St Andrew the Less
Emms, Mealing & Purvey in Cotswolds, Gloucestershire
Barnes, Dunt, Gray, Massingham in Norfolk
Higho in London
Matthews & Nash in Whichford, Warwickshire
Smoothy, Willsher in Coggeshall & Chelmsford, Essex


Offline halhawk

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Re: Could widow marry deceased husband's brother?
« Reply #8 on: Monday 06 June 11 19:06 BST (UK) »
Hi

In answer to your query about whether the Catholic Church would allow marriage within the degrees of consanguinity and affinity, it was possible to get a dispensation.   I believe (subject to correction) it could only be officially granted by the Pope, although the actual work of sorting it out would be done through first a local Bishop and then the Roman Curia.
BARNES - Gloucestershire (Forest of Dean)
FORD - Gloucestershire
FROWEN - Gloucestershire; Canada (Ontario)
HAWKINS - Gloucestershire (Forest of Dean), Canada, Australia, South Africa
HAYNES - Gloucestershire
KNIGHT - Deerhurst, Gloucestershire
MAYO - Gloucestershire (Forest of Dean)
PAYNE - Frome, Somerset; Stroud, Gloucestershire
PRIDAY - Gloucestershire, Australia
SHIPWAY - Stroud, Gloucestershire