Quaker Marriage

[Bekki]

Hello
I have an image from a Quaker marriage register (RG6/496 Public Record Office).  It is a really long text and difficult to read. The date is June 1713.

Can anyone tell me if Quaker marriages had 'set text' they wrote in the register, or were they all worded differently.  It would save me having to try to decipher it all.

They are the only Quakers I can find in my family - so I have no experience on this subject

Thank you
Bekki
 

[stanmapstone]

According to http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~engqfhs/Research/records.htm#Marriages the procedure was only standardised after 1753.

Stan

[Bekki]

Thanks Stan
Does this mean that it was not a legal marriage ?
As there is a whole page of writing - who would have written/worded this ?
The 'wedding' took place in Denonshire House and there appear to be several witness names at the foot of the page (I cannot read them all)

[Elwyn Soutter]

I have seen quite a few Quaker marriages in Ireland from the 1700s and there are usually 20 or 30 witnesses names. It looks to me as though the norm was for everyone present to sign.

[stanmapstone]

Yes it was a legal marriage. The reason it was standardised after 1753 was probably because of Hardwicke's Marriage Act of that year, although Section XVIII of the Act excluded Quakers and Jews from its provisions.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~framland/acts/1753.htm

Stan

[stanmapstone]

I have seen quite a few Quaker marriages in Ireland from the 1700s and there are usually 20 or 30 witnesses names. It looks to me as though the norm was for everyone present to sign.

That is right, after the ceremony the whole congregation is invited to sign the certificate. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/subdivisions/quakers_1.shtml#h7

Stan