Clandestine marriage??

[fantasyfudge]

Hi,
Im fairly new to all of this and have just discovered that there is a Clandestine Marriage register and my Great x 6 granddads marriage is on it.
Could someone please explain to me what a clandestine marriage.
My Great x 6 granddad  was a Huguenot but his wife I believe was not.
Thanks in advance.
Karen

[stanmapstone]

Before 1754 "A marriage was regarded as 'clandestine' if it failed to comply with one or more of the requirements of canon law. Yet as long as an Anglican clergyman had presided, it was nevertheless still valid."
"Marriage Law for Genealogists" Rebecca Probert.

Stan

[stanmapstone]

An Act for the better preventing of clandestine Marriages. [1753.] Hardwicke's Marriage Act 1753 required every marriage – with the exception only of those of the Jews and the Quakers - to be solemnised in the Church of  England parish church or chapel of one of the parties - and in the presence of at least two witnesses.
26 Geo II, c.33 (1753) [Clandestine Marriages]. (Hardwicke) http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~framland/acts/1753.htm
The Act came into effect 25 March 1754

Stan

[jim1]

Clandestine marriages took place outside of the Parish church." street corner marriages " as they were sometimes called would be undertaken by a Clergyman on the spot for a fee.
The above act was set to stop this practice which was commonplace particularly in London.

[stanmapstone]

The Fleet Debtors Prison was notorious for clandestine marriages. A careful analysis of the Fleet marriage registers has led  the historian Lee Brown to estimate that by 1740 over 6,600 marriages were being celebrated there each year. "Marriage Law for Genealogists" by Rebecca Probert. ISBN 9780956384713

See earlier post http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=657418.0

Stan

[Liz_in_Sussex]

 

Hi Stan,

Could you (or anyone else) explain why my 6 x G Grandparents had not one, but two, Fleet marriages? 

I was quite happy when I found the first, in September 1741, which looks like it has been scribbled in the clergyman's scruffy little note book!  But then to my amazement Edward Head (batchelor) and Jane Dench (spinster) married again in April 1742, this time recorded in a more official looking book.  I'm sure it's the same couple - there can't have been many blacksmiths in Horley of that name!

Thanks,

Liz 

[stanmapstone]

Because of their irregular nature, the registers and notebooks in the Fleet Registers series need to be used with care. The information in them is not always reliable, with some duplicated entries and others that are known to be forged. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/research-guides/nonconformists.htm

Stan

[Liz_in_Sussex]

  Ahh. thank you very much - an interesting link which will be bookmarked!

So Edward and Jane were probably married in 1741 and the neater book was written up of marriages which had happened previously - but with the wrong dates. 

A complicated family all round ... Jane was older than Edward, already had an illegitimate son who, although he bore his birth father's name, must have been accepted by his step-dad as he followed him into the family business 

Thanks,

Liz