marriage check please 1791 TAYLOR & GODDEN

[familydar]

Widower George TAYLOR married widow Mary GODDEN/GODDIN by licence at Islington St Mary on 7th Feb 1791.  BOTP.  This was after banns had been called on the preceding three Sundays at St Alphage London Wall.  Again BOTP.

Two questions:
1.  Why would a couple do this?  By which I mean have banns called but marry by licence.
2.  I've downloaded both images from A*y, neither name the parish that the register is supposed to represent.  The banns tally with a Boyds index entry found on FindMyPast but I wonder if the marriage wasn't Islington St Mary at all, would someone with a subscription (I don't, I use my local library) be prepared to scroll back/forward for me please to see if the parish is identified anywhere on the marriage register.

Thanks in anticipation.

Jane :-)

[Bookbox]

Both parishes seem to have been correctly labelled by Ancestry. This can be checked by entering the document references cited by Ancestry into LMA's online catalogue, using the correct format (with slashes and leading 0s, etc.)

Marriage by licence at Islington - P83/MRY1/1196

Banns at St Alphage, London Wall - P69/ALP/A/004/MS05747/001

The Vicar-General marriage licence index shows the licence was obtained on 4 February 1791, so pretty much a last-minute decision, between the 2nd and 3rd banns reading. The marriage allegation/bond could be checked for any further clues, and it should at least clarify the parish of residence.

Otherwise, I think you can only speculate. Maybe they planned to marry at St Alphage but changed their minds, and the banns continued to be read there, regardless of the change of plan? The couple would not have needed to be present in person when the banns were read.

As George Taylor was a clergyman himself, perhaps he had strong feelings about either the church or the clergyman at St Alphage? Or perhaps the curate at Islington turned out to be a personal friend? Speculation! 

[familydar]

Thanks Bookbox for your prompt reply.

Does anyone know whether St Alphage was a Catholic church in 1791?  Wikipedia suggests it was at some point.  Not being a religious person myself I have no idea whether this might have a bearing, just putting it out there for discussion (or not!).

I'm planning a visit to SoG sometime this summer so I'll put the marriage licence on my look-up list.  The SoG record details suggest marriages by licence were much commoner than I'd previously assumed and not just for couples from different parishes.

My interest is in Mary more than George.  All I know about George is that Mary married him after her first husband died leaving her with at least one infant (later named as beneficiary in a Will).  Wish the surname was less common, I suspect I'll never manage to track down what happened to them.

best wishes
Jane :-)

[Bookbox]

In 1791 St Alphage, London Wall, was an Anglican church.

[familydar]

Thanks for all your help Bookbox, I'll mark this as closed now.

Jane :-)

[CereUK]

On the Banns it states both of this Parish,