Is this marriage legal?

[merlot59]

My great-grandparents were married in a church in Derbyshire in 1903. The vicar was Revd George Claridge, vicar of St Thomas Church, Heigham, Norwich. The problem is he was the son of the vicar of St Thomas Church (Revd Charles Claridge) and never was a vicar before or after this time. So were my great-grandparents legally married or not?

[groom]

I see that in 1901, George was a medical student aged 21, so he would have only been 23 at the time he performed the marriage. In the next census he was a Medical Practioner Pathologist, so didn't change professions. I wonder if he was a lay preacher or similar and so licenced to perform marriages?

Are you certain that it is the same George Claridge?  There was a J. T. Claridge (Asst Curate) performing marriages in 1907 in Emmanuel Parish Church, Swadlincote, Derbyshire.

[arthurk]

I'll answer these in the wrong order - the reply to groom's will be quicker.

I wonder if he was a lay preacher or similar and so licenced to perform marriages?

A lay preacher wouldn't have been permitted to perform marriages - it's a job for clergy only.

Are you certain that it is the same George Claridge?  There was a J. T. Claridge (Asst Curate) performing marriages in 1907 in Emmanuel Parish Church, Swadlincote, Derbyshire.

The 1908 Crockford's Clerical Directory indicates that he was Curate of Swadlincote from 1903 to 1908, when he moved to Winshill in the Diocese of Southwell. However, if the certificate/register entry specifically says the officiating minister was "vicar of St Thomas Church, Heigham, Norwich", that rather rules out the chap in Swadlincote.

The vicar was Revd George Claridge, vicar of St Thomas Church, Heigham, Norwich.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm guessing you have this from the marriage certificate - and I'm wondering if there might have been a mistake in copying Mr Claridge's name.

(a) Church of England marriages are recorded in two supposedly identical registers. If you've seen an original register, then unless the minister was having a seriously off day, the signature should tell you what he thought his name was.

(b) At the end of every quarter, the clergy responsible for keeping the registers write out a copy of all the entries that took place in the preceding 3 months, and send this to the Superintendent Registrar for their district. The Superintendent Registrar collates these and sends them off to the GRO, and they are used as the basis for the GRO index and for GRO-produced marriage certificates.

(c) When marriages registers are full, one copy is deposited with the Superintendent Registrar, who uses it to produce marriage certificates. (The other one is kept at the church, or preferably deposited in the relevant record office.)

A GRO marriage certificate as in (b) above will have printed on the bottom that it is a copy of a certified copy of the register - in other words two steps removed from the original. In this case, the minister performing the ceremony (if he was Charles) was from miles away, so if he had poor handwriting, it's possible that the local minister got his name wrong when completing the quarterly return. Or perhaps the GRO misread the quarterly return itself.

These days, local register offices as in (c) above often have facilities to photocopy the original registers when producing certificates, which is as good as (a), but if they don't (and in the past none of them would have done) they have to interpret the original as they think best - and again, poor handwriting from a minister they weren't familiar with could have led to a misreading.

I hope this helps - My gut feeling is that it would have been Charles who conducted the ceremony, but with a bit more information, it may be possible to be more definite. One interesting aspect is why a vicar from Norwich was conducting a marriage in Derbyshire - though this isn't strictly relevant to the original query.

Arthur

[groom]

One interesting aspect is why a vicar from Norwich was conducting a marriage in Derbyshire - though this isn't strictly relevant to the original query.

I wondered that. In my tree I have a vicar from Maidstone Kent, conducting a marriage in London, but that is because the groom was his nephew. He also nipped up from Kent and buried several of the family as well.

[merlot59]

My great-grandfather came from Norfolk so we think he may have had some connection to the Claridge family but don't know how. The marriage took place at Dore Parish Church which was in Derbyshire but is now in Yorkshire (on the outskirts of Sheffield), so not that close to Swadlincote. I have the marriage certificate and someone has checked the original register for me and both say Revd George Claridge, vicar of St Thomas Church, Heigham, Norwich - and this is the only marriage he performed at the church. I've also checked the records of St Thomas, Heigham and the real Revd Claridge (Charles) didn't perform any baptisms or weddings around the time of the wedding so he could have been in Derbyshire at the time of the wedding.

[arthurk]

OK, you seem to have looked into this pretty well already. One more thing I wondered was whether you might be able to look at any marriages that Charles conducted at St Thomas Heigham around that time, to see how he signed his own registers.

Another possible scenario: suppose Charles forgot to sign the registers while he was in Dore, and someone faked his signature later (and got it wrong).

Have you looked for newspaper reports? It's a period when you might find quite full accounts of weddings, and a clergyman from miles away might have been considered newsworthy. With any luck it might also clarify his connection to the family.

Arthur

[ThrelfallYorky]

However this pans out, would the actual marriage, presumably performed in a licensed church, in front of the congregation, and in good faith (presumably) by the participants, be legal? I've found instances in records of the wrong name being given for a bride or groom ( parent's name given instead) and presumably these were not subsequently seen as invalid, but rather evidence of forgetfulness or later writing up of records?

[merlot59]

I've checked the registers of St Thomas Church, Heigham and Revd Charles signs differently to how the signature is on the record at Dore. I'm told there was a Marriage Act in 1948 that gave stricter rules than previously about how marriages were to be perfomed but obviously this marriage pre-dates this Act. There is some doubt as to whether the couple and congregation were acting in good faith as it's possible my great-grandfather knew the Claridges with them both being from Norfolk.

How would I go about checking the newspaper records? I think that's a good idea Arthur, as it would be something unusual.

[groom]

It seems very odd that a young man studying to be a doctor would risk his career by pretending to be a vicar, and surely the real vicar of the church would have queried it?