Berkshire marriage licences

[Capetown]

There is also a Licence for this marriage on the same site.

James is over 21 and Mary is aged 28.

[ribbo39]

Hi cape town,

What a lovely site. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.
I have already registered and found two marriage allegations.

Alan

[Sloe Gin]

I am always surprised how far people were from home when the married....
I've checked with the Gloucestershire Marriage Allegations 1637-1837 and Marriage Bonds 1730-1823 - on the Forest of Dean Family History website....  free to join, just register.
Around the date you are looking for....  there is
24 Jly 1762
James ANDREWS, occupation: Hemp dresser - residence: Fairford
to
Mary WHITEHORNE, Spinster, residence: Wantage in the County of Berks and diocese of Sarum
Marriage by Bond:
He signs
witness 1: Joseph PRICE of Fairford, Carpenter
The groom and Joseph PRICE are bound to the sum of £200 to marry at Wantage.

Wantage is only about 20 miles from Fairford.

It may seem further because it's different counties, but in that area there are four counties adjacent to each other, whose boundaries have been quite fluid over time.
Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire.

[Capetown]

The Gloucestershire Marriage Licence and Bonds transcribed on the Forest of Dean Website - who do show people who have come from far afield - for example..... there are 12 from Liverpool between 1732 and 1805 ..... 17 from Manchester. 3 from Scotland, 4 from France etc.    assume because of the waterways, rivers etc. 

There is usually two copies - one the Bond the other the Licence - sometimes the surnames can be spelt different - and the place names are also different, (earlier spellings) - so it's worth checking - various options, i.e. surnames and places names.

[Galium]

Hi, Capetown. The Forest of Dean site is great for marriage licence records, and always worth mentioning, so thank you for that.  The coincidence of names Whitehorne and Price in the one you quote is interesting. Unfortunately the marriage records I am looking for are of people from Berkshire (and in one case Wiltshire), marrying in Berkshire. I did have a look, just in case.

Alan, I don't know what it is that familysearch have, but the West Challow entries say that there are accompanying images. Only viewable at one of their centres, but still, there must be something there.

Elizabeth Price's father Thomas died in 1741. His PCC will mentions his two daughters, the elder being Mary born c1735 (baptism also on familysearch). One of the witnesses is an Elizabeth Spicer.

Mary Price married a John Smith from Goosey (Sarum bond). I suspect it is their daughter Elizabeth, baptised at West Challow in 1755 (according to familysearch), who married John Belcher, Richard's younger brother.  (These families will keep marrying their relatives! It doesn't make things easier trying to sort them out)

[Capetown]

I will have to look at my files etc. as I know Lizzie Belcher, was a witness to my Grandma’s marriage in West Hanney.  Also the website on the net by the Berkshire Records Office on the Enclosures etc.  Website: BRO: New Landscapes     (www.berkshireenclosure.org.uk)
has many maps and documents full of information.  I’ve got a book produced by the West Hanney History Group.   Will have a look later.

[riholt]

The FamilySearch film is of a later index of the Berkshire Archdeaconry licence records. It's not clear if both bonds and allegations survived until the destruction in WWII. The index records the names of both parties and parishes of residence. They do not contain additional information that would have been on the licensing records.

This can at least confirm where the licence would have been issued, even if the bond/allegation is no longer extant. There is a very small folder of bonds that survive for Berkshire. These are likely bonds that somehow made their way into other collections. There are only a small handful of these, so most no longer survive.

[Galium]

Thank you for that, riholt.  I haven't been working on this family for a while, and will need to go over what I have and don't have still.

And a very belated thanks for your last post, Capetown, with apologies for failing to reply in a timely manner.  I don't know how that happened, but it was not intentional.