134 report— 1842. 



MARRIAGES. 



Till within these three years the amount of proclamations of marriages has 

 generally been given as the amount of marriages, both in the Glasgow and 

 Dundee mortality bills, the only towns in Scotland where attention has been 

 paid to the regular publication of bills of mortality. The preceding tables of 

 the proclamations of marriages for Edinburgh and Leith, Glasgow, Aberdeen, 

 Perth and Dundee, furnish sufficient evidence, that to assume the total num- 

 ber of the proclamations as the amount of marriages, in any case, is exceedingly 

 fallacious. For example, Table III. shows that in Edinburgh, in 1839, the 

 proclamations of marriages amounted to 1269, whereas the number of regular 

 marriages (Table I.) amounted only to 1026. A similar difference will be ob- 

 served between the amount of proclamations and the number of marriages du- 

 ring the several years for all these towns, arising from a number of the parties 

 residing in different parishes, in which cases there are two proclamations for 

 one marriage. The arrangement which ha3 been followed in these tables is 

 that lately adopted in the Glasgow mortality bills ; and, in the event of the 

 clergyman who celebrated the marriages, as well as the other parties con- 

 cerned, having adhered to their strict line of duty in enforcing the parties 

 married to produce the proper warrants of the proclamations of banns from 

 their respective parishes, the accuracy of the results in these tables is not to 

 be doubted. It is known, however, that several irregularities take place with 

 regard to the fulfilment of the law, in relation to the proclamations of mar- 

 riages, — a circumstance which necessarily produces some inaccuracy, however 

 slight, in the results brought out in the marriage tables. 



The proclamation fees are considerably lower in some parishes of Scotland 

 than in others, and parties have been known to make false statements of their 

 places of residence to escape paying the higher fee ; this has taken place 

 more especially in those cases where one of the parties resided in the parish 

 where the low fees are paid. In other cases this irregularity has taken place to 

 save the payment of double fees, which would be necessary, were the parties 

 proclaimed in their respective parishes as required by law. Cases are also 

 known in which ministers have married parties on the production of one 

 warrant, although the parties were known to have resided in different pa- 

 rishes ; so that marriages have taken place in a few instances where the warr 

 rants were not called for. On the other hand, some cases have occurred in 

 which the parties were not married although the warrants were called for. 

 These cases may therefore be considered as balancing each other ; and not- 

 withstanding these irregularities, the foregoing tables of marriages, con^ 

 structed as they are from the returns made by the respective session clerks, 

 may be considered as nearer to the truth than any tables in other depart- 

 ments of vital statistics in Scotland, arising from the very defective and par- 

 tial system of registering births and deaths that exists in the country. 



Edinburgh. 



It will be found, that of the inhabitants of the city of Edinburgh, including 

 the parishes of St. Cuthbert's and the Canongate, the average annual number 

 of males married during the years 1839, 1840, and 1841 is 1009|, females 

 1050£ ; the total average annual number of individuals married during these 

 years being 2060. 



