MARRIAGE. 



MARRIAGE. 



aeendlisi to the imsei of the Quakers or Jews, or according to any 

 form authorised by that Act, one of the parties is to give notice accord 

 ing to the form set out in the Aot, to the superintendent registrar of 

 the district or each of the districts within which the parties hare dwelt 

 for seven days then next preceding, stating the name and surname, and 

 the profession or condition, and the dwelling-place of each, and the 

 time (not less than seven dajri) during which each has dwelt therein, 

 and the church or building in which the marriage is to be solemnised 

 (a, 4). 



After the expiration of seven days, if the marriage is to be solemnised 

 by licence (that is, from the surrogate, or officer of the ecclesiastical 

 court), or of twenty-one days, if w ithout licence, the su|wrin- 

 registrar, upon request, in to issue a certificate, provided no lawful 

 impediment be shown, stating the particulars set forth in the notice, 

 the day on which it was entered, that the full period of seven days or 

 of twenty-one days has elapsed since the entry of nuch notice, and th.it 

 the issue of such certificate has not been forbidden by any authorised 

 person (s. 7). (This provision does not apply to marriages by licence 

 celebrated according to the rites of the Church of Kngland.) The like 

 consent is required to a marriage solemnised by licence, as would have 

 been required to marriages by licence before the passing of the Act (that 

 is, by 4 Geo. IV., c. 76, SB. 16 ft 17); and every person whose consent to 

 a marriage by licence is required by law is authorised to forbid the 

 issue of the superintendent registrar's certificate (s. 10). Every super- 

 intendent registrar may grant licences for marriage in any building 

 registered within any district under his superintendence, or in his 

 office (s. 11). Before any licence for marriage can be granted by a 

 superintendent registrar, one of the parties must appear personally 

 before him, and must, in case the notice of the intended marriage has 

 not been given to the came superintendent registrar, deliver to bun the 

 certificate of the superintendent registrar or registrars to whom such 

 notice has been given ; anil such parties must make oath, affirmation, 

 or declaration, that he or aha believes that there U not any impediment 

 of kindred or alliance, or other lawful hindrance, to the marriage, and 

 that one of the parties has for fifteen days immediately before the day 

 of the grant of the licence (or rather the day of the making of the 

 oath, fto.), had his or her usual place of abode within the district in 

 which such marriage is to be solemnised ; and where either party, not 

 being a widower or widow, is under twenty-one, that the consent of the 

 person or persons whoen consent to such marriage is required by law 

 hae been obtained thereto, or that there is no person having authority 

 to give such consent (s. 12). No marriage after notice, unless by 

 virtue of a licence by the superintendent registrar, is to be solemnised 

 or registered until after the expiration of twenty-one days after entry of 

 notice, and no marriage is to be solemnised by the licence of any super- 

 intendent registrar, or registered, until after the expiration of seven 

 days after the day of the entry of notice (s. 14). Whenever a marriage 

 is not had within three calendar months after notice entered by the 

 superintendent registrar, the notice and certificate, and any licence 

 granted thereupon, and all other proceedings, become utterly void j and 

 no person can proceed to solemnise the marriage, nor can any registrar 

 register the same, until new notice, entry, and certificate (a. 10). The 

 certificate of the superintendent (or superintendents) is to be delivered 

 to the officiating minister, if the marriage is to be solemnised according 

 to she rites of the Church of Kngland ; and such certificate or licence 

 is to be delivered to the registering officer of Quakers for the place 

 where the marriage is solemnised, if the same shall be solemnized 

 according to their usages ; or to the officer of a synagogue by whom the 

 marriage ie registered, if to be solemnised according to the usages of 

 persons professing the Jewish religion ; and in all other cases it is to 

 be delivered to the registrar present at the marriage (t. 16). 



Any proprietor, or trustee, of a separate building, certified, according 

 to law, as a place of religious worship, may apply to the superintend- 

 ent registrar, in order that such Imilding may be registered for 

 nlcsMising marriages therein j and in such oases he is to deliver to the 

 superintendent registrar a certificate signed in duplicate by twenty 

 householders, that such building has been used by them during one 

 year as their usual place of public religious worship, and that they 

 are desirous that the place shall be registered ; each of which cer- 

 tificates is to be countersigned by the proprietor or trustee by whom 

 the SUM 1s to be delivered, and the superintendent registrar is to 

 scad both certificates to the registrar-general, who is to register such 

 Imiktlng aocnrdingly, and Indorse on both certificates the date of the 

 registry, end to beep one certificate with the other records of the gene- 

 ral register office, and to return the other certificate to the superintend 

 eat registrar, who is to keep the same with the other records of In- 

 ofllce; and the superintendent registrar is to enter the date of tin- 

 registry of each building, and is to give a certificate of such registry 

 under hie hand, on parchment or vellum, to the proprietor or trustee 

 i-y whom the certificates are countersigned, and is to give public notice 

 of the registry thereof, by advertisement In some newspaper circulat- 

 ing within the county and in the ' London Oasette 1 . 



After the expiration of the twenty-one days, or of seven days, if the 

 imnltgl Is by licence (that Is, from the surrogate), it may be solotn- 

 nsssi la the registered trailding stated in the notice, between and l.y 

 the parties described in the notice and certificate according to mich 

 firm and ceremony as they may sec fit to adopt, every such marriage 

 to be solemnised with open doors between eight and twelve in the fore- 



noon, in the presence of some registrar of the district in which the 

 building is siluaterand of two witnesses. 



In some part of the ceremony, and in the presence of a registrar and 

 witnesses, each of the parties is to declare 



I do solemnly declare, that I know not of any lawful impedi- 

 ment why I, A. B., may not be joined in matrimony to C'. I >.' 



And each of the parties is to say to the other 



1 IM!| .]]. u these persons here present, to witness that 

 I, A. B., do take thee, C. D., to be my lawful weddod wife (or 

 husband).' 



Provided also, that there be no lawful Impediment to the marriage of 

 such parties (s. 20). Persons who object to marry in any such regis- 

 tered building may, after due notice and certifioate issued, contract and 

 solemnise marriage at the office of the superintendent registrar, and in 

 his presence and in that of some registrar of the district, and of two 

 witnesses, with open doors, and between the hours aforesaid, making 

 the declaration and using the form of words as above (s. 31). After 

 any marriage solemnised, it is not necessary, in support of such marri- 

 age, to give proof of the actual dwelling of either of the parties 

 'previous to the marriage within the district for the time required by 

 the act, or of the consent of any person whose consent is required ; nor 

 is evidence admissible to prove the contrary in any suit tom-liiiu 1 tin- 

 validity of such marriage (B. 25). The registr.u- before whom any mar- 

 riage is solemnised according to the provisions of this act may ask of 

 the parties to be married the several particulars required to be regis- 

 tered touching such marriage (s. 86). Every person knowingly and 

 wilfully making any false declaration, or signing any false notice or 

 certifioate required by this Act, for the purpose of procuring any mar- 

 riage, and every person forbidding the issue of any superintendent 

 registrar's certificate by falsely representing himself or herself to be n 

 person whose consent to such marriage Is required by law, knowing 

 such representation to bo false, is to suffer the penalties of ] 

 (s. 88). If any person knowingly and wilfully intermarry under the 

 provisions of this Act, in any place other than the church, i-lmpel, 

 registered building, or office, or place specified in the notice and 

 certificate, or without due notice to the superintendent regis- 

 trar, or without certificate of notice duly issued, or Without 

 licence, in case a licence is necessary, or in the absence of a 

 registrar, where the presence of a registrar or superintendent 

 registrar is necessary, the marriage of such persons, except in 

 certain excepted cases, U null and void (s. 42) ; as under 4 Geo. IV., 

 o. 76, s. 22, a marriage would not be void unless both parties knowingly 

 and wilfully concurred in marrying contrary to the provisions of the 

 42nd section. If any valid marriage be had under the provisions of 

 this Act by means of any wilfully false notice, certificate, or decl 

 made by either party to such marriage, as to any matters to which a 

 notice, certificate, or declaration is required, the attorney-general or 

 solicitor-general may sue for a forfeiture of all estate and interest ill 

 any property accruing to the offending party by such marriage (s. 48). 

 Consent to marriage may be withdrawn upon good reason ; but it 

 would rather appear that this cannot be done merely because the 

 parent or guardian has changed his mind. Tho question of consent is 

 not however of such vital importance as under the first Marriage Act 

 (28 Goo. II., c. 33, s. 11), which made marriages without consent of 

 parents, Ac., absolutely void. Under 4 Geo. IV., c. 78, s. 28, and 6 ft 

 7 \Viu. IV., o. 85, s. 43, a false statement as to consent subjects the 

 fraudulent party to the penalties of perjury, and f -> a forfeiture of all 

 estate and interest in any properties accruing by the marriage, but 

 leaves the marriage itself in full force. 



The Htnt. 7 ft 8 Viet, c. 86, provides for the licensing f <i 

 churches and chapels for the celebration of marriage. The slit. 19 ft 

 20 Viet., o. 119, enables parties who have entered into the contract of 

 marriage merely before the superintendent registrar to have tho cere- 

 monies of their church or persuasion added at any time afterwards. 

 (' Black. Comm.,' Mr. Kcrr's ed., vol. 1, p. 484.) 



These statutes do not extend to marriages contracted out of Kiigl:in.l, 

 or to marriages of the royal family, which are regulated by a particular 

 statute, 12 George 1 1 !..". 11. 



Before 1835, marriages within the prohibited degrees of consan- 

 guinity and affinity were valid until annulled by a declaratory SIM 

 nf tin- ecclesiastical court, after which they become void ab initio, anil 

 the issue of such marriages were, by such sentence, rendered illegiti- 

 mate,; and the law is still so with respect t<i personal incapacity exist- 

 ing at the time of the contract But as the ecclesiastical court iuld: 

 professedly, only proceed y.r./ mliiir unim'r, anil it/t authority to annul 

 an incestuous marriage was found, d upon the duty of putting A st.M. to 

 the inri'-tii.iu-i intercourse, the power of annulling the marriage ceased 

 upon tho de.itli of cither of tho parties. The validity if .mich mar- 

 riage, and the legitimacy of tin 1 iixne, depended therefore u)> 

 contingency of a suit being In.Hiluted and a ^nt-nee pionnunced. 

 during the joint lives of the husband and wife. But now, by fi ft 6 

 Will. IV., c. 64, all marriages thereafter celebrated Arsons 



within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity or affinity are abso- 

 lutely void to all Intents nnd i'-uj'i-<. And. even at coiiiin.ni l:iw, n 

 marriage contracted while there is former' wife or husband alive is 

 ipso facto void, without any declaratory sentence. 



Generally speaking, a marriage, valid according to the Uw of the 

 , ountry in which it was contracted, is valid in every other country. 



