412 
MARRIAGE. 
Ey flat. 26 Geo. II. c. 33. all marriages are to be either 
in purfuance of banns publifhed, of a licenfe, or of a fpe- 
cial licenfe. A marriage in purfuance of banns mull be 
folemnized in one of the churches oc chapels where the 
banns were publifhed. A marriage in purfuance of a li¬ 
cenfe (except a fpecial licenfe) mult be folemnized in fuch 
church or chapel as in the licenfe (hall be named. All 
marriages folemnized in any other place than a church or 
fuch chapel, (unlefs by fpecial licenfe,) or without pub¬ 
lication of banns, or a licenfe of marriage from a perfon 
having authority to grant the fame, fhall be void; and all 
marriages folemnized by licenfe, where either of the 
parties, not being a widower or widow, fhall be under 
the age of twenty-one years, which fhall be had without 
the confent of father, guardian, &c. fhall he void. No 
parfon, vicar, &c. fhall be obliged to publifh banns of 
matrimony, unlefs the perfons to be married fhall feven 
days before the time required for the firft publication, de¬ 
liver to him a notice in writing of their true names, and 
of the houfe or lioufes of their refpeftive abode within 
fuch pari 111, &c. and of the time they have dwelt in fuch 
houfe or houfes. All banns {hall be publifhed upon three 
Sundays, or holidays, next preceding the marriage, in the 
p'arifh-church, See. where the perfons to be married fhall 
dwell. If they dwell in divers parifhes, then in the parifh- 
church, 'See. where each of them fhall dwell; if in an 
extra-parochial place, then in the parifh-church, &c. ad¬ 
joining. 
No licenfe of marriage fhall be granted by any archbi- 
fliop, bifbo'p, &c. to folemnize any marriage in any other 
church, &c. than in the parifh-church, Sec. within which 
the ufual place of abode of one of the parties fhall have 
been for four weeks immediately before the granting fuch 
licenfe ; if both or either of the parties fhall dwell in an 
extra-parochial place, then in fome parifh-church adjoin¬ 
ing. Nothing herein contained fhall extend to prevent the 
archbifhop of Canterbury from granting fpecial licenfes. 
All marriages fhall be folemnized in the prefence of two 
or more witneffes befides the minifter, who fhall fign their 
atteftation thereof; and, immediately after the celebra¬ 
tion of every marriage, an entry thereof fhall be made in 
the parifh-regiller, esprefling that the faid marriage was 
celebrated by banns or licenfe; and, if both or either of 
the parties be under age, with confent of the parents or 
guardians, as the cafe fhall be, figned by the minifter, and 
alfo by the parties married, and atteiled by the two wit- 
neffes prefent. It is held to be alfo effential to a marriage, 
that it be performed by a perfon in orders, (Salk. 119.) 
though the intervention of a prieft to folemnize this con¬ 
trail is rilerely juris pofitivi, and not juris naturalis ant divini ; 
it being faid that pope Innocent III. was the firft who 
ordained the celebration of marriage in the church, 
(Moor. 170.) before which it was totally a civil contrail. 
And in the times of the grand rebellion all marriages were 
performed by the juftices of the peace, and thefe mar¬ 
riages declared valid, without any frefh ioleinnization, by 
%2 Car. II. c. 33. But, as the law now ftands, we may 
upon the whole colieil, that no marriage, by the tempo¬ 
ral law, is ipfoJ'adlo void, that is celebrated by a perfon in 
ciders; in a parifh-church, a public chapel, or elfevvhere 
by fpecial difpenfation ; in purfuance of banns or a li¬ 
cenfe ; between (ingle perfons; confenting; of found 
mind ; 'and'of the age of twenty-one years ; or of the age 
cf'fourteen in'indies, and twelve in females, with confent 
of parents or guardians, or without it in cafe of widow¬ 
hood. And no marriage is voidable by the ecclefiaitical 
law, after the death bt either of the parties ; nor during 
their lives, unlefs for the canonical impediments of pre¬ 
contract, if that indeed ftill exifts ; of confanguinity, and 
of affinity, or corpora! imbecility, fublifting previous to 
the marriage. ' Blackjl'. Com. vol. i. 
To make a falfe entry in a mafriage-re'glfter; to alter 
it when made ; to forge or counterfeit l'uch entry, or a 
marriage-licenfe ; to caufe, or procure, or aft, or affift in, 
fuch forgery 5 to utter the fame as true, knowing it to be 
counterfeit; or to deftroy, or procure the deffruftipn of, 
any regifter in order to vacate any marriage, or fubjeft 
any perfon to the penalties of this aft ; all thefe offences, 
knowingly and wilfully committed, fubjeft the party to 
the guilt of felony without benefit of clergy. 
The claufes in the aft 26 Geo. II. c. 33, for annulling 
the marriages of infants without the confent of parents 
or guardians, is reftrifted to marriages by licenfe-, fo that 
the marriage of an infant without fuch confent may ftill 
he good where banns are regularly publifhed, unlefs a dif- 
fent is openly declared by the parent or guardian in the 
church or chapel at the time of publiffiing; in which 
latter cafe the ftatute makes the banns void. 
As the above aft requires that the marriage fhould be 
celebrated in fome parifh-church or public chapel where 
banns had been ufually publifhed, (j. e. before 25 Mar. 
1754 >) the Court of King’s Bench were obliged to de¬ 
clare a marriage void which had been folemnized in a cha¬ 
pel erefted in 1765. And, as there were many marriages 
equally defeftive, an aft of parliament immediately paffed, 
which legalized all marriages celebrated in fuch churches 
or chapels fince the palling the marriage-aft, and indemni¬ 
fying the clergyman from the penalties incurred. This 
was the flat. 21 Geo. III. c. 53. See alfo 44 Geo. III. 
c. 77. by which fuch marriages folemnized before the 
25th of March, 1805, are declared valid ; and the regifters 
are ordered to be removed from chapels to the parifh- 
churches adjoining. 
The marriage-aEl, 26 Geo. II. c. 33. does not extend to 
Scotland ; nor to Jews, Quakers, nor any of the royal fa¬ 
mily 5 as to which laft, there is a particular act, called the 
royal marriage-aEl, which is the 12 Geo. III. c. n. But 
we muft confider the matter from an earlier period. In the 
year i7i8,upona queftion referred toall the judges by king 
George I. it was refolved by ten againft the other two, that 
the education and care of all the king’s grand-children, 
while minors, did belong of right to his majefty as king 
of this realm, even during their father’s life. And they 
all agreed, that the care and approbation of their mar¬ 
riages, when grown up, belonged to the king their grand¬ 
father. And the judges have more recently concurred in 
opinion, that this care and approbation extend alfo to the 
prefumpiive heir of the crown; though to what other 
branches of the royal family the fame did extend, they did 
not find precifely determined, n State Trials, 295. The 
molt frequent inftances of the crown’s interpofition go no 
farther than nephews and nieces ; but examples are not 
wanting of its reaching to diltant collaterals. Therefore, 
by lfat. 28 Hen. VIII. c. 18. (repealed among the ftatutes 
of treafons by 1 Ed. VI. c. 12.) it was made high treafon 
for any man to contraft marriage with the king’s children, 
or reputed children, his fillers or aunts, ex parte patens., 
or the children of his brethren or fillers ; being exaftly 
the fame degrees to which precedence is allowed by the 
flat. 31 Hen. VIII. before mentioned. And now by flat. 
12 Geo. III. c. 11. no defeendant of the body of George II. 
(other than the iffue of princeffes married into foreign 
countries) is capable of contrafting matrimony, without 
the previous confentof the king, fignified under the great 
feal ; and any marriage contracted without fuch confent 
is void ; but it is provided by the aft, that fuch of the 
faid defeendants as are above the age of twenty-five may, 
after a twelvemonth’s notice given to the king’s privy 
council, contraft and folemnize marriage without the 
confent of the crown ; unlefs both houfes of parliament 
fhall, before the expiration of the faid year, expref'sly de¬ 
clare theirdifapprobation of fuch intended marriage. All 
perfons folemnizing, a (lifting, or being prefent at, any 
l'uch prohibited marriage, fhall incur the penalties of 
pretniu'nire. 
As the paffage into Scotland is left open by the mar¬ 
riage-aft, many perfons have found their way thither to be 
married, in a clandeftine and irregular manner ; and there 
has been a diverfity of opinions concerning the validity 
of fuch marriages, Lord Stair, in his Inllitutions of the 
Laws 
