Solemnization of Marriage
The great facilities for Marriage afforded by the present state of the law will be apparent from the following recapitulation of the various forms and authorities, from the 20th Annual Report of the Registrar-General:
“Marriages may be solemnized—
Authority.
1. According to the rites of the Established Church.
Special licence from the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Licence from a Surrogate, &c.
Publication of banns.
Certificate from the Superintendent Registrar.
2. In registered places of worship not of the Established Church.
Licence from the Superintendent Registrar.
Certificate from the Superintendent Registrar.
3. In the District Register Office.
Licence from the Superintendent Registrar.
Certificate from the Superintendent Registrar.
4. Between Quakers and between Jews.
Licence from the Superintendent Registrar.
Certificate from the Superintendent Registrar.
“By the English law as it stood before the passing of the Act of 6 and 7 Will. IV., c. 85, no marriage could be lawfully solemnized (except where both the parties were Quakers or Jews respectively) in any other place than a church or public chapel wherein banns might be published, unless by special licence from the Archbishop of Canterbury. This law was enforced by severe penalties; and if any persons intermarried without licence from a competent authority, or without the previous publication of banns, the marriage was null and void to all intents and purposes. Thus all persons (with the exception of Jews and Quakers), whether conforming to the Church of England or not, were compelled to resort to the Established Church in order to have their marriages lawfully solemnized. The boon conferred upon Roman Catholics and Dissenters generally by the amended law of 1836, which enables them to marry in their own places of worship and according to their own forms, may well be appreciated. The Act of 1856, besides abolishing the objectionable practice of reading notices of marriage before boards of guardians, has sanctioned marriage out of the district in the ‘usual place of worship’ of one of the parties, and reduced the interval between the giving of notice of marriage by licence and the grant of the licence from seven days to one clear day.”