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Marriage with car

VII. [The Imperial Crown of England, &c. intailed.]

[The Lady Elizabeth the first Issue Female of the King and Queen Anne his Wife.]

VIII. [This Act shall be proclaimed in all the Shires of England.] [The Penalty for hurting the King's Person, disturbing his Title to the Crown, or slandering his Marriage.]

[Rep. 1 E. 6. c. 12. § 2.]

The Rights of all others, except the Offenders, saved.]

IX. [The Penalty for publishing any Thing to the Peril of the King, or the Slander of his Marriage, or to the Disheritance of his Issue.]

X. [An Offender shall not have the Privilege of Sanctuary.]

XI. [Who shall have the Government of the King's Issue and Heir during Minority.]

XIII. [All Persons shall be sworn to perform the Contents of this Act. 26 H 8. c. 2.]

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[The Penalty of them which refuse to take the Oath.]

XIV. Provided always, That the Article in this Act contained nal Knowledge. concerning Prohibitions of Marriages within the Degrees afore-mentioned in this Act, shall always be taken, interpreted and expounded of such Marriages, where Marriages were solemnized and carnal Knowledge was had.

No. 2.

32 H. VIII. c. 38. €

What Marriages

32 Henry VIII. c. 38.-For Marriages to stand notwithstanding Pre-contracts. [See 26 Geo. II. c. 33. s. 13.

infra.]

HEREAS heretofore the usurped Power of the Bishop of

are lawful, and diction and regal Power of this Realm of England, and also un

what are not.

Inst. 683.

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quieted much the Subjects of the same, by his usurped Power in them, as by making that unlawful which by God's Word is lawful, both in Marriages and other Things, as hereafter shall appear more at length, and till now of late in our Sovereign Lord's Time, which is otherwise by Learning taught than his Predecessors in Times past of long Time have been, hath so continued the same, whereof yet some Sparks be left, which hereafter might kindle a great Fire, and so remaining, his Power not to seem utterly extinct:

II. Therefore it is thought most convenient to the King's Highness, his Lords Spiritual and Temporal, with the Commons of this Realm, assembled in this present Parliament, That two Things specially for this Time be with Diligence provided for, whereby many Inconveniences have ensued, and many mo else mought ensue and follow; as where heretofore divers and many Persons, after long Continuance together in Matrimony, without any Alle "gation of either of the Parties, or any other at their Marriage, why the same Matrimony should not be good, just and lawful, and after the same Matrimony solemnized and consummate by carnal Knowledge, and also sometime Fruit of Children ensued of the same Marriage, have nevertheless, by an unjust Law of the Bishop of Rome, which is, That upon Pretence of a former Contract made, and not consummate by carnal Copulation (for Proof whereof two Witnesses by that Law were only required) been divorced and separate, contrary to God's Law, and so the true Matrimony, both 'soleninized in the Face of the Church, and consummate with bodily Knowledge, and confirmed also with the Fruit of Children had between them, clearly frustrate and dissolved: Further also, by

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satious lo marry.

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reason of other Prohibitions than God's Law admitteth, for their No. 1. Lucre by that Court invented, the Dispensations whereof they 32 H. VIII. &. S. always reserved to themselves, as in Kindred or Affinity between The InconveCousin-Germanes, and so to fourth and fourth Degree, cardal piences of Dispen* Knowledge of any of the same Kin, or Affinity before in such outward Degrees, which else were lawful, and be not prohibited by God's Law, and all because they would get Money by it, and keep a Reputation to their usurped Jurisdiction, whereby not only much Discord between lawful married Persons hath (contrary to God's Ordinance) arisen, much Debate and Suit at the Law, with wrong'ful Vexation, and great Damage of the innocent Party hath been procured, and many just Marriages brought in Doubt and Danger of ⚫undoing, and also many Times undone, and lawful Heirs disherited, whereof there had never else, but for his vain-glorious Usurpation, ⚫ been moved any such Question, since Freedom in them was given us by God's Law, which ought to be most sure and certain; but that notwithstanding, Marriages have been brought into such an Incertainty thereby, that no Marriage could be so surely knit and bounden, but it should lie in either of the Parties Power and Arbiter, casting away the Fear of God, by Means and Compasses to prove a Pre-contract, a Kindred and Alliance, or a carnal Knowledge, to 'defeat the same, and so under the Pretence of these Allegations 'afore rehearsed, to live all the Days of their Lives in detestable Adultery, to the utter Destruction of their own Souls, and the 'Provocation of the terrible Wrath of God upon the Places where 'such Abominations were used and suffered :' 'Be it therefore enacted by the King our Sovereign Lord, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, Cro. El. 228. and the Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by All Persons ba Authority of the same, That from the first Day of the Month of July lawful to contract next coming, in the Year of our Lord God One Thousand Five Marriage that he Vaugh. 206 Hundred and Forty, all and every such Marriages as within this That Mariage is Church of England shall be contracted between lawful Persons (as indissoluble which by this Act we declare all Persons to be lawful, that be not prohibited solemnized in the by God's Law to marry) such Marriages being contract and solem- Face of the Church, nized in the Face of the Church, and consummate with bodily and consummate Knowledge, or Fruit of Children or Child being had therein between ledge or Fruit of the Parties so married, shall be by Authority of this present Parlia- Child. notwithment aforesaid deemed, judged and taken to be lawful, good, just standing any reand indissoluble, notwithstanding any Pre-contract or Pre-contracts Relealed by 2 & 3 of Matrimony not summate with bodily Knowledge, which either of Ed. 6. c. 23 $2. the Parties so married or both shall have made with any other Person c. 8. 20. and in or Persons before the Time of contracting that Marriage which is Part revived by 1 solemnized and consummate, or whereof such Fruit is ensued, or so much as is not may ensue, as afore, and notwithstanding any Dispensation, Prescrip- repealed by 2 & 3 tion, Law, or other Thing granted or confirmed by Act or otherwise; Ed. 6. c. 2.3. and that no Reservation or Prohibition, God's Law except, shall trouble or impeach any Marriage without the Levitical Degrees and that no Person, of what Estate, Degree or Condition soever he or she be, shall, after the first Day of the said Month of July aforesaid, be admitted in any of the Spiritual Courts within this the King's Realm, or any his Grace's other Lands and Dominions, to any Process, Plea or Allegation, contrary to this foresaid Act.

*See Note on No. 1. the last Statute.

Co. Lit. 235. a.

is constructed and

with bodily Know

contract.

and 1 & 2 Ph. & M.

El. c. 1. 12. as to

2 & 3 Ed VI. c 23.

Part of the Statute of Precontracts re pealed.

A Repeal of so

Buch of the Sta

e. 38, as maketh

solemnized in the

No. 3.

2 and 3 Edward VI. c. 23.-The Repeal of an Act made in the xxxij. Year of King HENRY the Eighth, which was made, That Marriage contracted in the Face of the Church, and consummate with bodily Knowledge, to be deemed lawful, any former Contract notwithstanding.

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THEREAS in the Thirty-second Year of the Reign of the late King of famous Memory, King HENRY the Eighth, because that many Inconveniences had chanced in this Realm by breaking and dissolving of good and lawful Marriages, yea, whereupon also ⚫ sometime Issue and Children had followed, under the Colour and • Pretence of a former Contract made with another, the which Con⚫tract divers Times was but very slenderly proved, and often but sure 'mised by the Malice of the Party who desired to be dissolved from the Marriage which they liked not, and to be coupled with another, there was an Act made, That all and every such Marriages, as ⚫ within the Church of England should be contracted and solemnized in the Face of the Church, and consummate with bodily Knowledge, or Fruit of Children or Child being had between the Parties so married, should be by the Authority of the said Parliament deemed, judged and taken to be lawful, good, just and indissoluble, ⚫ notwithstanding any Pre-contract or Pre-contracts of Matrimony ⚫ not consummate with bodily Knowledge, which either of the Persons 'so married, or both, had made with any other Person or Persons ⚫ before the Time of contracting that Marriage which is solemnized or consummated, or whereof such Fruit is ensued or may ensue, as by the same Act more plainly may appear: Sithence the Time of which Act, although the same was godly meant, the Unruliness of Men hath ungodly abused the same, and divers Inconveniences ⚫ (intolerable in manner to Christian Ears and Eyes) followed thereupon, Women and Men breaking their own Promises and Faiths made by the one unto the other, so set upon Sensuality and Plea'sure, that if after the Contract of Matrimony they might have whom they more favoured and desired, they could be content by Lightness of their Nature to overturn all that they had done afore, and not • afraid in Manner, even from the very Church Door and MarriageFeast, the Man to take another Spouse, and the Espouse to take another Husband, more for bodily Lust and carnal Knowledge, than for Surety of Faith and Truth, or having God in their good Re membrance, contemning many Times also the Commandment of the Ecclesiastical Judge, forbidding the Parties having made the Contract to attempt to do any Thing in Prejudice to the same:'

II. Be it therefore enacted by the King's Highness, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons, in this present Parlament tate of 32 M. VIll. assembled, That as concerning Pre-contracts, the said former Statute that Marriage in shall from the first Day of May next coming cease, be repealed, and dissoluble which is of no Force or Effect, and be reduced to the Estate and Order of the Church, and con- King's Ecclesiastical Laws of this Realm, which immediately before summated with the making of the said Estatute in this Case were used in this Realm: bodily Knowledge So that from the said first Day of May, when any Cause or Contract of Marriage is, presented to have been made, it shall be lawful to the King's Ecclesiastical Judge of that Place to hear and examine the said Cause: And (having the said Contract sufficiently and lawfully proved before him) to give Sentence for Matrimony, commanding

and Fruit of Child. Via. V. 15,628.

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Solemnization, Cohabitation, Consummation and Tractation as becometh Man and Wife to have, with inflicting all such Pains upon the Disobedients and Disturbers thereof, as in Times past before the said Statute the King's Ecclesiastical Judge by the King's Ecclesiastical Laws ought and might have done, if the said Statute had never been made; any Clause, Article or Sentence in the said Statute to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding

III. Provided always, and be it enacted, That this Act do not extend to disannul, dissolve or break any Marriage that hath or shall be so solemnizated and consummated before the said first Day of May next ensuing, by Title or Colour of any Pre-contract, but that they be and be deemed of like Force and Effect, to all Intents, Construetions and Purposes, as if this Act had never been had ne made; any Thing in this present Act notwithstanding.

No. 3.

2 & 3 Ed.VI. c. 23.

A Confirmation

IV Provided also, That this Act do not extend to make good any of the other Causes to the Dissolution or disannulling of Matri- of the Residue of mony, which be in the said Act spoken of and disannulled, but that the said Stat of all other Causes and other Things therein mentioned, the said 82 II. Vill. c 38. former Act of the Thirty-second Year of the late King of famous Memory do stand and remain in his full Strength and Power; any Ing in this Act notwithstanding. [See 1 El. c. 1. § 11.]

* See St. 26 Geo. II. c. 33. S. 13. infra.

No. 4.

15 Geo. II. c. 30.-An Act to prevent the Marriage of Lunaticks.*

THEREAS Persons who have the Misfortune to become L- 15 Geo. III. c. 30. naticks, may, by reason of such their Disorder, be liable to 4 Geo. II. c. 10. 'be surprized into unsuitable Marriages, which may be of pernicious Consequence, and a great Misfortune to their Families Wherefore, for preventing the same, and the ill Consequence thereof, Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, That from and after the Twenty-fourth Day of June in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Forty-two, ia case any P'erson who now is, or at any Time hereafter shall be, found a Lunatick, by any Inquisition taken or to be taken by Virtue of a Commission under the Great Seal of Great Britain; or any Lunatick or Person under a Phrenzy, whose Person and Estate, by Virtue of any Act of Parliament, now are, or hereafter shall be committed to the Care and Custody of particular Trustees, shall marry before he or she shall be declared of sane Mind by the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, the Lord Keeper, or Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal of Great Britain for the Time being, or such Trustees as aforesaid, or the major Part of them respectively; every such Marriage shall be, and is hereby declared to be null and void to all Intents and Purposes whatsoever.

* See 51 Geo. III. c. 37. post.

Y

6 Geo. 11. c. 33.

Publication of

Patius.

No. 5.

26 Geo. II. c. 33.-An Act for the better preventing of clandestine Marriages.

WHEREAS great Mischiefs and Inconveniences have arisen

from Clandestine Marriages;' For preventing thereof for the future, Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the saine, That from and after the Twenty-fifth Day of March in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Fifty-four, all Banns of Matrimony shall be published in an audible Manner in the Parish Church, or in some publick Chapel, in which publick Chapel Banns of Matrimony have been usually published, (1) of or belonging to such Parish or Chapelry wherein the Persons to be married shall dwell, according to the Form of Words prescribed by the Rubrick prefixed to the Office of Matrimony in the Book of Common Prayer, upon Three (2) Sundays preceding the Solemniza tion of Marriage, during the Time of Morning Service, or of Evening Service (if there be no Morning Service in such Church or Chapel upon any of those Sundays) immediately after the second Lesson: And whensoever it shall happen that the Persons to be married shall dwell in divers Parishes or Chapelries, the Banns shall in like Manner be published in the Church or Chapel belonging to such Parish or Chapelry wherein each of the said Persons shall dweli; and where both or either of the Persons to be married shall dwell in any Extraparoahial Place, (having no Church or Chapel wherein Banns have been usually published) then the Banns shall in like Manner be published in the Parish Church or Chapel belonging to some Parish or Chapelry adjoining to such Extra-parochial Place: And where Banns shall be published in any Church or Chapel belonging to any Parish adjoining to such Extra-parochial Place, the Parson, Vicar, Minister or Curate, publishing such Banus, shall, in Writing under his Hand, Minister to siga certify the Publication thereof in such Manner as if either of the Perthe Publication; sons to be married dwelt in such adjoining Parish; and that all other the Rules prescribed by the said Rubrick concerning the Publiand the Marriage cation of Banns, and the Solemnization of Matrimony, and not to be solemnized hereby altered, shall be duly observed; and that in all Cases where Char hes where Banns shall have been published, the Marriage shall_be_solemnized Banns have in one of the Parish Churches or Chapels where such Banns have been published. been published, and in no other Place whatsoever.

in De of the

the

(1) In an Action for Criminal Conversation upon a Marriage solemnized in a Chapel, it seems necessary to give some Evidence that Marriages were celebrated by Banns in such Chapel previous to the Act;-but Instances since are Evidence of such Marriages having been celebrated. See Taunton . Wyborn, 2 Camp. N. P. 297. In Local Acts for erecting Churches, it has been provided, that all Fees for Christenings, Marriages, and Burials, shall be accounted for to the Rector of the Parish, and this has been very generally acted upon as giving an implied Power to celebrate such Marriages, several legal Opinions having been given in Support of such Construction, but I am not aware of any legal Decision upon the Subject. See Rex v. Northfield Doug. 634.

(2) In Standen v. Standen, Peake N.P. 32. the Husband was allowed to prove that the Banns were only published Twice; but his Credit was left to the Jury on Account of the Nature of his Evidence, and he was not believed.

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