Clandestine Marriages in England, 1667-1775

Until the passing of Hardwicke’s Marriage Act in 1754, the laws governing marriage ceremonies in England were relatively lax. While marriage was technically required to take place in an Anglican church, those conducted elsewhere were still recognised and categorised as common law marriages. 

There were a number of reasons why individuals might have chosen to participate in such ceremonies. Couples might have wished to marry in secret or away from their home parish. In some cases, a marriage needed to be performed quickly. Clandestine marriages were also significantly less expensive than formal church weddings. However, not all motivations were innocent, the court records of the period include cases of coercion, forced marriage, and bigamy. At the time, the legal age for marriage was 14 for boys and 12 for girls. 

Most surviving registers, notebooks, and volumes documenting these marriages come from the Fleet area in London. London’s Fleet Prison, situated beside the River Fleet, housed debtors and bankrupts who were required to pay for their own accommodation and food. Those with means could pay to live outside the prison walls, in the surrounding area known as the ‘Rules of the Fleet’ or the ‘Liberty of the Fleet’. This district developed a reputation for disorder and opportunism. 

Among the many inmates were clergymen who took the opportunity to charge for performing clandestine marriages. Taverns and lodging houses in the area provided rooms for these ceremonies and took a fee for the use of the space. The individual clergymen often kept their own notebooks and registers of the marriages performed, many of which survive today and offer valuable insight into the practice of clandestine marriage in late-seventeenth and early eighteenth-century England.