Note 1380 — Chapter X · RISE OF CIVIL MARRIAGE

See the chronology of these bills to prevent clandestine marriages in Friedberg, Eheschliessung, 346-48; and compare Burn, Fleet Marriages, 11 ff. Three of them introduced respectively in 1677, 1685, and 1691, may be found in the Reports of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, IX, App. II, 91-99; XI, App. II, 276-80; XIII, App. V, 253 ff. The first declares that "notwithstanding all provisions by law ... several minors have ... been clandestinely married without consent of parents, and other irregular marriages have been made;" therefore it is enacted that it "shall not be in the power of any son, being under the age of twenty-one years, nor ... of any daughter ... under ... eighteen, to marry ... or to make a matrimonial contract of any kind whatsoever;" except the father or guardian "shall have given consent in writing attested by two credible witnesses at the least, ... or shall be present and consenting thereto," under penalty of nullity of the marriage. After the death of father and mother, the same restriction is put upon the contracts of males under eighteen and females under fourteen without the guardian's consent. "If any guardian shall be privy to any such pretended marriage," he shall lose "all his right, title, and interest to the custody of any such minors" and "shall also forfeit one moiety of his whole estate, both real and personal," one-half to the king and the other to the informer. If "any domestic or menial servant shall make any pretended marriage or matrimonial contract" with "any of the children or pupils of his or her mistress during their minority, and in such manner as ... is by this act declared to be ... null and void," such servant shall suffer three years' imprisonment. "Every ecclesiastical person who celebrates such a marriage or any marriage whatsoever whereof the banns had not been published as required by the ecclesiastical law, shall be adjudged deprived ipso facto of all benefices, dignities, pensions, and spiritual promotions which he had at time of such offence or at any time after." Personating a priest in such cases is constituted felony without benefit of clergy, punishable by death. For violating the act in the issue of a license, the offender shall forfeit his office and be incapable of holding office in church or state. The bill of 1691 is very similar in its provisions.