Note 1361 — Chapter X · RISE OF CIVIL MARRIAGE

Marriages were often antedated (see especially the case of John Mottram, 1717: Burn, Fleet Marriages, 11, 12, note; Ashton, The Fleet, 343, 344; Friedberg, Eheschliessung, 337; Tegg, The Knot Tied, 204); and false oaths were common. The notorious parson Walter Wyatt complains that "if a clark or plyer tells a lye, you must vouch it to be as true as ye Gospel; and if disputed, you must affirm with an oath to ye truth of a downright damnable falsehood.—Virtus laudatur & alget."—Burn, op. cit., 7; Ashton, op. cit., 337. The Grub Street Journal, July 20, 1732, says: "On Saturday last a Fleet parson was convicted before Sir Ric. Brocas of forty-three oaths, (on the information of a plyer for weddings there) for which a warrant was granted to levy 4l. 6s. on the goods of the said parson; but, upon application to his Worship, he was pleased to remit 1s. per oath; upon which the plyer swore he would swear no more against any man upon the like occasion, finding he could get nothing by it."—Burn, op. cit., 7 n. 1; also in Ashton, op. cit., 338.