Chapter III · MARRIAGE.

Eloping with heiresses — Marriage between children — Tax on bachelors — Valentines — Marriage settlements — Pin money — Posies — Drummers — Private marriages — Irregular marriages — Fleet parsons — Marriage Act — Facility of marriage — Liability of husbands — Public marriages — Marriage customs — Bride's garters — Throwing the stocking — The posset — Honeymoon.

'The Case.

'1. G. D. without the Knowledge and Consent of his Father (then alive, but accounted not of sound Judgment) was at the Age of Fifteen, by the Procurement and Persuasion of those in whose Keeping he was, Marry'd, according to the Church form, to M. F. of the Age of Thirteen.

'2. This young Couple was put to Bed, in the Day time, according to Custom, and continu'd there a little while, but in the Presence of the Company, who all testify they touched not one the other; and after that, they came together no more;—the young Gentleman going immediately Abroad, the young Woman continuing with her Parents.

'3. G. D., after Three or Four Years Travel, return'd home to England, and being sollicited to live with his lawful Wife, refus'd it, and frequently and publickly declar'd he never would compleat the Marriage.

'4. Fourteen Years have pass'd since this Marriage Ceremony was perform'd, each Party having (as is natural to think) contracted an incurable Aversion to each the other, is very desirous to be set at liberty; and accordingly Application is made to the Legislative power to dissolve this Marriage, and to give each Party leave, if they think fit, to Marry elsewhere.

'The Reasons against such Dissolution are:—

'First. That each Party was Consenting to the Marriage, and was Old enough to give such Consent, according to the known Laws of the Kingdom; the Male being Fifteen Years Old, the Female Thirteen; whereas the Years of Consent are, by Law, Fourteen and Twelve.

'Secondly. They were actually Marry'd according to the Form prescrib'd by the Church of England; the Minister pronouncing those solemn Words us'd by our Saviour, Those whom God has joyn'd let no Man put asunder. They are therefore Man and Wife both by the Laws of God and of the Land; and, since nothing but Adultery can dissolve a Marriage, and no Adultery is pretended here, the Marriage continues indissoluble.'

However, no pleading could prevail against the actual law, and this singularly married couple remained, legally, man and wife.

£ s. d.

For the Burial of every person 0 4 0

" of a Duke (above the 4s.) 50 0 0

" of a Marquess, &c. &c., in proportion. of every person having a real estate £50 per annum or upwards, or a personal estate of £600 or upwards 1 0 0

" of the Wife of such person having such estate 0 10 0

For and upon the Birth of every person and Child, except the children of those who receive Alms 0 2 0

" of the eldest son of a Duke 30 0 0

" of a Marquess and so forth.

Upon the Marriage of every person 0 2 6

" of a Duke 50 0 0

" Marquess 40 0 0

" Earl 30 0 0

" and so forth.

Bachelors above 25 years old, yearly 0 1 0

Widowers above 25 years old, yearly 0 1 0

A Duke being Bachelor or Widower, yearly 12 10 0

A Marquess " 10 0 0

By the Act 8 & 9 Will. III., 'For making good the Deficiencies of Several Funds therein mentioned,' these taxes were kept on, and were to be paid until Aug. 1, 1706, so that they were in force during four years of Anne's reign.

There was every freedom of intercourse allowed between the young of both sexes: they visited, and we have seen that they mixed in the dancing academies. There was also the custom of valentines, now become obsolete and unmeaning. Misson describes it well, as indeed he did everything he saw in England: 'On the Eve of the 14th of Feb., St. Valentine's Day, a Time when all living Nature inclines to couple, the Young Folks in England, and Scotland too, by a very ancient Custom, celebrate a little Festival that tends to the same End. An equal Number of Maids and Batchelors get together, each writes their true or some feign'd Name upon separate Billets, which they Roll up, and draw by way of Lots, the Maids taking the Men's Billets, and the Men the Maids; so that each of the Young Men lights upon a Girl that he calls his Valentine, and each of the Girls upon a young Man which she calls hers: By this means each has two Valentines; but the Man sticks faster to the Valentine that is fallen to him, than to the Valentine to whom he is fallen. Fortune having thus divided the Company into so many Couples, the Valentines give Balls and Treats to their Mistresses, wear their Billets several Days upon their Bosoms or Sleeves, and this little Sport often ends in Love. There is another kind of Valentine; which is the first young Man or Woman that Chance throws in your Way in the Street, or elsewhere, on that Day.'

When the theatre, in some late reigns, owed its chief support to those scenes which were written to put matrimony out of countenance and render that state terrible, then it was that pin money first prevailed; and all the other articles were inserted, which create a diffidence, and intimate to the young people that they are very soon to be in a state of war with each other; though this has seldom happened, except the fear of it had been expressed. Coupler will tell you also 'that jointures were never frequent until the age before his own; but the women were contented with the third part of the estate the law allotted them, and scorn'd to engage with men whom they thought capable of abusing their Children.' He has also informed me 'that those who are the oldest Benchers when he came to the Temple told him, the first Marriage Settlement of considerable length was the invention of an old Serjeant, who took the opportunity of two testy fathers, who were ever squabbling, to bring about an alliance between their Children. These fellows knew each other to be knaves, and the Serjeant took hold of their mutual diffidence, for the benefit of the Law, to extend the Settlement to three skins of parchment.' This was undoubtedly the substance of a genuine conversation with a lawyer, and is further referred to in a subsequent paper. Nor did Steele like pin money: he not only declaims against it in his essays, but in his dramatic works—in 'The Tender Husband,' where two fathers are squabbling over settlements. One, Sir Harry Gubbin, says—

Look y', Mr. Tipkin, the main Article with me is that Foundation of Wives Rebellion—that cursed Pin Money—Five hundred Pounds per annum Pin Money.

Tipkin. The Word Pin Money, Sir Harry, is a Term——

Sir H. It is a Term, Brother, we never had in our Family, nor ever will. Make her Jointure in Widowhood accordingly large, but Four hundred Pounds a Year is enough to give no account of.

Tipkin. Well, Sir Harry, since you can't swallow these Pins, I will abate to Four Hundred Pounds.

Sir H. And to Mollifie the Article, as well as Specifie the Uses, we'll put in the Names of several Female Utensils, as Needles, Knitting Needles, Tape, Thread, Scissors, Bodkins, Fans, Playbooks, with other Toys of that Nature.

and in one of Steele's Spectators (364) is a letter commencing 'I was marry'd on Sunday last, and went peaceably to Bed; but, to my Surprize, was awaken'd the next Morning by the Thunder of a Set of Drums.' For this noise the unfortunate bridegroom had to pay pretty smartly.

The irregular marriages were a crying evil of the times—in spite of legislative efforts to stop them. There was an Act passed, 6 and 7 Wm. III. cap. 7, sec. 52, for the better levying the 5s. duty on licences, and imposing a penalty of 100l. for marrying without one—and the 7 and 8 Wm. III. cap. 35 recites this Act, and says it was ineffectual, because the penalty of 100l. was not extended to every offence of the same parson—because the parsons employed poor and indigent ministers, without benefices, or settled habitations, and because many ministers, being in prison for debt or otherwise, married persons for lucre and gain.

Dr. Gainham. The 9th of September, 1733, I married a couple at the Rainbow Coffee House, the corner of Fleet Ditch, and entered the marriage in my register, as fair a register as any church in England can produce. I showed it last night to the foreman of the jury, and my Lord Mayor's Clerk, at the London Punch House.

Counsel. Are you not ashamed to come and own a clandestine marriage in the face of a court of justice?

Dr. Gainham (bowing). Video meliora, deteriora sequor.

The same practice was followed by others during this reign. Wm. Wyatt, who moved from the Two Sawyers, at the corner of Fleet Lane, to the Hand and Pen near Holborn Bridge, married from 1713 to 1750. John Floud, who was for some years a prisoner in the Fleet, married from 1709 to 1729. John Mottram, from 1709 to 1725. He was convicted, in 1716, in the Consistory Court, for marrying illegally, and was suspended from his ministerial functions for three years. Jerome Alley, from 1681 to 1707, when he left off marrying 'for some other preferment.' Draper, from 1689 to 1716. John Evans, from 1689 to 1729. Henry Gower, 1689 to 1718. Thos. Hodgkins, 1674 to 1728. Ed. Marston, 1713 to 1714. Oswald, 1712. Nehemiah Rogers, a prisoner, but rector of Ashingdon, Essex, married between 1700 and 1703. He seems to have been a specially bright specimen of the Fleet parson. 'He is a Prisoner, but goes at larg to his P. Living in Essex, and all places else; he is a very wicked man as lives, for drinking, whoring, and swearing, he has struck and boxed y^e bridegroom in y^e Chapple, and damned like any com'on soldier, he marries both within and without y^e Chapple like his brother Colton.' This was James Colton, who had been deprived of his living for evil practices, and married from 1681 to 1721. Benj. Bynes, 1698 to 1711. Walter Stanhope, 1711. Jo. Vice, 1689 to 1713; and J. Wise, in 1709.

This evidently refers to the Marriage Act of Queen Anne (10 Anne, c. 19), which received the royal assent on May 22, 1712. This was a short Act smuggled in in a long money bill about duties on 'Sope' and paper, linen, silks, calicoes, stampt vellom, &c. It renewed, from June 24, 1712, the penalty of 100l. attaching to the performance of illegal matches, giving half the penalty to the informer, and, 'if any gaoler or keeper of any prison shall be privy to, or knowingly permit, any marriage to be solemnised in his said prison, before publication of banns, or license obtained as aforesaid, he shall for every such offence forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds to be recovered and distributed as aforesaid.' There, then, was an extra duty of 5s. imposed upon every marriage licence, or certificate of marriage.

Whilst on the subject of curious marriages, the following may well be noticed, extracted from the Parish Register: 'John Bridmore and Anne Sellwood, both of Chiltern All Saints, were married October 17, 1714.

'The aforesaid Anne Sellwood was married in her Smock, without any clothes or head gier on.'

Anyhow, after marriage they were liable, as the following gentlemen knew: 'Whereas Elizabeth Stephenson, Wife of George Stephenson, late of Falken Court, near the Queen's Bench, in Southwark, hath Eloped from her said Husband, and since hath contracted several Debts with a design to Ruin her said Husband. These are therefore to give notice to the Publick, That the said George Stephenson will not on any Account whatever Pay or allow of any Debt so Contracted by the said Elizabeth Stephenson, either before or since her elopement.' 'Whereas Isabella Goodyear, the Daughter of Rich. Cliffe of Brixhome in the County of Devon, and Wife of Aaron Goodyear of London, Merchant, about 18 months since abandon'd and forsook the Bed and since the Board of Aaron her said Husband, carrying with her in Goods, Plate, and other Goods to the value of £200 and upwards, and whereas the said Isabella hath as well been sollicited by the said Aaron her Husband, as also by several of his acquaintance, to return to and Cohabit with him, under all assurances of being civilly receiv'd and maintain'd according to his quality and circumstances, which the said Isabella hath, and still doth obstinately refuse. These are therefore to give notice to all Traders, and all other persons whatsoever, that from and after this present Notice they do not maintain, sustain, or detain the said Isabella from the said Aaron her Husband, or any of his Goods or Plate carryed off by the said Isabella, either by lending her Money or Selling her Goods, or by any other ways whatsoever, under penalty of the law, and forfeiture of the credit, if any, given to the said Isabella from the Notice hereof.'