Note 156 — Chapter XXVIII

Joshua Lilly, who kept one of the Hand and Pen houses, and said that he had been appointed Registrar of Marriages, by the Lord Chancellor, and had paid £1,000 for the post. He did not marry people, but kept presumable Clergymen to do so. He is mentioned several times in the Registers and Pocket-books. Once, at all events, he was in danger of the judgment seat, as Ashwell writes in one of his pocket-books: "N.B. On Sunday, November ye 6, 1740, at ye hour of 9, in my house declared that, if he had not come home out of ye country, being fled for punishment, having Cut of his hair (to prevent being known), yt ye indictment for marrying James Hussey to Miss Henrietta Arnold, he had (been) ruin'd but yt he swore it off and ye attorney promis'd to defend him, and it cost him only a treat of 10/; had I staid, says the sd Joshua Lilley, where I was, viz. ——, the indictment would have stood good against me, but my taking ye side of the prosecutor, ye young ladies, I have got safe off." In a Register is a notice relating to him. "June ye 13th, 1744. Whereas one Joshua Lilley, being a noted man for having more marriages at his house than the generality of ye people could have, he the said Joshua Lilley keeping several plyars, as they are call'd, to gett these weddings, I have put his marriages down in a separate book, but findend ill-convenience arise thereby, fro' this 13th instant, do insert it wth ye rest." And one of his handbills describes him as 'I. Lilley, at ye Hand and Pen, next door to the china shop, Fleet Bridge, London, will be perform'd the solemnization of marriages by a gentleman regularly bred att one of our Universities, and lawfully ordain'd according to the institutions of the Church of England, and is ready to wait on any person in town or countrey."