Lord Hardwicke’s Marriage Act – the “first” English marriage act
Abstract
The aim of this paper is first to present a legal history analysis of the phenomenon of clandestine marriages in modern England, where the institution of marriage was still partially under canon law and ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Then, the analysis focuses on An act for the better preventing of clandestine marriages, enacted by Parliament in 1753. This act, passed on the initiative of the Lord Chancellor Hardwicke (hence the common name Lord Hardwicke’s Marriage Act), aimed to eliminate clandestine marriages from social practices by introducing a formal ceremony of marriage under the pain of nullity (a diriment impediment). The key elements of the new measure were the obligation to marry in the parish church and, in the case of minors, to obtain a prior parental consent for marriage. The solutions adopted in the Hardwicke’s Act and the very fact of their introduction by Parliament have initiated the process of taking over the Church of England’s marital jurisdiction by the State. This phenomenon was already debated at the time and remains an important subject of contemporary research on the Act. The conclusions of the analysis confirm the particular importance of the Hardwicke’s Act for the further evolution of the marriage institution in England, which justifies naming it the “first” English marriage act.
Keywords:
clandestine marriages, Marriage Act 1753 (Lord Hardwicke’s Marriage Act), solemnization of marriage, marriage law (England), marriage law (16th-18th century)References
Baker, John. 2003. The Oxford History of the Laws of England (vol. VI): 1483-1558. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Baker, John. 2019. An Introduction to English Legal History. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Blackstone, William. 1765-1769. Commentaries on the Laws of England, vol. 4. Oxford.
Bray, Gerald (ed.). 1998. The Anglican Canons, 1529-1947. London: Boydell Press.
Cobbet, William (ed.). 1813. The Parliamentary History of England, from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803: From which Last-mentioned Epoch it is Continued Downwards in the Work Entitled, “The Parliamentary Debates”, vol. 15. London: Hansard.
Cornish, William, Stuart Anderson, Raymond Cocks, Michael Lobban, Patrick Polden, Keith Smith. 2010. The Oxford History of the Laws of England (vol. XIII): Fields of Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Douglas, James. 2012. „Parliamentary Divorce, 1700-1857”. Parliamentary History 31/2: 169-189.
Dziadzio, Andrzej. 2008. Powszechna Historia Prawa. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
Gally, Henry. 1750. Some Considerations upon Clandestine Marriages. London.
Helmholz, Richard H. 2004a. The Oxford History of the Laws of England (vol. I): The Canon Law and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction from 597 to the 1640s. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Helmholz, Richard H. 2004b. Roman Canon Law in Reformation England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
House of Commons. 1803. Journals of the House of Commons, vol. 26, 1750-1754. London.
House of Lords. 1767-1830. Journals of the House of Lords, vol. 28, 1753-1756. London.
Keith, Francis A. 2003. “Canon Law Meets Unintended Consequences: The Church of England and the Clandestine Marriage Act of 1753”. Anglican and Episcopal History 72/4: 451-487.
Kuper, Adam. 2009. Incest and Influence: the Private Life of Bourgeois England. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Lemmings, David. 1996. “Marriage and the Law in the Eighteen Century: Hardwicke’s Marriage Act of 1753”. The Historical Journal 39/2: 339-360.
Leneman, Leah. 1996. „English Marriages and Scottish Divorces in the Early Nineteenth Century”. The Journal of Legal History 17/3: 225-243.
Outwhaite, Richard B. 1995. Clandestine Marriages in England, 1500-1850. London: Hambledon Press.
Pickering, Danby (ed.). 1762-1807. The Statutes at Large, from the Magna Charta to the end of the eleventh Parliament of Great Britain, anno 1761 (continued to 1806). Cambridge.
Probert, Rebecca. 2002. “The Judicial Interpretation of Lord Hardwicke’s Act”. Journal of Legal History 23/2: 129-151.
Probert, Rebecca. 2009a. “Control over Marriage in England and Wales, 1753-1823: The Clandestine Marriages Act of 1753 in Context”. Law and History Review 27/2: 413-450.
Probert, Rebecca. 2009b. Marriage, Law and Practice in the Long Eighteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Salmon, Thomas. 1724. A Critical Essay Concerning Marriage. London.
Stebbing, Henry. 1754. An Enquiry into the Force and Operation of the Annulling Clauses in a Late Act for the Better Preventing of Clandestine Marriages, With Respect to Conscience. London.
Stone, Lawrence. 1990. Road to Divorce: England 1530-1987. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Swatland, Andrew. 1996. The House of Lords in the Reign of Charles II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Waddams, Stephen M. 2000. „English Matrimonial Law on the Eve of Reform (1828-57)”. The Journal of Legal History 21/2: 59-82.
Witte, John Jr. 2012. From Sacrament to Contract. Marriage, Religion, and Law in the Western Tradition. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press.
Wolfram, Sybil. 1985. „Divorce in England 1700-1857”. Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 5/2: 155-186.
Wolfram, Sybil. 1987. In-Laws and Outlaws: Kinship and Marriage in England. London and Sydney: Croom Helm Press.
Walpole, Horace. 1822. Memories of the Last Ten Years of the Reign of George the Second, London.
Zieliński, Tadeusz Jacek. 2016. Państwowy Kościół Anglii. Studium prawa wyznaniowego. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe ChAT.
Uniwersytet Jagielloński
Dr, Katedra Powszechnej Historii Państwa i Prawa, Wydział Prawa i Administracji, Uniwersytet Jagielloński, ul. Gołębia 9/3, 31-007 Kraków
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4457-0139License
- According to the Act of 4 February 1994 on copyright and related rights, the author of a publication transfers to the publisher the proprietary copyright of his or her work in all fields of exploitation known on the date of concluding an agreement with the publisher.
- Texts submitted for publication in Studia z Prawa Wyznaniowegocannot infringe the copyright of third parties. The author declares the originality of his or her publication when completing a declaration and signing a publishing agreement.
- Authors are permitted to post the publisher's version of their work online (e.g. in institutional repositories, academia.edu, researchgate.net or on their website) after its initial publication in this journal.
- With the consent of the editors, texts published in Studia z Prawa Wyznaniowego can be republished in other publications (provided that their original place of publication is acknowledged).
- This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author.
