David Franks
05-03-2005, 09:18 PM
I have a Marriage register entry (1794) where the witnesses (if any) did not sign or mark the register, and the clergyman has written, after 'In the presence of us:' the word '(caret)', meaning 'it is missing'. The marriage was after Banns, so does not appear to be clandestine. No other marriage around that time in this register has missing witnesses. Does anyone know if this invalidated the marriage? I have read the relevant legislation, and it says that there must be two witnesses, but it does not say that they must sign the Register (unless I have missed this, as the Act is pretty difficult to follow). However, the legislation does say that there must be a Register.
I appreciate that this is a somewhat obscure ecclesiastical lawyer's point, but does anyone have any idea how I might find out? There was apparently a subsequent marriage of the man to another woman, and apparently the death of the woman to the 1794 marriage (under her married name), later than the second marriage. But, as usual, it is difficult to identify that these are all the same people, and the names are fairly common.
I appreciate that this is a somewhat obscure ecclesiastical lawyer's point, but does anyone have any idea how I might find out? There was apparently a subsequent marriage of the man to another woman, and apparently the death of the woman to the 1794 marriage (under her married name), later than the second marriage. But, as usual, it is difficult to identify that these are all the same people, and the names are fairly common.