Age at Marriage -Minor

forestlea65 · 01-03-2010, 8:58 PM

Older marriage certificates simply state that an individual was 'Full age' or a 'Minor' - Can someone please enlighten me as to what was the legal age that someone could marry in the 1840s?

Thanks for any help

Jan1954 · 01-03-2010, 9:17 PM

In 1763 the minimum age of marriage was fixed at 16

Prior to this date, the church accepted the marriage of girls aged 12 or more and boys aged 14 or more. In addition, a dispensation on licence could be obtained from a bishop which allowed marriage at a younger age.

**Sue Mackay** · 01-03-2010, 9:20 PM

From Barbara Dixon's excellent website.

"The age at which a person could marry and at which they would require consent has changed since 1837. Then marriage could be at 12 for a girl and 14 for a boy, but consent of parent(s) was required for both up to the age of 21. In 1926 the age of marriage for both parties was raised to 16 but consent for both was still required until 21. Now, the age at which people can marry is still 16 but the age for consent has been lowered to 18.

The only exception to the requirement for consent was for a second marriage before the age of 21 ie if a bride/groom had married once with consent of parents and had been widowed they could marry the second time without consent of parents. I thought that the logic of that was - if they had tried it once and still wanted to do it again....! but in fact it stems round the fact that once a woman has married, her father no longer has legal status with regard to consent, and so she can give her own consent to her own marriage. "

**Guy Etchells** · 01-03-2010, 11:20 PM

Actually the laws of consent and age of marriage were more complex than that.

For many years civil law and ecclesiastical law were out of step with each other.
The age of consent for matrimonial purposes (the age a person could marry) was (under ecclesiastical law) the age at which a child could make a rational decision.
This was often set a 7 years old but sometimes even younger.
Civil law set this age at 12 & 14 in 1743 and from this time until 1929 there was this inconsistency between the church and civil law.

Hardwicke’s Marriage Act (1753) required that minors had consent from father (or mother if father deceased) or guardian before their marriage could take place, but that requirement was repealed in 1823.
Cheers
Guy

Tederator · 01-03-2010, 11:29 PM

FWIW My Great Grandmother's marriage certificate states that she was a minor, age 19 years, that was in 1867, my Great Grandfather was of full age at the age of 30. I always understood that the age of consent was 21 years.

Ted.

**Guy Etchells** · 02-03-2010, 5:41 AM

I think you are confusing Age of Majority and Age of Consent.
The UK reduced the Age of Majority from 21 to 18 in 1970.
This is when a minor is considered to be an adult.
Cheers
Guy