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  1. #1
    Ed Bradford
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    Default Why go to Bethnal Green to get married?

    I have a question in my mind that keeps nagging at me. Why would a couple from another area of Middlesex or London travel to Bethnal Green to get married? I have several ancestor couples that have done this during the mid to late 1800s and I can’t see a reason why. I thought it might be a family tradition or something along those lines but some of them were not related at the time and probably didn’t know the others. Maybe they were getting a discount on the ceremony, maybe they weren’t asking too many questions in Bethnal Green or maybe it’s just a coincidence. Does anyone out there have an answer or want to try guessing at one?
    ………….Ed

  2. #2
    A fountain of knowledge Lindad's Avatar
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    Oct 2004
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    Mortlake, London (where the Boat Race ends)
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    Maybe they thought it had the same reputation as Gretna Green!

  3. #3
    A fountain of knowledge Lindad's Avatar
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    When you say these ancestors came from other areas of Middlesex and London, what areas are you talking about?

    Some of my folk were married there too - and I wouldn't necessarily have expected them to either! I get the impression that the Parish of Bethnal Green covered quite a large, and not very logical, area...

  4. #4
    Colin Moretti
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lindad
    .... I get the impression that the Parish of Bethnal Green covered quite a large, and not very logical, area...
    Not that big and roughly rectangular; before 1837 St Matthew's Bethnal Green was about 2 miles E-W and no more that 1 N-S. (according to my copy of the West Surrey FHS map of parish boundaries). Later (1903, London Topographical Society London Parish Map) there were 14 churches in the area. But a can't offer any other explanation. Just to confuse matters, my maternal gg grandfather moved away from the Bethnal Green/Shoreditch area to Paddington to marry and certainly back east for the next census 3 years later. I suspect because the blushing bride was a minor at the time - if later censuses are to believed she was only 16, hubby 21.

    Colin

  5. #5
    Burrow Digger
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    I had a couple from Devon, travel all the way to Bethnal Green to get married.

    BD

  6. #6

    Default Bethnal Green marriages

    I seem to recall that one of the Bethnal Green parishes was well known for cut-price marriages. Not sure exactly which one and as I recently disposed of all my old copies of Cockney Ancestor, I cant look it up, but I am sure that there is someone out there who will know.

    Cheers..Ed

  7. #7
    Ed Bradford
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    Lindad, being from the States I was not familiar with Gretna Green's reputation so I had to go look it up. I found it interesting. Thanks for bringing it up.

    To answer your question, some of my ancestors that traveled to Bethnal Green to get married lived in Wapping, St. George in the East and Shoreditch. It just strikes me as an odd thing to do. There must be a reason. Please keep in mind that none of them were well to do, some of them might even border on being paupers, so money might have been a factor.
    ..............Ed

  8. #8
    Copper
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    I knew I had read about this somewhere - I have found the article now. In the Dec 1994 issue of "Family Tree Magazine" Prebandary Arthur Royall wrote about marriages at St James the Great, Bethnal Green.

    It seems that the vicar there realised that his parishioners were very poor and therefore not able to pay the marriage fee. Many of his parishioners were living together for this reason. The vicar managed to set up a fund (he asked for donations via The Times). Once he had enough money in the fund he was able to offer marriages for free from Easter 1865.

    The vicar also married couples without proper residential qualifications. He also didn't ask too many questions.

    This would explain why two of my direct ancestors married there when they lived in Marylebone complete with children before the marriage

  9. #9
    Ed Bradford
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    Aahaa, the mystery is solved. Thanks very much Copper.
    .............Ed

  10. #10
    ElaineMaul
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    Hi All,

    Is it though? I also have two couples in my family tree who were married a long way from where they were living both before and after marriage. Not Bethnal Green though!
    With both couples, they were all born and bred in Enfield, Middlesex of very lowly stock ...... don't imagine there was much money at all. One couple were married in Shoreditch in 1866 and the other in Lambeth in 1854. I haven't been able to see any links to these areas.
    However, if these are further examples of 'cheap' weddings, since I doubt they were literate, how did they ever find out about these 'cut price weddings' taking place so far away (relatively of course!)?

    Elaine

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