Minimum age for Marriage

[FredP]

Can someone tell me please when the minimum age at which one could be married was first regulated by parliament? Also whether, before that, the church imposed any such restriction?

I ask because an ancestress of mine, married 5th April 1714, (the husband's 23rd birthday!), appears to have been born 22nd Sep 1703 and christened 3rd Oct 1703.



Records in the Church Register before this date seem not as full as later, so this could of course be a relative (perhaps a niece), but I have found no further reference to any other person with the same name at any later date, and the mentions of a precise location within a relatively small community points to this being a real possibility.

[Peter Goodey]

I think you'll find the minimum age at that time was 12 for a girl. So yours doesn't quite get in . It would be pretty unusual though for a 12 year old to get married. She surely wasn't in the club at that age??? I think I'd investigate the niece angle if I were you.

[Jo Simpsons]

I believe it was 12 for girls and 14 for boys with parents permission. I think it was that until the 1920's


Jo

[Diane Grant-Salmon]

Thankyou so much for this information, but I don't know whether to laugh or cry ...... probably the latter!

A couple of times when I've been looking for a marriage of one of my female Ancestors, I've dismissed entries as possibly a match, owing to the age of the bride being 13.

[Jo Simpsons]

Shocking isn't it really Mind I suppose the life span wasn't as great as ours generally is, so they may not have had to put up with each other too long!
Jo

[Peter Goodey]

But we're talking about 1714. If the age of puberty is currently decreasing, I would hazard a guess that 300 years ago a twelve year old would almost certainly not be of child bearing age.

[hpjrt]

A couple of things here ...

Just because the baptism was in 1703, one can't necessarily assume that the person being baptised was a newborn. There are countless examples of children and adults being baptised LONG after birth. I have one in my family tree where a brother and sister were baptised at the same time ... but while the sister was presumably a baby, the brother was quite a bit older. It was noted on the register.

Also, while there were minimum ages for marriage ... I've found in my own family lines that, on average, people married around the 18 to 20 years old mark. I actually found this very surprising as I had expected to find a lot of "young" marriages.

I suppose it depended upon what class one's ancestor belonged to ... and mine all seem to be "agricultural labourers" or the like. Perhaps the poorer one was, the older one was when one got married.

Just another perspective ...

Mary

[Peter Goodey]

I am not disputing that it is POSSIBLE! See the birth of King Henry VII. However the question was about MARRIAGE and some figures which I have seen but can't lay my hands on suggest (so far as possible with limited data) that such a marriage would have been extremely rare - and in this case illegal.

There are also social factors to consider. What was their social class? Rural or urban? Only the OP can tell us this plus of course whether there actually was a bun in the oven.

[Guy Etchells]

In 1714 she would have been old enough to be married according to both church and civil law, however the marriage could not legally have been consumated until she reached the age of consent of 16.

Under church law a child could have married as soon as they were old enough to understand the implications of their action, this was normally assumed to be around seven years old.
In 1929 the lower age for marriage was fixed at 16 in England & Wales.
Cheers
Guy

[FredP]

Thank you all for a most interesting collection of replies to my posting.

In this case (as I stated) the Church Register gives the date of birth as well as the christening as 1703.

Also, the first child was born 18 months after the marriage.

As a matter of interest, there were two further children, in 1718 and 1721, and the mother died in 1728.

The bride's father was described as 'collier' - the bridegroom's father as 'labourer'. The bridegroom was later described as 'felo, the first child was born 18 months after the marriage.

As a matter of interest, there were two further children, in 1718 and 1721, and the mother died in 1728.

The bride's father was described as 'collier' - the bridegroom's father as 'labourer'. The bridegroom was later described as 'feltmaker', and later still as 'hatter'.

FredP.