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  1. #1
    Valued member of Brit-Gen
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    Default Was it a bigamist marriage?

    If i remember rightly there was a time when, if a couple were parted for 7 years or more with no contact and neither of them knew where the other was they could marry someone else without a divorce. Perhaps i'm wrong. But if i'm right could someone tell me when this was in place
    I have a relative in my family, Philip Draycott who married his wife Alice Derena Winter in 1875 in Louth. By 1880 or a bit before he was with Emma Watford There is no marriage record for them. A while ago i came across Alice living in New York and marrying James Harradine in 1907.
    I have always wondered if the marriage was a bigamist one or did the 7 year rule apply back then.

  2. #2
    Super Moderator christanel's Avatar
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    The offence of bigamy has a statutory exception which applies where the spouse has been absent 7 years and they are not known to have been alive in that time:

    See section 57 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861: which still applies, with some amendments to some sections. Wikipedia is helpful.

    Whosoever, being married, shall marry any other person during the life of the former husband or wife, whether the second marriage shall have taken place in England or Ireland or elsewhere, shall be guilty of felony, and being convicted thereof shall be liable to be kept in penal servitude for any term not exceeding seven years, Provided, that nothing in this section contained shall extend to any second marriage contracted elsewhere than in England and Ireland by any other than a subject of Her Majesty, or to any person marrying a second time whose husband or wife shall have been continually absent from such person for the space of seven years then last past, and shall not have been known by such person to be living within that time, or shall extend to any person who, at the time of such second marriage, shall have been divorced from the bond of the first marriage, or to any person whose former marriage shall have been declared void by the sentence of any court of competent jurisdiction.

    So simply put if both parties stayed in the UK then the partner who was deserted had to have no knowledge of the missing partner being alive during the previous 7 years.

    Christina
    Sometimes paranoia is just having all the facts.
    William Burroughs

  3. #3

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    Thank you, Christina.

    My g. uncle and his wife seperated, he moved from Yorkshire to London and lived with the mother of his second family but didn't marry the lady until his first wife had died, however, his first wife remarried, so I assume bigamously, as if my g.uncle obviously knew his first wife was still alive, then surely she knew he was. They had a daughter together and when she married she described her father as deceased but he was still alive, perhaps her mother told her her father had died to cover for her re-marriage? I'll never know.

    Isn't family history interesting?

    When I first began my FH adventure I thought my direct lines were boring, all had typicl northern working class occupations (textiles, engineering), but no miners or ag.labs, no romanies (I'd have loved some of those), all from solid working class backgrounds, some ancestral uncles had successful businesses, others, further back, had good businesses which were diluted over the years, then I discovered a ggg uncle was transported to Australia, I wanted to find more and more and I was hooked. Since then I've uncovered lots of interesting stories surrounding my ancestry.
    Alma

  4. #4
    Super Moderator - Completely bonkers and will never change.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Susan Kitchen View Post
    If i remember rightly there was a time when, if a couple were parted for 7 years or more with no contact and neither of them knew where the other was they could marry someone else without a divorce. Perhaps i'm wrong. But if i'm right could someone tell me when this was in place
    I have a relative in my family, Philip Draycott who married his wife Alice Derena Winter in 1875 in Louth. By 1880 or a bit before he was with Emma Watford There is no marriage record for them. A while ago i came across Alice living in New York and marrying James Harradine in 1907.
    I'm assuming you mean the New York in the USA, and not the one 20 crow-flying miles south of Louth?

    (Rhetorical question, no need to reply. )
    Vulcan XH558 - “Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.”

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pam Downes View Post
    I'm assuming you mean the New York in the USA, and not the one 20 crow-flying miles south of Louth?

    (Rhetorical question, no need to reply. )
    Yes New York USA

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