A History of Matrimonial Institutions (Vol. 1-3). George Elliott Howard
are then included in the notice. The register also enters the fact of publication and all objections brought forward against the marriage, with the names of those objecting. After publication the persons to be married are to obtain the register's certificate of the fact and proceed to a justice of the peace. As already seen, they must also find witnesses, give evidence of the consent of parents or guardians, and cause to be confirmed by oath, or otherwise in the discretion of the magistrate, the genuineness of the certificate. After the ceremony, if desired by the parties, the officiating justice is required to give them a certificate of the solemnization properly signed by himself and the witnesses; and this certificate, if produced, shall be recorded by the clerk of the peace in each county in a book of parchment provided for the purpose.[1321] The register of the parish is to "attend the said justice" to "subscribe the entry of every such marriage."
Nor did the system so well planned exist merely upon paper. The plain men chosen to the office of register did their work well, though they were sneered at as "mere laymen," and though they sometimes substitute rather harsh English for the worse Latin of their clerical predecessors. Greater publicity and more orderly records were secured during the Commonwealth than existed before it or after the Restoration. "It has been frequently asserted by writers on this subject," remarks Burn, a thoroughly competent judge, "that the registers during the time of Oliver Cromwell, were very badly kept;" but, on the contrary, "they were unusually well kept" where "a lay register was appointed according to the act of parliament." Such deficiencies as exist, he suggests, may result either from the destruction of the records or from neglect to turn them over at the Restoration or when the lay registers entered upon their functions.[1322] Waters agrees with Burn;[1323] and an examination of the published parish registers entirely confirms this view.[1324] It is hard, therefore, to understand the following curious statement by a contemporary writer who is clearly no admirer of Cromwell.[1325] Referring to certain "bills of mortality" for Romsey in Hampshire and Tiverton in Devonshire,[1326] he remarks "that in the years 1648 and 1649, being the time when the people of England did most resent the horrid Parricide of his late Sacred Majesty, ... there were but nine weddings ... in the same places, when there were ordinarily between 30 and 40 per Annum; and but 16, when there were ordinarily ... between 50 and 60. And it may also be observed that something of this black murther appeared in the years 1643 and 1644 when the Civil war was at the highest, but the contrary [in the] years 1654, 1655, etc., to prevent the new way of Marriage then imposed upon the people." Just how the increase in the number of weddings recorded in the years 1654-58 may be explained as due to a desire "to prevent the new way of Marriage," we are not informed. It cannot be inferred that people hurried to get married in anticipation of the new law, for it was put in force the next month after its passage; nor that through zeal they married more rapidly according to the Book of Common Prayer, in defiance of the new civil forms, although in some cases the religious celebration may have been still employed. But it is useless to speculate as to the sense of the passage. The statistical tables for the two parishes submitted by this writer afford very strong evidence that the apparent increase in the number of weddings is mainly due to the fact that the records were better kept. It will be noticed that there is a corresponding rise in the number of christenings and burials; and this fact can scarcely be accounted for by assuming that people hastened to get born or to die through opposition to an ordinance of the Barebone's Parliament. After the Restoration there is a decided falling off in the registration.
The great success of this early attempt at reform in matrimonial administration cannot, however, be thoroughly appreciated unless one reflects that throughout the ages the matter of registration had been shamefully neglected and the record books recklessly destroyed. Their custody being "frequently committed to ignorant parish clerks, who had no idea of their utility beyond their being occasionally the means of putting a shilling into their pockets for furnishing extracts;" and "at other times being under the superintendence of an incumbent, either forgetful, careless, or negligent, the result has necessarily been that many registers are miserably defective."[1327] This judgment applies to the times following the Commonwealth as well as to the period falling between 1538 and the act of 1653.[1328]
Many specimens of the marriage records of the Commonwealth have been discovered, representing each phase of procedure.[1329] Of these the following entry of the marriage of Oliver Cromwell's daughter, taken by Waters from the register of St. Martin's in the Fields, may serve as an example:
"These are to certifie whom it may concerne, that according to a late Act of Parliament ... Publication was made in the publique meeting place, in the Parish Church of the parish of Martins in the Fields in the county of Middlesex, upon three several Lord's Days, at the close of the morning exercise, namely, upon the XXV. day of October MDCLVII., as alsoe upon the I. and VIII. day of November following, of a marriage agreed upon between the Honorable Robert Rich of Andrew's Holborn, and the Right Honorable the Lady Frances Cromwell, of Martins in the Fields, in the county of Middlesex. All which was fully performed according to the Act without exception.
"In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand the IX. day of November, MDCLVII.
William Williams,
Register of the Parish of Martins in the Fields."
Then follows this entry "in the hand of Henry Scobell" who was doubtless the officiating magistrate:[1330]
"Married, XI. Novemb., MDCLVII, in the presence of His Highness the Lord Protector, the Right Honble. the Earls of Warwick and Newport, Robert Lord Birch, the Lord Strickland, and many other."[1331]
Sometimes the entries are fuller in details, and more ingenious in orthography. Here is one from the register of "Inglebye iuxta Grenhow":
"George Middleton of the Parish of Carleton husbandmā, son of William Middleton of the same parish husbandman & Isabell Easebie of Green-howe in the parish of Inglebye spinster daughter of Isabell Easbie of the said Greenhowe; having agreed to be married did deliver to me Williā Boweston of Inglebie aforesaid parish Register of the said Inglebie their names sirnames additions and places of aboade, & the same of their parents likewise in writeing upon the 19th of ffebruarie 1654. which was published in the publick meeting place of the said Inglebye commonly called the Church or chappell upon the 25th of februarie and the 4th & 11th of March 1654 at the Close of the morning exercise by me William Boweston Register.
"And the said George Middleton & Isabell Easbie expressed their consēt unto Marriage by the words of the Act before George Marwood Esquire one of the Justices of the peace of the Countie of York & were by the said Justice declared to be husband & wife the 13th of March 1654
Geo: Marwood."[1332]
Each of the two documents just presented, it will be noticed, consists of two parts: the certificate of the register to the magistrate; and the magistrate's entry in the register book after the ceremony has been performed. The following is an example of the marriage certificate which by the act the justice is to deliver to the parties, when required, to be filed by them with the county clerk of the peace, if they see fit:
"Fforasmuch as I, having received a certificatt of the date of the xiij of this month, under the hand and seale of Owen Perkins, Gent., Register of the consolidated Churches of Mathry, that Publicacon was made of an intencon of marriage three lord's days thenbefore in the said parish Church between Phillip Harry and Ann Harry, if not anything objected to the contrary, These are therefore at the desire of the Said parties to certify all whome it may concern, that according to the Act of Parliament for marriages, the Said Phillip and Anne this present day came before me, and taking each other by the hand did plainly and distinctly pronounce the words in the said Acte mencōēd to be pronounced by them, And thereupon, according to the said Acte, I pronounce them to be husband and wife. Given under my hand and seale the ffourteenth day of July, 1655
Thomas Davis."[1333]
The law of 1653, it thus appears, constitutes a singularly important episode in the social and religious history of England. It remained in force, with a modification in 1656, during the seven years preceding the fall of the Commonwealth, and called forth the fierce opposition and hatred of the royalist party. It was ridiculed by the pamphleteer[1334] and satirized by the poet.[1335] Every provision drew forth a sneer. Marriage is made a "traffic" because published in the