Page 9 - MABE GENEALOGY

The Mabe genealogy line, from England (1600’s) to the United States (1700’s), Virginia and North Carolina.

1754 – Lord Hardwicke’s Marriage Act. A separate marriage register is
enforced, which records witnesses, signatures of all parties, occupation of
groom and the residences of the couple marrying. It also enforced Banns and
made clandestine marriages illegal.

1763 – Minimum age for marriage set at 16 (previously the Church accepted
marriage of girls of 12 and boys of 14). Those under 21 still needed the
consent of parents. On marriage records of individuals that are over 21, they
often have their age listed as “full age” rather than an exact year.

1812 – George Rose’s Act. New pre-printed registers were to be used for
separate baptism, marriage and burial registers as a way of standardizing
records.

About Marriages:

Couples were usually married in the bride’s parish. Until the early 20th
century couples could marry at a very young age. Legally, the couple was
required to be married either by banns or by license.

If married by banns, the couple was required to announce or publish their
intention to marry for three consecutive Sundays. If no one objected to the
intended marriage, then the couple was allowed to marry. Just because banns
were published does not guarantee the marriage actually took place.
Therefore, it is possible to find a couple among the marriage banns, but not
be able to find an actual marriage record for them.

Couples usually married by license if they didn’t want to wait the required
three weeks for the publication of banns, or if the bride and groom lived in
different dioceses. Marriage by license was also common with the upper
class.

Source: http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1623

Note: Throughout the older documents contained in this research, the English language is very
hard for 21st century readers to comprehend. This was due to the use of the “long s” and other
variations in spelling, in use at the time.

Source: http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/long+s - Definition of long s [noun] an
obsolete form of lower-case s, written or printed as ſ. It was used in initial and medial but not
final position in a word, and was generally abandoned in English-language printing shortly before
1800.

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