Subjects: Schools

Subjects: Punishment of unmarried woman for pregnancy

Subjects: Payment for support of spouse or child

Sometimes when passing sentence on a man found to have fathered an illegitimate child the judge might order that he was to make payments for the support and/or education of the child.

Support and education

EDC 5/1580/5 – the defendant was ordered to support and educate the child, who was a girl.

Subjects: Midsummer Fair in Chester

Subjects: Metropolitan visitation

Subjects: Marriage formation

The formation of a marriage at this time could be legally complex and somewhat paradoxical. A promise of marriage might be formalised in church, and the reading of banns was seen as proof of this intention as in EDC 5/1587/8. The marriage of children under the age of consent was, however, illegal, and once the children reached the age of majority, which was 14 for boys and 12 for girls, the parties to the marriage might seek ratification in the consistory court for the avoidance of doubt.

In theory, all that was needed for a valid marriage was for a couple to consent to marriage in words of the present tense (per verba de presenti) or words of the future tense (per verba de futuro) followed by sexual intercourse. Without subsequent consummation, however, marriage by verba de futuro amounted to no more than betrothal.

The church sought to formalise the process of marriage by requiring the reading of banns, followed by a ceremony conducted by a member of the clergy and witnessed by parishioners, although this procedure could be circumvented by special licence from the bishop, a system which developed as the century progressed. However, it still remained possible in the sixteenth century for a couple to contract a legally binding marriage without any formal church ceremony or episcopal permission.

Source:

R. B. Outhwaite, Clandestine Marriage in England 1500 – 1850, (Ohio, 1995), pp. 1-8.

Ratification of marriage of minors

EDC 5/1566/7 – Roger Downes and Elizabeth Stanley

Unknown

EDC 5/1587/8 – Katherine Clubb contra John Ledsam

Validity of a clandestine marriage

EDC 5/1566/2 – Elizabeth Wilson contra William Gooddigar

 

 

 

 

Subjects: Markets

Subjects: Livery and retaining

Subjects: Informal dispute resolution

Subjects: Household chaplain and schoolmaster