The Sun.
London, England, 1836-02-22 00:00:00

NEW MARRIAGE ACT.

ABSTRACT.

1. Whereas it is expedient to amend the law of marriages
in England, be it enacted, that after * * +
the parson, Cur, minister, or curate, in England, shall be
obliged to publish the banns of matrimony between any persons
whatsoever. . _ .. _

2. Notice of every intended marriage shall be given in
writing, signed by one of the parties ; where either of the
parties, not being a widower or widow, shall be under the age
of twenty-one years, that such marriage is intended with the
consent of the person or persons whose consent to such mar-
riage is required by law, or that there is no person having au-
thority to give such consent.
3. The registrar shall file all such notices, and shall deliver
them to the superintendent registrar of the district to be kept
with the records of his office, and shall also forthwith copy all
such notices fairly into a book, and for every such entry and
certificate the registrar shall be entitled to have a fee of one
shilling.
4. No marriage, unless by license, shall be solemnized or
registered in England, until after the expiration of twenty-one
days after the day of the delivery of such certificate of no-
tice; and no marriage shall be solemnized by license or regis-
tered until after the expiration of seven days after the day of
the delivery of such certificate ; and every such certificate
shall be delivered to the officiating Minister, if the marriage
shall be solemnized according to the rites of the Church of
England, and otherwise shall be re-delivered to the registrar
present at the celebration of such marriage as hereinafter en-
acted. Nothing herein contained shall affect special licenses.
5. Every superintendant registrar shall have power to grant
licenses for the speedy celebration of Dissenters' nuptials under
certain conditions, specified in the succeeding clause.
7. The like consent shall be required to any marriage under
this Act as was required by law to marriages solemnized by
license immediately before the passing of this Act.
8. Whenever a marriage shall not be had within three months
after certificate of notice shall have been so delivered by the
registrar no person shall proceed to solemnize the same, nor
shall any registrar register the same until new notice shall
have been given, as before described.
9. Any person, on payment' of one shilling, may enter a
caveat with the registrar against the marriage of any person
named therein ; and if any caveat be entered, no certificate of
notice shall be delivered touching the marriage of the person
named in the caveot until after notice of the application shall
have been sent through the Post Office to the person by or on
behalf of whom the caveat was entered.

10. Any caveat may be lodged in like manner with the su-
perintendent registrar against grant of licenses.
11. Persons vexatiously entering caveat liable to costs and
damages.
12. Places of worship may be registered for the celebration
of marriage therein, under certain conditions.
13. On removal of the same congregation the new place of
worship may be immediately registered, instead of the one dis-
used. A fee 0f.51. will be required for the substitution.
14. Marriages may be celebrated in any such registered
building between and by any persons, according to such form
and ceremony as they may see fit to adopt; provided that
every such marriage shall be celebrated with open doors, be-
tween nine in the forenoon and three in the afternoon, in the
presence of the registrar of the district, to whom notice of the
intended marriage has been given, and of two or more credi-
ble witnesses; provided also, that in some part of such cere-
mony, and in the presence of the registrar and witnesses, each
of the parties shall say to the other—
" I call upon these persons here present to witness that I,
A. B. do take thee, C. D., to be my lawful wedded wife (or
husband)."
And for every marriage which shall be solemnised under this
Act in the presence of any registrar, he shall be entitled to
have from the parties married the sum of
and also to be allowed and paid to him, in like manner as his
fees for registering births and deaths, the sum of one shilling
for registering the same, as hereinafter provided.
15. Any persons who shall object to marry under thz pro-
visions of this Act, in any such registered building, may con-
tract and celebrate marriage at the office and in the presence
of the superintendent registrar of the district, and in the pre-
sence of the registrar and two witnesses, with open doors,
and between the hours aforesaid, using the form of words be-
fore provided. No such marriage before the superintendent
registrar shall be by license, and for every such marriage the
superintendent registrar shall be entitled to have a fee of ten
shillings.
16. The registrar shall forthwith register every marriage
celebrated in his presence, in a marriage register book, to be
furnished to him for that purpose by the registrar-general, ac-
cording to the form provided for the registration of marriages
by an Act made in this present session of Parliament, intituled
"An -Let for Registerieg-Births, Deaths, and Marriages -in
England" or as near thereunto as may be; and every entry, •
of such marriage shall be signed by the minister or other per-
son by or before whom the marriage was celebrated, and by
the registrar, and also by the parties married, and attested.by
two such witnesses ; and all such marriage register-books, and
certified copies thereof, shall be sent to the superintendent re-
gistrar, and dealt with in all respects as registers of births and
deaths under the provisions of the said Act for registering
births, deaths, and marriages.
17. After the Celebration of any marriage under this Act,
it shall not be necessary, in support of such marriage, to give
any proof of the actual dwelling of the parties previous•to the
marriage within the district wherein such marriage was cele-
brated for the time required by this Act, nor shall any evidence
be given to prove the contrary in any suit touching the validity
of such marriage.
18. Every marriage celebrated under this Act shall be cog-
nizable in like manner as marriages celebrated before the pass-
ing of this Act, according to the rites of the Church of Eng-
land.
19. It shall be lawful for the Registrar before whom any
marriage is celebrated, according to the provisions of this
Act, to ask of the parties married the several particulars re-
quired to be registered touching such marriage, and every such
person who shall refuse, or without reasonable cause neglect,
to answer according to the best of his or her belief shall for-
feit and pay a sum not exceeding fifty pounds.
20. Persons making false oaths, &c., guilty of perjury.
21. Persons unduly solemnizing marriages contrary to the
regulations of this Act to be deemed guilty of felony.
22. Marriages unduly solemnized with the •knowledge of
both parties to be void.
23. If any valid marriage shall be had under the provisions
of this Act, by means of any wilfully false oath, certificate,
or declaration, made by either party to such marriage, as to
any matter to which an oath, certificate, or declaration is herein
required, the guilty party to forfeit all property accruing from
the marriage, as in 4 Geo. IV., c. 76, s. 28, &c.
24. This Act shall extend onty to England, and shall not
extend to the marriage of any of the Royal Family.

ABSTRACT OF GENERAL REGISTRATION

BILL.

This Bill contains the following provisions :—A general
registry office to be provided in London and Westminster.
Poor Law Commissioners to have the care of the register.
Guardians of unions to appoint registrars and superintendent
registrars. Register and certified copy to be delivered to
superintendent. Ratepayers of parishes not united under the
Poor Law Act to appoint registrars fur the parish. Parishes
may be united for the purposes of this Act. Court of Quarter
Sessions to appoint superintendent registrars for parishes
not united. Children born and persons dying at sea may
be registered. Births after fifteen days to be registered
before the superintendent registrar. Birth not to be re-
gistered after six months. Next of kin or other person pre-
sent at death, or occupier of house, and in cases of foundlings
or exposed dead bodies, overseers and Coroners required
to give notice to the registrar. No dead body to be buried
without certificate of registry or of inquest. Registrars to be
paid by the overseers according to a scale. Marriage regis-
ters to be kept in duplicate, and, pith certified copies, to be
sent to superintendent registrar. Indexes to be kept,
searches allowed, and certificates given. Parties being mar-
ried refusing to answer questions to be subject to a penalty
of 501. Persons wilfully giving false information touch-
ing the particulars to be registered to be deemed guilty of
perjury, and punished accordingly. Parties refusing to regis-
ter any marriage solemnized by them, and every registrar not
duly registering births, deaths, and marriages, or losing or
injuring registers, to be subjected to a penalty of 50/. The
destroying or falsifying register buoks considered felony, and
will subject the party to transportation for life, or for any
number of years not less than fourteen. Accidental errors
:nay be corrected. All fines and forfeitures may be recovered
before any two Magistrates in the place where the offence
shall have happened, upon information of any person; and if;
on the conviction of the offender, the fines shall not be forth-
with paid the same shall be levied by distress ; and, for want
of distress, the Justice may commit the offender for any term
not exceeding one month. One moiety of the fine to go to
the informer and the other to the registrar-general.

LIGHTHOUSES. -4 Bill for vesting Lighthouses and Lights
on the coasts of England in the Corporation of Trinity House
of Deptford Strond, and for making provisions respecting
light-
houses, lights, buoys, beacons and sea-marks, and the tolls and
duties payable in respect thereof, has been brought in by Mr.
Hume and Mr. Ewart.

On Wednesday last it blew a complete gale.of
wind
from the northward, attended with a tremendous sea, when
one of the pilot-boats," which was riding at anchor off the
North Foreland, upset the palls of her windlass, and the cable
ran out with the greatest velocity. -At this time one of the
pilots on board, in endeavouring to stop it, became entpgied.
with the windlass, his j acket having caught the cable, which,
dragged him with great violence over the body of the windlass;
and he was thus placed in very imminent danger of being.
crushed between the cable and windlass ; howeycr, by the
prompt exertions of the other pilot and the master of the vessel,
they were enabled to extricate the sufferer, by tearing bim
from his clothes, fortunately in time to save his life,
but not
without serious injury, being very much bruised.