The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-11-22 00:00:00

REGISTERS OF FLEET MARRIAGES.

The state of our marriage law antecedent to the act of 1753,
(2-i George 11., c. al, ) and the infamous system of legal prosti-
tution which that act extinguished, are sufficiently notorious.
From the novels of Fielding end Smoliett, and the scarcely
more faithful details given in the periodical publications of the
day, we become tolerably familiar with the doings of the Fleet
and King's Bench parsons, hackney and sham, with their ta-
vern-chapels, where the clocks never went beyond the canoni-
cal hour; where contract's of convenience might be made and
unmade in a trice, and where children could be le,,,ititnated at
half an hour's notice, and for a few shillings, without troubling
Parliament i.bout the matter : all these things are pretty well
known. Few persons, however, are acquainted with the fact
that registers (such as they are) of these marriages exist; that
a large collection, purchased by government, are deposited in
the registry of the Consistory Court of London, and some still
re►nain in private hands. Mr. John Southerden Burn, to whom
the public are already indebted for a carious history of parish
registers, has directed his researches into this devious path of
reading, and from an examination of these extraordinary do-
cuments, as well as the parsons' " pocket-books," as they were
termed, and from a varlet) of historical and antiquarian records,
has compiled an amusing as well as a useful little work, com-
prising the history of Fleet marriages, the parsons and mar-
riage-house-keepers, and of the May-fair, Mint, and Savoy
chapels, with extracts from the-registers.
The earliest Fleet register in the London Registry is dated
in 167-1; but there is evidence of a Fleet marriage in 1613,
amongst the Lansdowne manuscripts. With a single excep-
tion all the Fleet registers commence about the period of the
order of the ecclesiastical commissioners against clandestine
marriages, in 168&, which checked the celebration of such mar-
riages at Duke's-place and Trinity Minories, when it was taken
up by certain real and pretended clergymen in and about the
prisons, not. however; on account of any real privilege or 'ex-
emption attaching to these prisons, but because the parsons,
being generally prisoners, had nothing to lose by the ecclesias-
tical proceedings against them.
The infamous character of these men, their employers, plyers,
and bullies, and the class of people who usually resorted to their
aid, (some were people of rank,) are pretty plainly developed
in the entries, comments, and memoranda contained in the

registers. The parsons took the fees, allowing a.portion to the
plyers. &v. ; and the tavern-keepers, besides sharing in the fees,
• derived a profit from the sale of liquors drank at the wedding.
In some instances, tn,v kept a parson on their establishment
at a weekiv salary of lis. The fee, of course, varied in amount;
the parsons got as much, and the parties (generally.) paid as
little as they could. ss. or 6s. seems to have been about the
ordinary fee; and a memorandum by Parson Ashwell, de-
scribed as " a most notorious moue and impostor," who flourish-
ed between 1731 and 1743, shows the mode of division : " the
turnkey had ls. ; Boyce Is., elk.; ye plyer, Is.; and I had 3s.
Bd." Parson Wyatt, who " had a great deal of business in
i this way," has left a memorandum in one of his pocket-hooks,
whence it appears that, in the month of October, 1748. mar-
riages were celebrated by him every day, et home and abroad,
and his total receipts for that mouth imounted to £57 12s. 9d.
life same parson, in another pocket-book, candidly confesses
that he exterted money from silly and unwary people, "by
i lying, bullying, and swearing." It appears from some of the
i authoriti-s cited by Mr. Burn. titat these " clergymen" were
in the habit of " boxing" the bridegrooms who were not over
ready to comply with their demands. On the other hand, they
were in turn ("a app-rnars by their memoranda) served in the
same way. heinz occasionally beaten, and sometimes forced tol
1
refund tie fee. One of the notes shows the cunning mode in
which they were revenged:. " N.B.—Some material part (of
' the ceremony) was omitted."

The Grub-street Journal of January, 11735, contains a. de-
scription of the manner in which persons were sometimes mar-
tied in spite.of themselves, " by a set of drunken swearing par-
sons, with their myrmidons, that wear black coats, and pretend
to be clerks and registers to the Fleet, and who ply about
'Ludgate-•hill, phlling and forcing. people to some peddling ale-
house or brandy-shop to be married, even on a Sunday, stop-
ping them as they go to church, and almost tearing their clothes
off their backs."

The indecency of these practices, and the facility they afford-
ed for accomplishing forced and fraudulent marriages, were not
the only evils attending the state of the law. Marriages could
be antedated, without limit, on payment of a fee, or not entered
at all. Parties could be married without declaring their names.
It was a common practice for women to hire temporary hus-
bands, at the Fleet, in order that they might be able to plead
coverture to an action for debt, or to produce a certificate in case
of their being encientl. These hired husbands were provided
by the parson for .ss. each; sometimes they were women. The
hopefut condition of the brides was often so apparent to the
parson (when not a.blind parson, or not too drunk to see it),
that he noted the fact in his entry. For example:—" After
marr : I perceived it to be a hired job. He a thin-Jaw'd mean-
looking fellow, Irish or scotch; she gravida and very gent."
Procrastination was sometimes carried too far. A case is men-
tioned (p. 61) in which the bride was delivered during the cere-
mony, leaving the legitimacy of the child a very nice question.
It appears, moreover; that for half-a-guinea a marriage might
be registered and certified that never took place at all, even in
form!

The marriage at the Fleet of the Hon. Henry Fox, son of
the first Lord Holland, :to the daughter of the Duke of Rich-
mond, in 1744, and the increase of these irregular practices, led
to the introduction of the Marriage Act, which, strange to say,
passed with great difcul►y, and which Blackstone, with an
obliquity of judgment not unfrequent with common lawyers,
seems to condemn as an "innovation upon our ancient law and
constitutii.n." Mr. Burn has given a ve4 particular account
of this important enactment.
The interval between the passing of the bill and its coming
into operation, 'afforded a rich final harvest to the parsons of the
Fleet and May-fair. At the Fleet, it appears, from one register-
book alone, that on the 25th March, 1754, the day previous to
the act taking effect, there were no less than 217 marriages.
Clandestine marriages continued, however, at the Savoy till
1756, when the transportation of a minister and his curate,
under the act, put an effectual stop to them.
The surviving registers may probably supply some valuable
evidence as to marriages not recorded in the regular i egistries,
and Mr. Burn has published the names of a variety of parties,
(some people of rank) who found it convenient, for some rea-
son, to avail themselves of the services of the Fleet parsons.
The appendix to the work contains a draught bill for amend-
ing the law of parochial registration.