The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1877-05-10
CURIOSITIES OF MATRIMONY,
Innovations in Public Wedding Services in
England-A Quaker Marriage.


/ A London letter says 1t looks as if we
We're about to have a rebellion among
fashionable young people against the
marriage service of the Church of Eng
land. 1t is not only because sentiment
has outgrown the promise of the bride
to "obey," on which the clergy still in
slst, though instances increase in which
the ladies refuse to utter it; but there
are some portions of the service which
are almost coarse, and make the young
people blush. The clergyman has, of
course, no right to modify the service.
There are now so many marriages per-
formed by the registrars alone that they
find it important to provide neat rooms
III which to receive wedding companies.
The registrar simply asks the man and
woman by name if there is any legal i'm
pediment, and then asks each if he and
she will take the other as husband, as
wife; it requires that they should say
mo- to the impediment question and
"yes" to the last, and by the utterance
of these two words they are married
Two witnesses sign the certificate, the
registrar pockets his small fixed fee, and
the affair is over This kind of marriage
is largely resorted to where one of the
parties has been divorced, in which case
few of the clergy will officiate, and still
more in cases where the parties hold
different religious opinions.
Among the many notifications of mar
riage celebrations supplied by the Non
conformist bodies, that of the Quakers
has recently attracted attention. For
two hundred years the Quakers have
enjoyed among themselves the privilege
of being married without the interfer-
ence of either registrar, clergy, OF any
OF their own ministers; but lately they
have agreed to receive in their meeting
houses parties not of their faith, and re
Gently an eminent Parliamentary circle
was present to witness the marriage of
two young people in the Quaker meeting
house near Lincoln's Inn, neither of whom
were or are Quakers. The bridegroom
was Mr.. Maclaren, son of the member
for Edinburgh University. Mrs. Maclaren
is sister of John Bright, and was a
Quaker, but married " out of meeting. I"
Her son, just married, "has never mani
tested any Quaker proclivities," and the
young lady, Miss Pochin, belonged,
believe, to the Church of England, but
did not like its marriage service. There
were present the whole tribe of Brights,
a large one, and most of their friends,
among others the two younger daughters
of Richard Golden. The appearance of
the assembly showed that the old Quaker
peculiarities of dress are things of the
past, there being on the raised dais or
platform reserved for elders, none who
wore the Quaker garb, and several
female Friends with gay bonnets.
The bride and bridegroom were in full
wedding raiment, and the bridesmaids,
with their wells and bright costumes, re-
presented an invasion of the somber
place which might make the dust of
George Fox shudder in the neighboring
graveyard. The Quakers so rarely get
any worldly people into their establish
ment that they Thought it necessary to
improve this occasion, and there was
lugubrious prayer from one and weari-
some sermon from another of their min
listers. Young Maclaren arose, and said
that he took Miss Pochin to be his wife,
and promised by the help of God to be
to her faithful and loving husband.
After brief silence the young lady was
moved to rise up, extended her hand,