Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-12-22
INFANTILE MARRIAGES.
English Children Of Very Tender Years
United in Wedlock.

to hear how recently our social annals disclose
the frequency Of juvenile unions in England
and Scotland. We do not refer to those WELL
known instances of princes and potentates
being contracted in marriage while still chill
dren and for grounds of state alone, but to the
general custom in other classes to as late date
as the last two centuries. These marriages
were not mere betrothals, but genuine mar
riages. celebrated lin the face of the church.
and duly solemnized according to the Book OF
Common Prayer. says London Tid-Bits Per-
haps the youngest bride on record in English
annals was the daughter of Sir William Brere-
ton. who was married in the sixteenth century
at the age Of two to q husband who was year
older than herself. In this case the children
were carried into church and their elders spoke
for them.
But in another case, where a little boy of
three was married to a bride Of five, he was
carried by clergyman, who coaxed him to re-
peat the necessary formulas. The task was not
easy, however. as the child said he had learnt
enough lessons for that day before he was half
through, and was only kept up to it by the
priest saying, You must speak a little more,
and then 20 play you" In q further instance
recorded in Lancashire the bridegroom was
bribed to go to church by the present of an ap-
older than their lords and masters. as in the
of Vergery Vernon. who, in l562-she being
nearly ten years old-was married to Randle
More. who was but eight Another record tells
of how Gilbert Girard and Emma Talbot we're
married at Leigh church, when the boys uncle
held up the bridegroom, who was five years
old and spoke the words Of matrimony for the
child's part. and the woman-who was not six
years of age-''spake for herself as she was
taught"
II seems incredible that, during the reigns
of Henry VIII, Edward vi, Queen Mary and
ch.AA A. -
persons of all ranks in life to marry their chill
dren at astonishingly early ages. But the Bish-
ops Registry at Chester-not to speak Of local
records in all parts Of England-could testify
to many Observation-Disclosures too, among peo-
pie anxious for the intellectual progress of
their day, and among whom sordid reasons for
such marriages we're not supposed to exist.
VIM. Chaderton-successively bishop Of Ches-
ter and Lincoln--a well-known scholar and dis
tinguished ecclesiastic Of the reign of Eliza
beth. and who was notable for the encourage
ment he gave to ministers and his zeal in estab-
fishing Iectureships and daily morning PRAYER
did not scruple to marry his daughter Joan,
in 1852. at the age of nine. to Richard Brooke,
then nearly eleven.
Four years later the marriage was ratified
as was usual in such cassidy the consent Of
the young people, the lengthy documents tes-
tifying to the ratification being still extant in
the records of Chester. Unfortunately, their
early love did not develop into an enduring
love, and twenty years later we read that the
bishop had mo great comfort of that matri-
mony" of his only daughter, and that she
was separated from her husband.
1t sometimes happened, when years Of con-
sent were attained. T. e.. twelve for the girl and
fourteen for the boy. that the child bride and
child bridegroom disliked each other SO heart
lily that they refused to ratify the contract. and
then an action for divorce was undertaken and
the marriage declared void. Juvenile marriages
in those days were fortunately always voidable.
and where it could be proved that there had
been no renewal Of promise. no exchange Of
gifts, messages or meeting between the chill
dren, the union was annuled and each was set
free.
The divorce court was at that time the scene
of many appeals from the most useful couples
until about the beginning Of the seventeenth
century, when Strype notes that the nation
became scandalous for the frequency Of di-
vorces, especially among the richer sort, and
one occasion was the covetousness Of the nobil-
ity and gentry, who used often to marry their
children when they were young boys and girls
that they might Join land to land. and. being
grown up, they many times disliked each other
and then separation and divorce followed to
the breaking Of espousals and displeasure Of
God"