Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-01-02
INFANTlLE MARRIAGES.
Eight Children of very Tender Years United in

London Tid-Bits


London It'd Bits.
Many persons will be considerably as
tonished 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 children ana for
grounds of state alone, but to the general
custom in other classes to as late date
as the last two centuries. Those mar
Tiages were not mere betrothals, but gen.
uine marriages, celebrated in the % face
Of the church - and duly sOlemnized ac-
cording to the Book of Common Prayer.
Perhaps the youngest bride on record in
English annals was the daughter of Sir
William Brereton, who was married in
the sixteenth century at the age of two to
husband who was year older than her
self. In this case the children were
called into church and their elders spoke
for them.
But in another case, where little boy
of three was married to q bride of five,
he was carried by clergyman, who
coaXed him to repeat the necessary for
muIas. The task was not easy, however,
as the child said he had learnt enough
through, and was only kept up to it by
the priest saying: ''You must speak
little more, and then go play you In
a further instance reported i'll Lancas-
shire the bridegroom was bribed to go
to church by the present Of an apple.
Frequently the brides were a year or two
older than their lords and masters, as in
the ease 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 Gil
bert GiTard and Emma Talbot were mar
ried 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 IS part, and the
womau-who was not six years of age
"'spake for herself as she was taught -
It seems incredible that during the
reigns Of Henry VIII, Edward VI,
Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth it was
quite customary for persons of all ranks
in life to marry their children at aston
ishngly early ages But the bishops
registry at Chester, not to speak Of local
records in all parts Of England, could
testify many Observation-Disclosures, too
among people anxious for the intellectual
progress of their day, and among whom
soTdid reasons for such marriages were
not supposed to exist.
William ChadeTton, successfully bishop
of Chester and Lincoln, a well-kuown
scholar and distinguished ecclesiastic OF
the reign Of Elizabeth, aud who was
notable for the encouragement he gave
to ministers and his zeal in establishing
lectureships and daily morning prayer,
did not scruple to marry mis- daughter
Joan, in 1882, at the age Of nine, to
Richard Brooke, then nearly eleven.
Four years later the marriage was rati-
fied-as was usual in such cassidy the
consent OF the young: people, the lengthy
documents testifying 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 ono great comfort of that
matrimony'' Of his only daughter, and
that she was separated from her hus-
band.
1t sometimes happens, when years of
consent were attained, lie, twelve for
the girl and fourteen for the boy, that
the child bride and child bridegroom dis
liked each other so heartily that they re-
fused to rattfy 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 children, the
union was annuIled, and each was set
free
The divorce court at that time was the
scene of many appeals from the most
useful couples until about the beginning
of the seventeenth century, when Strypo
notes that ''the nation became scandal
Gus for the frequency of divorces, espe-
cially among the richer sort, and one oc-
casion 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 sepa-
ration and divorce followed to the
breaking Of espousals ana displeasure of
God.
Persons Suffering from Sick Headache,
Dizziness, nausea, constipation, pains