The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-09-24


Green since its first 'scaudalouS" mar
riage of record. II it almost as much re-
sorted TO at present for irregular mar
riage ceremony as It was a hundred years
ago, though the fine color and great
clamor of the old coaching days, when
the old Carlisle and Glasgow road re
sounded with ringing hOofS and the
shouts of pursued and pursuers, are elm
mated by the railways; and every mail to
Gretna brings Bishop Laing letters of
eager inquiry, one of which is truly
copied, barring the signature, in the fol-
lowing:
Kelghley England, Aug, d, lS93.-Dear
Sir; Would you kindly inform me what
length of residence is necessary in Scotland
for parties going to be married by YOU at
Gretna? Does it require both bride and bride
groom to be a certain length in Scotland or
only the Bride?
Do you require any certificate as to the res
idence in ScOtand2 II so, frOm'whom should
it be? From the Minister, Solicitor or regis
trar: What time of day do you require par
ties to be there for marriage: Are you to he
readily found and on any day? Do you marry
Sunday: What is your fee: The parties I
write for are respectable, but not able to pay
a high fee-say from one to two pounds An
early reply will very much Oblige
p. S.-If we come you viii know me by my
carrying stick with a carved ivory head
Also by a bit Of green in my hat-band. IL is
possible the Bride may not have hardly any
thing on, as she will have to cut stick to par
ticipate. How will we know you?
Gretna was originally chosen as an OBJ
jective point of safety for both flying
debtors and runaway couples from Eng
land solely on account of its favorable loca-
ton The great Olden coach roads of
England, still it's finest highways-th
eastern one coming north through Leeds,
York, Borough bridge, Catterick and an
cient Bowes, the scene of Dickens Dothe-
boys Hall in Nicholas Nickelby," and
thence over dreary Stanemoor, and the
western one leading from Liverpool
through Lancashire and thenorthwestern
English shires-j joined at the city of Car
Isle. From the single broad stone
highway passed over the Esk and
Sark rivers, between which lay the his
tOric "Debatable Land, D" into Scotland 1t
should be borne in mind that the distance
from Carlisle to Gretna, just beyond the
Sark, is only about twelve miles; that
Gretna was the first coach relay station
north of Carlisle; that the Sark stream
was the unquestioned boundary line be-
tween England and Scotland and that
Whatever legal or moral veXauions might
in the olden times, or now, Turk in the
"Deba table Land" between the E,sk and
Sark, whenever debtors or lovers, flying
from the inexorable harassment of Eng
lish statute, once crossed the middle of
the Sark, they were instantly safe from
pursuers beneath the Overwhelming
ages of Scottish law.
Though Gretna had been a favorite
haven of safety for absconding debtors
from the middle of the seventeenth
century, its first irregular" marriage of
which there is record did not occur until
177l, seventeen years subsequent to the
passage Of Lord Chancellor Hardwioke's
hated English marriage act but the cir
cumstances of this affair were sointerest-
ing and so widely heralded that Gretna
Green at once became H ymen s metropolis
for hunted, haunted, runaway lovers
This first marriage was of John Edgar,
st. Mary's parish, and Jean Scott of the
parish of Hetherel, both of the adjoining
English county of Cumberland. Tradition
has it that these two, instead of coming
by coach and-four over the post-route from
Carlisle, escaped their opposing relatives
by boat across the Solway Firth. They
were upset by storm and a fierce incom-
ing tide, whose violence drowned one of
their pursuers and caused the others to
abandon the chase The couple them
selves barely escaped with their lives;
and bedraggled in brine and sand, they
finally made their way on foot from the
shoreside village of Greenhouses to
Gretna, where they were married by
Joseph Paisley, who for this sort of thing,
became the most notorious man of his
time in Scotland, as well as the most exc
Grated single individual known to the an
nails of English social auathema.
At this time Gretna, perhaps a half
mile from the Sark along the highway to-
wards Glasgow, comprised not more than
a half dozen houses. There were simply
a few rude buildings clustered about an
old matched kirk and the olden farm
stead of Meg's hill. The farmstead was
the laird of the lands residence. There
were also the little manse behind the kirk
and vile little shop in which the fellow
Paisley-not a blacksmith as all Gretna
literature has it-sOld tea, tobacco and
snuff, as well as Struggled whisky to the
''muckle right Sort The exploiting of
the Edgar-Scott marriage; Paisley's def
ance of English and Scotch authorities,
and his cunning in securing the highest
Scottish legal advice, enabling him to
settle the form Of procedure according to
law by attesting marriages simply as a
Witness with the consequent establish
ing of the absolute legality of these mar
riages, and the universal notoriety thus
gwen, completed the essentials for ac-
quainting every soul in England with the
extraordinary opportunities offered for
evading English law. Paisley became the
self-cOnstituted 'BishOp of Gretna - and
tllC NldAhGll IESlubuLO was transformed
into commodlous inn.
This hostelry proving Inadequate for
accommodation, Sir William Maxwell,
the laird, built an entire village In the
half mile distance between Gretna and
the Sark, which he called Springfield,
and which included two inns, the Kings
arms and Maxwell Arms; and these by
the beginning of the present century be-
came the most noted posting establish
ments in the two kingdoms. From Pals
ley's marriage of the Cumberland cOuDle
in l77l, to the time of his death in 1914 il
is computed that this Irregular mar
riage traffic brought annually to Gretna
and Springfield $50, 900 in fees ; expenses
of those who pursued runaway English
couples; outlay of barristers who
visited the places to establish
proof of marriage; other barristers
who came for clients who hoped to find
lack of proof; from the curious who were
by the extraordinary character
of the place; and from the general reck-
lesSness and extravaganza on every hand
where marriage fees from runaway
English common folk, gentry and nobility
ranged from to 100 guineas, as they did.
with any amount of the "yellow stuff
for hOrdes of Witnesses" handy-men
and satraps who lived permanently at
the inns, filled the rude cottages or
swarmed like harpies about the then busy
stable yards
The present hereditary line of "Bishop
Of Gretna" was established Just before