The record-union., 1893-09-23


appeals for check upon the "Gretna
and 'Coldstream" marriages of English
people-for the border village of Cold
stream in Berwickshire once possessed
almost as unenviable reputation as Gret-
na-ln 1856, by permission OF Scottish rep
resentatlye, as an Act was passed by the
British Parliament imposing the condl-
ton upon Scottish civil contract mar
rlages that one of the contracting parties
shall have been resident OF Scotland Tor
period of twenty-one days Immediately
preceding such marriage.
In other words, any civil contract mar
riage in Scotland for hundreds of years
has been, and now is, a valid one; the
requisites for marriage at Gretna to-day
are precisely the same as they always
were, with the exception of Su bSeQuent
registration, and the trifling condition of
brief residence of one of the contracting
parties, and within the past twenty three
years the present Bishop of Gretna" has
married between 900 and 1000 couples,
chiefly runaway English men and women,
or nearly One-tenth of the entire number
so married at Gretna Graen since its first
"scandalous" marriage of record. 1t IS
almost as much resorted to at present for
irregular" marriage ceremony as it was
a hundred years ago, though the line
color and great clamor Of the old coach
ing days. when the old Carlisle and Glas-
gov road resounded with ringing hOOts
and the shouts of pursued and Dursuers,
are eliminated by the railways, and every
mail to Gretna brings "BiShOD" LaIng
letters of eager inquiry, one OF which is
truly copied. barring the signature in the
following:
KEIGHLEY, England, August IS 1898.
DEAR SIR: Would you kindly inform me
what length OF residence is necessary in Scot
! land for parties going 10 be married by you at
Gretna? Does 1t 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 resi-
/ dence in Sco} land? II so, from whom should
ii be? From the minister, solicitor or regis
ter! What time of Gay do you require pay
ties to be there for marriage? Are you TO be
/ readily found and on any day? DO you marry
Sunday? What is your fee? The parties
write tor are respectable people, DuI not 0Die
to pay a nigh fee-say nom one TO Two pounds.
An early reply will very much oDlge
p S.-If we come you Will know me by my
carving a stick Win a carved ivory mead
Also By bit OF green in my hatband. III IS
possible the bride may not nave hardly any
thing on, as she VIII nave To cut suck TO par
ticipate. How will we know your
Gretna was originally chosen as an OBJ
+ iective point OF safety for both lying
debtors and runaway couples from Eng
/ land solely on account OF It's favorable 10
cation. The great olden coach roads OF
ENGLAND still its finest highWays-the
( eastern one coming north through Leeds,
/ York Boroughbridge, Catterick and an
cient BoWes, the scene OF Ilckens Dothe-
+ ovs Hail in nicholas Nickleby," and
thence over dreary Stanemoor, the west
ern one leading from Liverpool through
Lancashire and tie northwestern Eng
lish shires-joined al the City OF Carlisle
/ From Carlisle the single stone DlgnWay
passed over the Ilsk and Sark Rivers, be-
tween which lay the historic "Deoatable
Land, - into Scotland. 1t should be borne
IN mind that the distance from Carlisle
! to Gretna, just beyond the 5ark, is only
about twelve miles; that Gretna was The
: first coach relay station north OF CarHsle'
/ that the Stark stream was Lhe unques-
4 toned boundary line between England
( and Scotland, and that whatever legal
/ or moral VeXations might IN the olden
times, or now, lurk IN the "Debatable
( I.and' between the Esk and the Sark,
whenever debtors or lovers, lying from
/ the inexorable harrassment or English
! statute once crossed the middle OF the
Sark. they were instantly safe from pur-
! suers beneath the ever welcoming tegls
( OF Scottish law.
Though Gretna had been faVOrite ha-
ven OF safety for abscondlng debtors from
/ the middle of the seventeenth century,
it's first irregular" marriage Of which
there is record did not occur until LII,
seventeen years subsequent 10 the pass
AGE of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke's
hated English Marriage Act, but the cir
cumstanceS OF this affair were so interest
ing and so widely heralded that Grelna
Green at once became Hymen's metropo-
lis 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. Iradi-
ton has it that these two, instead of COM
ing by cOach-andtour over the post
route from Carlisle, escaped their oppos-
ing relatives by boat across the SolWay
Firth They were upset by storm and
fierce incoming tide, whose violence
drowned one OF their pursuers and caused
the others to abandon the chase. The
couple themselves 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, Tor this sort OF
thing, became the most notorious man of
his time in Scotland, as well as the most
eXecrated single individual known to the
annals OF English social anathema.
At this time Gretna, perhaps half
mile from the Sark along the highway
towards Glasgow, comprised not more
than half-dozen houses. There were
simply few rude buildings clustered
about an old matched kirk and the olden
! farmstead of Megs 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 blacksmith as
all Gretna literature has ltsold tea, to-
bacco and snuff as we'll as smuggled
whisky to the ''muckle right Sort" The
explolting OF the IIdgar-Scott marriage,
Paisley's defiance Of English and Scotch
authorities and his cunning in securing
the highest Scottish legal advice, enab-
ling him to settle the form OF procedure
according to law by attesting marriages
simply as witness, with the consequent
establishing of the absolute legality of
these marriages and the universal noto-
rleHy thus given, completed the essentials
Tor acquainting every soul in England
with the extraordinary opportunities
offered by evadlng English law. Paisley
became the selt-constituted Bishop of
Gretna," and the Maxwell residence was
transformed into commodiOus 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 couple
in l77I, to the time OF his death in 1914, it
is computed that this irregular" mar
riage traffic brought annually TO Gretna
ana Springfield se20, 900 i'll 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 GU
rious who were attracted by the extraor-
4 81 Al.