Caricature of a "broomstick-wedding", from a two-penny sheet by James Catnach, "The Marriage Act Displayed in Cuts and Verse", London, 1822. The publication satirizes the proposed Marriage Act (known as the "Broomstick Marriage Act", "broomstick marriage" being a term for "sham marriage"). Outhwaite (1995) associates this term with the "effloresence of unregistered consensual unions" among the English and Welsh working class in the second half of the 18th century, citing a 1753 pamphlet mentioning "the Ceremonial of jumping over a Stick", and noting "Cathnach's illustrated twopenny-sheets of the 1820s carried charming drawings of broomstick weddings". R. B. Outhwaite, "Clandestine Marriage in England, 1500-1850", A&C Black, 1995, 139f.