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Archiver > Bristol_and_Somerset > 2000-09 > 0967844109


From: "Terry.Lanfear" <>
Subject: Re: Legal marriages
Date: Fri, 1 Sep 2000 22:35:09 +0100
References: <39AF6422.E3336DB5@virgin.net>


In your message of 1 September, you wrote -

>Was it possible for a widower to marry his deceased wife's sister in the
>19th century?

Not validly under English law, Anne (which is not to say that it never
happened).

The history of marriage laws in these islands is complex. If you want the
whole story I suggest reading

Marriage Laws, Rites, Records and Customs by Colin CHAPMAN

but, briefly, the first attempts to establish temporal rather than clerical
kindred prohibitions occurred in the statutes of 1533 and 1536 following the
secession from Rome by Henry VIII. His daughter Mary I repealed his
statutes, but his other daughter Elizabeth I re-instated part of them. This
left some confusion which was clarified by the adoption in 1603 of a list of
prohibitions prepared by Archbishop Parker.

The list of forbidden partners in marriage was stated in the Book of Common
Prayer of 1662 and remained largely undisturbed until the 1907 Marriage Act
made it legal for a man to marry his deceased wife's sister. A number of
other changes were made by the Acts of 1921, 1931 and 1949.

Scotland and Ireland followed similar regimes.

- -
Terence Lanfear
Cardiff, UK

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