I know that preachers performed marriages way back when, but can
anyone tell
me when the couple had to have " Legal License" before they could get
married and which was the first state to require them or was is a federal
requirement? Also does anyone know who the first license was issued to?? and
can prove it with a copy.
What was the routine of the marriage prior to the issueing of a marriage
license. When did "Comman Law" wife become effective?
Thanks,
RN
Common Law marriages date back to England in the Middle Ages (when
the concept of "Common Law" originated, as opposed to written
statute.) Licensed marriages were performed in this country from the
earliest days, although in New England, at least, ministers did not
perform them at first. Oddly enough, even in the Puritan colonies
where church and state were so tightly integrated, marriage was a
civil affair rather than a religious rite for many years. I think
allowing ministers to conduct marriage ceremonies was added to the
colonial charters of several of the original 13 about 100 years or
more before the Revolution, though. As for a copy of the first
marriage license, that wasn't the way it was done, but the town Vital
Records are available for many early settlements, and include
marriage records as well as births and deaths from the early 1600s
forward.
The requirement for a license before marriage varied by location, but
in many cases was accomplished by "publishing the banns" some time
before the marriage took place. In some cases, the church records of
the banns (which were religious in nature rather than civil) are the
only evidence of a marriage, and may have substituted for a legal
marriage (or the vital records may be incomplete, as was often the
case.) When the early VRs for Massachusetts colonial towns were
transcribed in the late 1800s & early 1900s, the transcribers used
both town and church records to reconstruct them.
Regards,
Katherine
mailto:katherine@history-ebooks.com
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