Author Topic: Cautioners  (Read 4076 times)

Offline sinkers35

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Cautioners
« on: Wednesday 24 August 11 05:52 BST (UK) »
I have a 1728 scottish church marriage register copy showing the groom with a cautioner having the bride's family name and the bride with a cautioner having the groom's family name. Can someone explain to me what this means.

Online Ruskie

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Re: Cautioners
« Reply #1 on: Wednesday 24 August 11 07:09 BST (UK) »
Welcome to rootschat.

I believe it was a sponsor or guarantor. A google search gives quite a few hits.  ;)

From Scotlands People:
Proclamation of Banns
The proclamation of banns was the notice of contract of marriage, read out in the Kirk before the marriage took place. Couples or their 'cautioners' (sponsors) were often required to pay a 'caution' or security to prove the seriousness of their intentions. Forthcoming marriages were supposed to be proclaimed on three successive Sundays, however, in practice, all three proclamations could be made on the same day on payment of a fee. If the bride and groom lived in different parishes, the impending marriage was proclaimed in both parishes, although not necessarily on the same days, therefore the dates in each register may be different. You may also find that one register may show the proclamation date and the other the date of the marriage itself.

Offline GR2

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Re: Cautioners
« Reply #2 on: Wednesday 24 August 11 16:48 BST (UK) »
When you intimated your intention to marry you "consigned pledges". Usually this is all it says, but sometimes they mention an actual sum of money or the name of one or two cautioners. If the marriage did not go ahead within forty days or if there were any scandal attached to it (e.g. your first child was so "premature" that the kirk session had evidence of "fornication"), your pledges were forfeit or, if instead of handing over the money yourself, you had given the name of a cautioner, the cautioner had to pay up. If all was well, the pledges were returned to the couple.

Graham.

Offline Elwyn Soutter

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Re: Cautioners
« Reply #3 on: Wednesday 24 August 11 19:34 BST (UK) »
The term cautioner is still used to this day in Scottish law for a person who stands surety for someone released on bail.
Elwyn


Offline Archivos

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Re: Cautioners
« Reply #4 on: Thursday 25 August 11 09:37 BST (UK) »
And it's pronounced 'cay-shon-er'!

Offline sinkers35

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Re: Cautioners
« Reply #5 on: Friday 26 August 11 12:32 BST (UK) »
Thank you all for your responses. I am familiar with the term cautioner but am trying to understand why the church register stated that the a person from the bride's family was the cautioner for the groom and visa versa. Would there be a reason for that or could it just be a clerical error? 

Offline Munro84

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Re: Cautioners
« Reply #6 on: Sunday 06 September 15 17:01 BST (UK) »
Don't mean to double thread but:

Question: would the cautioner always be a member of the family ? It seems so seen as money was being paid to uphold the marriage. But does anyone know if in any case the cautioner wouldn't necessarily always have to be a relative ?

Strange question I know, but it would help me with my research. I'll try and explain about what my problem is but be warned it is complicated.

I have a parish marriage record for an Alexander Munro (who I think could be my direct paternal ancestor) to Mary Munro "alias Bayne" dated 8th October 1750 and they married in the village of Clair, parish of Kiltearn, in Easter Ross-shire. I should point out that Mary Munro's place of residence is given as the same place where they were married at Clair in the parish of Kiltearn, and her and Alexander Munro's seven subsequent children were all born in the same place of Clair, Kiltearn. However, Alexander Munro's residence at the time of the marriage is given on the OPR as Ridorch. This place is known as Ridorcha on modern maps and is in Wester Ross, and I have measured it on a map as being nearly 40 miles in a straight line from the village of Clair, in the parish of Kiltearn, Easter Ross. So he removed to her place where they settled and had children.

Now I should mention that the parish of Kiltearn where they married, settled and had kids is the location of Foulis Castle, seat of the chiefly Munros of Foulis who had many paternally related Munro cadet branches in the parish.

The cautioner on the 1750 marriage OPR for the groom, Alexander Munro, is given as Hugh Munro, tacksman in Teanard (Teanord) which is also a village in the parish of Kiltearn. Now this Hugh Munro who was cautioner I know was a paternal relative of the Munro of Foulis family, and this gives me a problem because I have taken part in a Y-DNA test which says that I am not paternally descended from the Munros of Foulis, therefore if Hugh Munro the cautioner is a paternal relative of Alexander Munro then it would rule out Alexander Munro as being my ancestor. However I should point out again that Alexander Munro was from 40 miles away in Ridorch, where as Hugh the cautioner was from the parish of Kiltearn where the marriage took place.

There is a twist in that having studied published genealogies of the Munros of Foulis it seems that the bride, Mary Munro, would almost certainly be paternally descended from the Munro of Foulis family and quite closely related to Hugh Munro who was the cautioner for the groom. (I should point out that if Mary Munro is paternally descended from the Munro of Foulis family then she and Alexander Munro could still be my ancestors as per the Y-DNA testing which does not take in DNA from female ancestors, its only a problem if Alexander Munro is paternally descended from the Munros of Foulis).

Another thing is that Hugh Munro of Teanoird, parish of Kiltearn who is the cautioner for the groom Alexander Munro is stated on the marriage OPR of 1750 as being the tacksman of Teanord, but in a published genealogy of the Munro of Foulis family he is recorded as an "elder" in the Kiltearn parish church - so would this have anything to do with him being a cautioner rather than him being related to the person(s) being married ?

Mary Munro's cautioner was Duncan Reid who again I cannot see if he was related to her. I think her mother's surname was actually Bayne as per her alias on the marriage OPR.

Any help much appreciated.

Mike Munro.

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Re: Cautioners
« Reply #7 on: Sunday 13 September 15 19:22 BST (UK) »
Never trust anything you find online (especially submitted trees and transcriptions on Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and other commercial web sites) unless it's an image of an original document - and even then be wary because errors can and do occur.