ok,,i understand the irregular marriage part now
Irregular marriages were frowned on by law and the churches, and couples who admitted to them were fined, but they had the same inheritance rights as regularly married couples, and their children were legitimate. Although the Church of Scotland did not approve of irregular marriages, it tolerated them because it feared that if the law did not recognize such relationships, the couple would end up 'living in sin.' The system was believed to protect women from unscrupulous men who might seduce them with promises of marriage or fake wedding ceremonies. After registration was introduced, an irregular marriage could be registered if the couple presented themselves before a sheriff or magistrate, were 'convicted' as parties to an irregular marriage, and paid a fine. Some found marriage by sheriff's warrant a cheaper and quicker alternative than all the expense of banns and a regular marriage ceremony. Marriages established in court by a Decree of Declarator could also be registered, on production to the registrar of an extract of the Decree and payment of £1, but this was not common. In fact, irregular marriages were infrequent in Scotland in the mid-nineteenth century, and fewer than 100 per year took place between 1855 and 1870. After that, the numbers rose steadily, and then rapidly in the early twentieth century, until they accounted for over 12% of all Scottish marriages in 1914. They remained at this level until the Second World War. Contrary to the national myth, most took place not on the Scottish border, but in the larger towns. This may have been due to a decline in the influence of the churches, or to the relative cheapness of irregular marriages, but it also reflected the growing number of divorces. Since many churches would not remarry a divorced person, and there was no civil marriage in Scotland until 1939, couples in this position had no alternative but to marry by sheriff's warrant. From 1916, irregular marriages were no longer technically an offence, and in 1939 marriage by sheriff's warrant ended, to be replaced by a civil ceremony in the registrar's office.
