How likely is an 1862 RC marriage with a pregnant bride aged under 12 ?

[HughC]

As has been mentioned, baptism can take place at any age.  Sometimes several siblings were baptized together: there's a case in my family where apparently 13 of them were lined up at the font (the 14th died soon after, as did the mother, poor dear).  Last year my niece was baptized at the age of 30 on the day before her wedding, as the clergyman refused to marry her in church otherwise.

In case it's of any interest, there's a chart in a book in my bookcase showing the average age of menarche (first menstruation): 16.1 in 1900, falling steadily to 14.5 in 1930; no data for the war year 1940, but it was still 14.4 in 1950 and had fallen to 13.1 in 1960.  The data are for Germany, but I think it likely that other northern European countries showed a similar pattern as standards of living improved.  Of course an average tells us nothing about the distribution about the mean.

The average age of menopause remained fairly steady at 48 to 48.1 from 1900 to 1940 (with a somewhat unexpected dip below 47 in 1910), rising to 49.2 in 1960.

Does anyone have any figures for the 19th century?

[dobfarm]

Considering children started working aged around 10 to 12 those days, putting the child in an adult environment, there would be exceptions where a child could have developed early and probably grew taller than average for their age - looking older than they were. If a girl got pregnant, the father of the expected child wanted to do the right thing and marry the expectant child mother to be - If the law said they could marry.  or the law of nature decided happenings  .

The situation would be exceptionally uncommon though.

[kob3203]

Just to throw a cat amongst the pigeons, in 1911, Edmond appears to be aged 80, and William aged 38:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Tipperary/Caher/Market_Street/813311/

Also noticed that for the 1862 marriage, FindMyPast have transcribed Johanna's surname as Enery, albeit on original, I can just about see it as Sweeny.

Thanks for those observations.

The discrepancy of Edmund's age being 80 in the 1911 census was mentioned in the original topic (see link at the end of the first post). The link to the relevant post is http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=762542.msg6140302#msg6140302

William being 38 in the 1911 census would fairly closely match the 1874 baptism we have for him.

Regarding FindMyPast's transcription of the bride's surname for the 1862 marriage as 'Enery' - if I had access to FindMyPast I'd report that as a transcription error. For starters the initial capital letter is distinctly different from the E of Edmund, but very similar to the S of Slattery in the previous entry (same priest Tho^s Burke). Reading it as 'Sweeny' does take a bit of imagination (e.g. the 'w' seems more like a 'u', making it 'Sueeny').But I think 'Sweeny'is what it is. Finding another 'Sweeny' or two in the handwriting of Tho^s Burke might help - but I haven't done that yet.

[kob3203]

Yesterday I chanced upon the Age of Marriage Act 1929 (UK) page at Wikipedia, which increased the legal age for marriage to 16.

Apparently prior to 1929 a UK marriage was valid by common and canon law if they'd reached the legal age of puberty, which was just 14 for boys, and just 12 for girls.

[Maiden Stone]

There is some evidence of marriage as young as 12.  I think by 1862, it was pretty rare, but it did happen, at least in the 1700s and first half of the 1800s. This excerpt is from “Population of Ireland 1750-1845” by K.H.Connel, Oxford 1950 (pp 51 & 52).

- Before and after the Great Famine were two different worlds.

An article on Ireland Reaching Out has information about marriage ages pre and post Famine. It might be in a longer article about baptisms; it's a while since I read it. Articles are in the "News" section. You'll need to browse the pages to find it (and probably get side-tracked by articles on other topics).
https://irelandxo.com/ireland-xo/news