eloping to Rotherham, 1800s

[student325]

I'd like to know if anyone has heard of Rotherham being an easy place to get married in the early 1800s, with not too many questions being asked. My 4x great-grandmother ran away to get married there age 15 around 1808 when the registers were looking a right old mess. No sign of the dear vicar using Hardwicke registers, which had been available since 1784. We don't know if she regretted the marriage, but she was pregnant for the next 27 years and tumbled a reasonable way down the social scale (to my lot!). If anyone knows whether Rotherham has disproportionate number of marriages for its size at the time, or any other indicators of convenience weddings happening there, I'd be interested to hear.

[chempat]

Do you believe she ran a long way from home, or was Rotherham just the nearest place to get to?

[student325]

Thanks for the message.  Rotherham was definitely not the nearest place.  Dronfield Woodhouse was the nearest church (or Holmesfield) and Sheffield was in-between that and Rotherham.

[emeltom]

Was it possible that she was working in Rotherham at the time, in service perhaps?

Emeltom

[sallyyorks]

Rotherham was a growing industrial town. Maybe she went there for work and met someone

[student325]

These are good thoughts, but the bride concerned (Hannah) was from a well to do family who'd scrabbled up to middle class. Ok her father had died so maybe she was sent out to earn her keep by her stepmother. Maybe indeed. That would be outrageous as her half-brother became seriously minted. However I'm pretty sure she already knew her future husband before the trip to Rotherham. And there would be plenty of better jobs in Sheffield or Chesterfield. So unless her mother had relatives in Rotherham, I'm still thinking she picked the town because of it's ask-me-no-questions policy on marriages.

[chempat]

Where did her husband come from, and where did they stay after marriage?

[student325]

Hannah's husband was from Eyam in Derbyshire and this is where the couple resided after the marriage.

[KGarrad]

It was reasonably common for couples to travel to other parishes where they weren't known, in order to marry without anyone raising objections.

The whole purpose of calling banns over 3 successive weeks, is to allow such objections.
If nobody knows who you are, then who is going to raise an objection?