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Scotland (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Scotland => Topic started by: harrisj on Saturday 04 June 16 13:29 BST (UK)
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I found an entry for a couple marrying in RC church Glasgow in 1837.
There is also an entry in the OPR's for same couple, same year etc, but different county/place.
Any idea why this would be so?
thanks
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Hi,
You don't say whether the couple are both from different parishes?
Annie
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I believe the groom came from Invernessshire and the bride Colonsay
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In England prior to 1837 it was common for Catholic couples to have 2 marriages, one a legal one in the Anglican church and the other in their own church. I don't know what the legal situation in Scotland was. What date in 1837 was this? Before the law changed or after? cb
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Statutory marriage registration didn’t start in Scotland till 1855, so these must all be church records. Not sure about RC practice but where a couple came from different parishes, Church of Scotland practice was to read the banns in both parishes. So you got two entries in the OPRs, one for each parish. Neither of those entries might necessarily be the date the couple married, just the date the banns were read. It didn’t mean they were married twice, just that banns had been read in two different parishes.
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In theory the Church of Scotland was supposed to keep a record of all marriages in its parish registers, not just the ones performed by the Church of Scotland minister, so in theory all RC (and episcopal, and other denominations') marriages should be in the register of the parish where they were married.
However this didn't usually happen. People didn't bother to tell the Session Clerk, or the clerk forgot to write it down, or the different denominations were at loggerheads, or 1001 reasons why a record either wasn't made, or didn't survive.
I speculate that in this case one of the parties was a Protestant and resided in the other parish. (BTW why did you not give the actual names and the name of the other parish? Giving full information is always helpful when people are trying to help explain something.) If this is the case then the original record should clarify it, and is likely to say in which parish the other party resided.
So the banns were called in this other parish, but the actual ceremony was performed in Glasgow by an RC priest.
It could even be that banns were also called in the parish of residence of the other party, but that no record survives. If we knew which parish, we could check for availability of records in that parish.
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In England prior to 1837 it was common for Catholic couples to have 2 marriages, one a legal one in the Anglican church and the other in their own church. I don't know what the legal situation in Scotland was. What date in 1837 was this? Before the law changed or after? cb
The legal situation in Scotland was never the same as in England (which is why so many couples eloped to Scotland), and it did not change in 1837.
You could contract a legal marriage in Scotland by declaring yourselves married before witnesses - you didn't need a clergyman, let alone an Anglican one, to perform the ceremony. A ceremony before witnesses conducted by a RC priest was a completely legal marriage and no other ceremony was necessary.
Most marriages were held in the bride's home, or in her place of work, or in the manse; until church weddings became fashionable in the 20th century it was rare for a wedding ceremony to be held in a church building.
The Church of Scotland, not unnaturally, frowned upon the practice of marriage by declaration, but it remained quite common until it was replaced by Register Office marriages around 1930.
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Hi Forfarian and all
thank you for your posts.
the two parishes are Erskine, Renfrewshire and Glasgow RC StAndrews.
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Forfarian
The groom was Angus Morrison who gave his place of birth as Small isles, Invernessshire.
The bride, Flora Paterson, who gave hers as Island of Colonsay.
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Until 1939 all marriages no matter what religion the parties adhered to the banns had to be called in a Church of Scotland church. My grandparents's banns were called in the Church of Scotland in the parishes they lived in but were married by a United Free minister. I also have a case where the banns were called in a Church of Scotland and the parties subsequently married in a RC church.
Eric
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Thank you Eric. I didnt know that.