'Singleman'

[joboy]

James Chandler married Sarah Potterton at Holy Trinity Guildford 21 Feb 1808 and it says he was a 'Single Man'.
Never seen this before ..... could he have been married previously and single now because of a death or divorce with a previous wife?
Joe

[KGarrad]

I would have thought it was just the clergyman's individual way of saying "Bachelor"?

Divorce in 1808 would be rather rare?

[rosie99]

I would agree with KGarrard 

I looked to see what he had written on the other marriages but it was the Curate who married these two the rest of the marriages on the page were performed by two other people.

Rosie

[Cimarra]

Found many of my Essex ancestors described as "singleman" and "single woman" in the parish registers.

[rosie99]

I have just looked at other marriages around that time (1809) at Holy Trinity and Samuel Leggatt (curate) states 'singleman' on the majority of those marriages he performs. 

Rosie

[lizdb]

I have seen this quite frequently.

If you are single then you have never been married. So a single man is the same as a bachelor.

If he had been married and his wife had died he would be a widower. If he was divorced, though extremely rare at that time, I think it would say divorced, or previous marriage dissolved'

You can never go back to being single! Despite this being an expression used in modern time for someone without a current 'partner' of any sort.

[rosie99]

One person on my tree appears as a 'bachelor' on both of his marriages (1882 & 1889) I have still to find out what happened to his first wife.