Author Topic: Marriage age in 17th century Scotland  (Read 8328 times)

Offline Tom Langley

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Marriage age in 17th century Scotland
« on: Friday 25 January 13 18:40 GMT (UK) »
My ancestor John Younger married Isobel Collingwood in Stitchel, Roxburghshire, Scotland on 29/06/1697. The only baptism i can find locally for a John Younger is in 1682 also in Stitchel to a Robert and Helen Younger.
If its the same John it would probably make him 15/16 at the time of marriage. Is this likely or is it probably the wrong John? I know people married very young in those days.

Tom
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Offline Tom Langley

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Re: Marriage age in 17th century Scotland
« Reply #1 on: Saturday 26 January 13 19:07 GMT (UK) »
Can anyone help?
Langley, Broughton, Taylor, Broad, Cooper, Owen, Bennion, Yorke, Knox, Norcup, Holland, Brookes, White, Davies, Huntbach, Bowler, Barnett.

Online KGarrad

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Re: Marriage age in 17th century Scotland
« Reply #2 on: Saturday 26 January 13 19:09 GMT (UK) »
From the GRO Scotland website:

Before 1929, Scots law followed Roman law in allowing a girl to marry at twelve years of age and a boy at fourteen, without any requirement for parental consent. However, according to one early 20th-century source*, marriage in Scotland at such young ages was in practice almost unknown. No doubt if marriages between children had become common, there would have been public pressure to raise the legal minimum age of marriage earlier than 1929. The Age of Marriage Act 1929 (applying in Scotland, England & Wales but not in Northern Ireland) made void any marriage between persons either of whom was under the age of sixteen. Sixteen remains the lower age-limit today, contained in the current legislation, the Marriage (Scotland) Act 1977. Scots law still has no requirement for parental consent. *Source: Vital registration: a manual of the law and practice concerning the registration of births, deaths and marriages. (G T Bisset-Smith. 1st edition. Edinburgh: William Green & Sons, 1902)
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Offline Tom Langley

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Re: Marriage age in 17th century Scotland
« Reply #3 on: Saturday 26 January 13 19:24 GMT (UK) »
Thank you for the information. Do you personally this its likely to be correct?

Tom
Langley, Broughton, Taylor, Broad, Cooper, Owen, Bennion, Yorke, Knox, Norcup, Holland, Brookes, White, Davies, Huntbach, Bowler, Barnett.


Online KGarrad

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Re: Marriage age in 17th century Scotland
« Reply #4 on: Saturday 26 January 13 19:57 GMT (UK) »
If it's the GRO, then I reckon it's true!

Don't forget that the reason English couples eloped to Gretna Green (and other places) was to take advantage of Scottish Law! ;D
Garrad (Suffolk, Essex, Somerset), Crocker (Somerset), Vanstone (Devon, Jersey), Sims (Wiltshire), Bridger (Kent)

Offline MonicaL

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Re: Marriage age in 17th century Scotland
« Reply #5 on: Saturday 26 January 13 20:09 GMT (UK) »
Tom, I have to say in all my time of Scottish research, I have never come across a 12 year old bride or a 14 year old groom  ::)

I haven't seen the actual official number of marriages by age group, but I would guess that brides in that age range would have been a really small number....(same for the boys in the lower age band).

Monica
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Offline bleckie

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Re: Marriage age in 17th century Scotland
« Reply #6 on: Saturday 26 January 13 21:17 GMT (UK) »
Hi All

Nothing whatever to do with this post but one couple who where very young when they were married.

"Mary queen of Scots was 15 when she married Frances the 2nd of France he was 14"

How the other half lives.

Yours Aye
BruceL

Offline GrahamSimons

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Re: Marriage age in 17th century Scotland
« Reply #7 on: Sunday 27 January 13 10:38 GMT (UK) »
The only contribution I can make here is from my own family. My great-great-great-grandparents Janet Smart and William Jaffray were married in Stirlingshire in 1779. Janet was 12, William 49.
Simons Barrett Jaffray Waugh Langdale Heugh Meade Garnsey Evans Vazie Mountcure Glascodine Parish Peard Smart Dobbie Sinclair....
in Stirlingshire, Roxburghshire; Bucks; Devon; Somerset; Northumberland; Carmarthenshire; Glamorgan

Offline tidybooks

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Re: Marriage age in 17th century Scotland
« Reply #8 on: Sunday 27 January 13 11:05 GMT (UK) »
Hi Graham,

I have never seen a gap of 37 years before, that is something. How did you get the ages, was it in an Old Parish Record?

Tom
Scotland - Buchanan, Thomson, Pat(t)erson, Stewart, Ritchie, Tracey
Ireland - Tracey, Conroy, Pat(t)erson.