« Reply #78 on: Friday 11 December 15 02:12 GMT (UK) »
I accept that the certificate only suggests that Herbert was underage.
Smudwhisk, please don't ..... You see .....
The Police Magistrate is not suggesting that Herbert was underage. There's no suggestion.
JM, rather than leave out the subsequent sentences to quote with your post, if you had perhaps left the subsequent ones in, or, for that matter, actually read them all together, it would have made more sense. I accept it perhaps isn't written as clearly as it should, but the subsequent sentences do suggest that what you are suggesting I said was not what I was saying.
I accept that the certificate only suggests that Herbert was underage. However, just because the Minister or District Registrar both didn't think Emma was underage, is not conclusive evidence that she was 21 or over. It just means that she didn't say otherwise or they assumed from her appearance that she was and perhaps didn't query that.
My comment was that just because Herbert was the only party listed as being underage, does not, in any way, confirm that Emma was definitely over the age of 21 years. It was just that the Magistrate and Vicar obviously assumed she was or she just told them that.
Or are you telling me they had to carry around copies of their birth and, where appropriate, marriage certificates to prove their age and marital status in 1887 because frankly I would very much doubt that was a pre-requesite to getting married in those days. And in any case, how would Emma knows that's what the piece of paper said anyway since she was illiterate?
Considering I posted in reply to Neil's post that the two birth certificates of Herbert and Emma's children which I have seen suggest that the most likely candidate for his birth, although not the same as the birthplace on his death certificate, indicate he was only 20 years old and therefore quite obviously under 21 years of age.
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