Martha Baxter marriage consent

[Beavances]

Hi
I am trying to work out what the rules for marriage were in 1831.
The certificate ( attached) is very faint but I think it says Martha Baxter was a minor, she would have been about 18 when she married. I have also noticed though that is says 'married with the consent of  ' that section has been left blank.
The two witnesses are not names I have come across so I don't think they are her family.
So did minors need consent to marry? And if so why might this have been omitted here?
Any ideas or thoughts?
 

[BumbleB]

I believe that the minimum age for a girl to marry was 12, and for boys 14. 

[avm228]

She was a minor (under 21) so whilst she was above the minimum age to be lawfully married, it required the consent of a parent or guardian.

Perhaps there was no parent or guardian available to give consent (e.g. deceased, or she falsely claimed so) or alternatively consent was duly given but not noted in the register.

[stanmapstone]

Marriages of minors, i.e. under 21, without consent after banns were valid, unless the banns had been forbidden by parents or guardians openly and publicly in church at the time of publication.

Stan

[Beavances]

Thank you for that information. I know she had been born in Leeds but did move to Bradford -probably sometime in the 1820's - where this marriage took place,  and continued to live here for the rest of her life.
Martha's father Joseph Baxter had died about 4 years earlier ( think I have found a death for him in a non-conformist burial 1827 in Bradford) . Her mother had remarried ( Mary Baxter to Robert Dunn ) in 1828 - could that be a reason why Martha had no names in the consent part of the certificate  - because her father had died and her mother now had a different surname? 

Thank  you Stanmapstone - just seen your reply

[stanmapstone]

Marriages of minors, i.e. under 21, without consent after banns were valid, unless the banns had been forbidden by parents or guardians openly and publicly in church at the time of publication.

Stan

Section III of "An Act for the better preventing of clandestine Marriages." (1753) Lord Hardwicke’s Act
http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~framland/genealogy/acts/1753.htm

Stan