Marriage Licences

[jubee]

Hi,
I have a copy of a marriage register entry in Potterspury for Richard Watkin(s) and Catherine Atterbury in 1771 and it states that they were married by licence. I know that Ancestry have the Northants Parish registers but where can I find Northamptonshire Marriage Licences? Do they exist? Are there online records?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

jubee

[PrawnCocktail]

Hi Jubee,

There are marriage licences - there's a card index in the Northants Record Office! There's not very many for the 1770's. They're mostly earlier.  But I've got notes of several Towcester ones for 1771, so it looks like a good year. You might be lucky!

You just need to find SKS going there to have a look for you?

[BumbleB]

Marriage licences depend on the Diocese - so you need to find which Diocese Potterspurry comes under.  I would suspect that Northamptonshire Records Office would be a good starting point. 

[horselydown86]

The CCED database shows it under Lincoln.

http://db.theclergydatabase.org.uk/jsp/search/index.jsp

[JAKnighton]

Some of my ancestors were married by licence. Would there be any potential information I could learn from seeing the original licence? I will be having time off work soon and I'm planning potential trips to record offices.

[PrawnCocktail]

Sometimes you do get extra information on the license, other times not - or the license hasn't survived at all.

You can get occupations, marital status, occasionally the brides father's name. Sometimes when you can't find the marriage, you can find the marriage license!

The great benefit was pre-1754, when the PRs often only gives names:

1713   7 Jul   Francis Button & Judith Coles marryd at Towcester by Lic

and the license sometimes gives more (and sometimes vital) information:

Francis Button of Abthorpe husbandman, widower & Judith Coles of Abthorpe widow
Bond Francis Button & Francis Linnell of Towcester innkeeper   5 Jul 1713   

Very often, there's not much extra, if anything, but it's always good to see if they're still around.

[BumbleB]

Just to remind you all (including myself) that it is not the marriage licence that you can perhaps trace - that was given to the officiating clergyman.  It is the Bond and/or Allegation which is retained by the Diocese.  As well as occupations, residence and marital status, ages are usually noted and, of course, there is the probable/possible bonus of signatures.

I have examples of a widower aged 60 marrying a spinster aged 25 and a 19 year old marrying with the consent of her father

[JAKnighton]

Sometimes you do get extra information on the license, other times not - or the license hasn't survived at all.

You can get occupations, marital status, occasionally the brides father's name. Sometimes when you can't find the marriage, you can find the marriage license!

The great benefit was pre-1754, when the PRs often only gives names:

1713   7 Jul   Francis Button & Judith Coles marryd at Towcester by Lic

and the license sometimes gives more (and sometimes vital) information:

Francis Button of Abthorpe husbandman, widower & Judith Coles of Abthorpe widow
Bond Francis Button & Francis Linnell of Towcester innkeeper   5 Jul 1713   

Very often, there's not much extra, if anything, but it's always good to see if they're still around.

Just to remind you all (including myself) that it is not the marriage licence that you can perhaps trace - that was given to the officiating clergyman.  It is the Bond and/or Allegation which is retained by the Diocese.  As well as occupations, residence and marital status, ages are usually noted and, of course, there is the probable/possible bonus of signatures.

I have examples of a widower aged 60 marrying a spinster aged 25 and a 19 year old marrying with the consent of her father

Thank you both, that is good to know. Hopefully the ones I want to see still exist.