Professional witness?

[ShaunJ]

James Orrell was buried at St Peters on 23 April 1816. The register records that he was the parish clerk.

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/2963/images/40364_633870_2666-00066

[Stanwix England]

Ah, thanks everyone. Sorry about the Booth/Bolton mix up, I've got Bolton on the brain.

[ThrelfallYorky]

A churchwarden known to our family in 19th C was frequently a witness to weddings.

[Maiden Stone]

James Orrell was buried at St Peters on 23 April 1816. The register records that he was the parish clerk.

Another parish clerk was Wiliam Orrell, buried at St. Peter's 18th Dec. 1812.
A search for James Orrell as a marriage witness at St. Peter's has 3,840 hits between 1789-1816. A James Orrell witnessed many weddings with a William Orrell 1802-1812 and also in 1814 & 1816. Both witnesses to a wedding in 1816 were called William Orrell according to transcription on LANOPC.
A search for William Orrell as wedding witness at St. Peter's gets 5,590 results 1777-1816 !

[coombs]

I can see how deflating it can be when you find the witnesses to your elusive ancestor's marriages were regular ones such as church workers. At first you may think that a John Hammond wedding and a Thomas Hammond wedding 5 years apart in the same parish being witnessed by the same people that there must be a connection if, say Thomas was your ancestor and you are hoping to find relatives, until further inspection finds the witnesses were regular ones. John and Thomas could have been related but you'd need to find other documents to try and find a link.

[Rena]

I can see how deflating it can be when you find the witnesses to your elusive ancestor's marriages were regular ones such as church workers. At first you may think that a John Hammond wedding and a Thomas Hammond wedding 5 years apart in the same parish being witnessed by the same people that there must be a connection if, say Thomas was your ancestor and you are hoping to find relatives, until further inspection finds the witnesses were regular ones. John and Thomas could have been related but you'd need to find other documents to try and find a link.

I probably did what many others did and that was to do a chart for the James Scott that witnessed many of my family weddings, then also tried to link his successor to my family aswell   I would probably have got extremely creative if one of my older cousins hadn't casually mentioned it was common for a local church warden, sexton, etc. to act as a witness.

[coombs]

I can see how deflating it can be when you find the witnesses to your elusive ancestor's marriages were regular ones such as church workers. At first you may think that a John Hammond wedding and a Thomas Hammond wedding 5 years apart in the same parish being witnessed by the same people that there must be a connection if, say Thomas was your ancestor and you are hoping to find relatives, until further inspection finds the witnesses were regular ones. John and Thomas could have been related but you'd need to find other documents to try and find a link.

I probably did what many others did and that was to do a chart for the James Scott that witnessed many of my family weddings, then also tried to link his successor to my family aswell   I would probably have got extremely creative if one of my older cousins hadn't casually mentioned it was common for a local church warden, sexton, etc. to act as a witness.

Either that or the witnesses were just mates of the bride/groom as opposed to relatives. Many times the couple eloped and married in secret so obvs the witnesses would be 2 strangers. Even people off the street may have been asked to witness a marriage.

[Maiden Stone]

One of my ancestors witnessed 3 weddings on the same day in 1818. He was a stonemason and it's possible that he was working at the church or in the churchyard. The other witness was a regular, probably parish clerk. Bride of one couple and groom of another shared a surname so they may have had a double ceremony.

[BumbleB]

I think we also have to remember that marriages were NOT always the grand occasions we have currently.  I think that the majority of weddings took place when the bride and groom were able to have time off work at the same time, and that possibly didn't extend to family and/or friends, so available persons were approached.