Getting married in somebody's house?

[M_ONeill]

Came across a bit of a curiosity today, a civil marriage record where the phrase 'married in the Roman Catholic Chapel of...' has had 'Roman Catholic Chapel' crossed out and replaced with 'the house of Bernard Hughes'.

The marriage was between an Arthur Crilly and a Catherine Walls on 6th August 1881. Doing a little digging shows that Catherine gave birth to a child out of wedlock just 13 days prior on 24th July! No father given, it may have been Arthur, but impossible to tell. The child did later go by the surname Crilly.

I have to say, I've not come across a marriage ceremony being conducted in someone's house before! The marriage was apparently conducted by Francis Boyle C.C., which I believe is a Catholic Curate. Would the marriage have been in the house because it was so close to the birth?

Anyone ever seen anything like that in your research? I'd be interested to hear.

[Treetotal]

I have a parish register of the marriage of my Great Grandparents who married in Harbour Grace, Nfld. Where it mentions the place where the marriage took place it says "In the home of the Bride in the presence of a registrar" This was in the 1880s. I thought this was rather unusual as I haven't seen this before.
Carol

[Dolgellau]

A few years ago I prepared articles about the Catholic Churches in Dolgellau & Barmouth for the Welsh Wikipedia, both of these churches were established by congregations which first met, because of a paucity of numbers, in private houses. For religious meetings to be authorised in these private houses they would also need to be licenced as places of public worship. The probability is that Bernard Hughes' house would have been licenced as a place of worship where marriages could be performed, as well as being Mr Hughes' home.

[Erato]

It was common in the United Sates.

[Treetotal]

I can think of nothing nicer than to have a registrar, a couple of witnesses and the parents pop round to witness us tying the knot. It would mean avoiding unnecessary expense and the money saved could be put to better use.
Carol

[M_ONeill]

It's definitely something I haven't seen before. In this particular area all Catholic marriages tend to take place in one of the two local chapels, Lavey or Greenlough, with one or two outliers in Ballyscullion.

One interesting aspect of the civil marriage record that I forgot to mention is the two witness signatures, Bernard Crilly and his wife Bridget, are themselves witnessed and signed by 'F. Boyle' the curate. Must be an extra rule for these particular cases, I suppose.

[Erato]

Pophan - Maynard: In the town of Buffalo, on the 22nd of Sept, by William Ennis, Esq., at the house of the bride's father, Mr. Nathan Pophan, of Marcellon, to Miss Alice Maynard, of Buffalo.   [28 Sept. 1872 Montello Express].

I have several of these.  Gg uncle William was a justice of the peace before he turned into a crook and fled to Canada.

[gaffy]

According to a transcript of the church record of the marriage, Arthur and Catherine were 4th and 4th consang as well (3rd cousins).

[M_ONeill]

That's very interesting Erato, I'd assume the practice might have been more common in the United States due to the much greater distances involved between places?

Can I ask where you came across the Catholic record transcript, Gaffy? I've been using FindMyPast's Irish Catholic records collection to see images, but it doesn't seem to have anything as late as 1881, at least not in the parish records.