Getting married in somebody's house?

[shanreagh]

Churchings would likely have been part of the Church of England rites and forms that the New South Wales chaplains including Rev Samuel Marsden, brought to New Zealand when NZ was still administered by the NSW Governors.   


JM.

Churching is not solely a NZ Anglican ceremony. It is widespread over Catholic and Protestant and Jewish religions. All I am suggesting is that a mother, not having been churched, may have wanted the marriage ceremony to have been held in a house rather than at the church. 

[Maiden Stone]

Single mothers were required to confess their sin before being churched in the Anglican Church.
The most likely explanation in this case is that the woman was still recovering from the birth. There may even have been a fear that she may not recover so the wedding was a matter of urgency. One of my ancestors died after childbirth around that time. It was customary for mothers in England in 2nd half of 20thC to remain in hospital for 10 days post-birth and that was with benefit of modern health care. A traditional word for childbirth is confinement.
Baby may have arrived sooner than expected. Dad may have been working away as many Irishmen did, and was sent for when his child was born.
Did other weddings happen in the church around the same time? Another explanation could be that the church was closed for repair.

[Maiden Stone]

You need to remember that the Catholic Church was an "illegal organization" until 1828.

Although there was still discrimination against Catholics in the first decades of the 19th century, Catholic churches existed legally under certain conditions.
 The Catholic Emancipation Act 1829, which permitted Catholics to sit in the Westminster Parliament, and repealed the Test Act 1672 and most of the remaining penal laws, was the culmination of a series of Catholic Relief Acts beginning in 1778, followed by the 2nd Catholic Relief Act 1793 (Ireland). One measure which was not repealed by the 1829 Act was the prohibition on a Catholic priest celebrating a mixed marriage or a marriage of 2 Protestants. A priest in Ireland was arrested for that offence in the 1830's.
Marriages (Ireland) Act 1844 didn't apply to Catholic marriages.