You're as old as you feel

[andrewalston]

I've just come across a second marriage for a woman in a tree I am researching.
She is marrying someone 8 years her junior. Her first marriage was in 1830, so this chance 1861 one gave me a father's name. However the clergyman didn't seem quite as happy about the event:

[Girl Guide]

Hmm not a huge age gap and 63 today wouldn't be regarded as old.  Age gaps between bride and groom were quite common.

From your point of view you got the bonus of her father's name.

My great grandparents had an age gap of 10 years and she was the older one.  Mind you she fibbed about her age on the marriage cert!

[Top-of-the-hill]

  One of my gr grandmothers was 8 years older than her husband and would have been 28 when they married. There were no ages given, as this was early 19th C. but I expect the locals all knew anyway!
   

[Viktoria]

Cheeky monkey!
Old at 63!
Naaaah! You are as old as you feel but more importantly as young as you can act!
As Mrs.Merton said to Debbie McGee re her marriage to Paul Daniels “ And what is a young woman like you marrying an an ageing millionaire for?
Or words to that effect.
Good job Debbie had a good sense of humour !
Viktoria.

[Treetotal]

As people didn't live to be that old in 1861, she most likely would have Been classed as an old lady, some women are still working at 63 and older, these days. When my Mother was my age, she seemed and looked like an old lady! How times change.
Carol

[Guy Etchells]

Don't make the mistake of thinks average age of death meant that people did not live into their 80s and 90s in previous centuries, they did.
The averages were skewed by the enormous amount of infant deaths that brought the average way down, and indeed by the number of young women dying in childbirth.
These are just two instances why many people died sooner than they would today.
Cheers
Guy

[Top-of-the-hill]

  I have just remembered some research I did last year on one of our local clergymen. At the age of 23, he married a widow of 50, which must have caused some comment, but she seems to have been an acceptable rector's wife and lived to nearly 80.

[Treetotal]

Don't make the mistake of thinks average age of death meant that people did not live into their 80s and 90s in previous centuries, they did.
The averages were skewed by the enormous amount of infant deaths that brought the average way down, and indeed by the number of young women dying in childbirth.
These are just two instances why many people died sooner than they would today.
Cheers
Guy

I stand corrected, I have only got my own female ancestors to compare it to 

Carol

[andrewalston]

I've just checked up in the clergyman. Not found him in the 1861 census, though he took marriages just before and after, but he's in training in 1851, aged 17.

Virtually everyone must look old to a 27-year-old curate.