Marriage registration

[ktk8]

Hi, I am failing to find a marriage for my relatives in Deptford, Kent, which I would expect to find around 1841-1845.

I'm wondering when it became a legal obligation to register a marriage, and if marriages after 1837 were still taking place e.g. in non-conformist chapels without official registration?

Thanks!

[CaroleW]

If you give their names perhaps another pair if eyes may help - assuming they did marry rather than just live together

[ktk8]

Thanks! John Waddell & Susannah Corder. They were not married on the 1841 census, and their first known child was born 1845. Of course, it's quite possible they didn't marry.

[CaroleW]

Not seeing anything either.  Tried Scotlands People in case they married in Scotland  but no marriage there

Nothing on FS apart from her baptism

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VWZQ-WXR

[ktk8]

Thanks for looking, Carole. I've also tried searching every which way I can imagine.

I know they both came from non-conformist families, which is why I wondered if they could've married in one of the local chapels, without officially registering the marriage. I have read that it wasn't a legal obligation to register a birth until the 1870s, so I wondered if the same was true for marriages.

[Jebber]

If they married in an unlicensed nonconformist church a Registrar would have needed to be present for a marriage to be legal.

It was a legal obligation for births together registered from July 1837, but it was the responsibility of the Registrar to go out and register the births, so some were missed and went unregistered. From 1874/5 the onus was on the parents to make sure a birth was registered, failure could incur a fine.

[ktk8]

Many thanks for the info and clarification. That is interesting. I wonder if there have been any estimates made of the numbers of couples whose marriages were not legal.

[Lady Di]

In the off chance that it might be relevant, I have seen mention of many Corder family members in Quaker Records particularly in Essex & Suffolk.

Unfortunately the Quaker records outside of London on Ancestry are only up to 1837.

Have you found where her parent's married? What religion?
Also wondered where their daughter's second name, Todd, came from. Could Susannah have been married previously?

[ktk8]

Thanks for your thoughtful post! I will keep the Quakers in mind, I was rooting around in some of the Suffolk Quaker records just recently, although I'm not missing any records elsewhere to suggest a connection.

Todd is a family name. I have considered previous marriages, but have not yet found any evidence. My suspicions are on a terrible misspelling or transcription, as I've found a lot of these in the Waddell family.