The Library
The comeback of the medieval marriage per verba de praesenti in 19th century bigamy cases
Tools
Harding, Maebh (2017) The comeback of the medieval marriage per verba de praesenti in 19th century bigamy cases. In: Howlin, Niamh and Costello, Kevin, (eds.) Law and the Family in Ireland 1800-1950. Palgrave modern legal history . Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781137606389
Microsoft Word
2016 Chapter 3 Bigamy cases accepted version 14.4.2016.docx - Accepted Version Embargoed item. Restricted access to Repository staff only Download (66Kb) |
Official URL: https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781137606389
Abstract
Legal arguments that a clergyman was unnecessary to form a legal marriage were increasingly raised in the reported Irish bigamy cases of the early nineteenth century culminating in the need to refer the ruling in Millis to the House of Lords. This chapter argues that the legal force of the contract per verba de praesenti, was much the same in Irish law in the nineteenth century as it had been in England in the eighteenth century. Such an exchange of promises did not form a marriage recognisable by the temporal courts or ecclesiastical court. Instead, the law required parties to comply with different religious formalities depending on their religion to obtain marital status, with specific restrictions on marriages between Catholics and Protestants. While many marriage ceremonies were performed in irregular circumstances, there is no indication from legal sources that spouses regularly attempted to enter into marriage without the presence of a clergyman or sought any recognition of such an attempt.
Three different factors rendered the argument increasingly desirable to the Crown. First, the existing legislative framework, which had been based on a dichotomy of religious identity as either Established Church or Roman Catholic was challenged by a rise in the number of Dissenter marriages. Second, evidential problems in cases of irregular marriages carried out by the ‘degraded clergy’ led to greater scrutiny of the formalities of marriages in both ecclesiastical cases and criminal bigamy cases. Finally, it is argued that the legal understanding of the role of the State in regulating marriage formalities was changing. Marriage formalities could no longer be left entirely to the religious tenets of the Established Church and Roman Catholicism but became a matter of decisive importance for the State.
The ruling in Millis was, far removed from the reality of marriage practices in Ireland. It did little to clarify the place of Dissenter marriages within the existing Irish legal framework but instead precipitated a legislative change which was now necessary in a (slightly) more religiously diverse society.
Item Type: | Book Item | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Subjects: | D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman K Law [LC] > KD England and Wales > KDK Ireland |
||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Law | ||||
Series Name: | Palgrave modern legal history | ||||
Publisher: | Palgrave Macmillan | ||||
Place of Publication: | Basingstoke, Hampshire | ||||
ISBN: | 9781137606389 | ||||
Book Title: | Law and the Family in Ireland 1800-1950 | ||||
Editor: | Howlin, Niamh and Costello, Kevin | ||||
Official Date: | 2017 | ||||
Dates: |
|
||||
Number of Pages: | 272 | ||||
DOI: | 10.1057/978-1-137-60636-5 | ||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 21 April 2016 | ||||
Related URLs: |
Request changes or add full text files to a record
Repository staff actions (login required)
View Item |