Lost Cousins newsletter extra - Nov 2018

[JBee]

https://www.lostcousins.com/newsletters2/xtranov18news.htm

[Guy]

Sorry but Rebecca Probert has got it wrong in her guest article

In 1604 an Act of Parliament was passed
“An Act to restrain all Persons from Marriage until their former Wives and former Husbands be dead”.

http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~framland/genealogy/acts/1604.htm

This Act made it illegal for a person to marry again if their former husband or wife was alive.
“That if any Person or Persons within his Majesty’s Dominions of England and Wales, being married, or which hereafter shall marry, do at any Time after the End of the Session of this present Parliament, marry any Person or Persons, the former Husband or Wife being alive ; That then every such Offence shall be Felony...”
The Act however only covered England and Wales and specifically excluded “That this Act, nor any Thing therein contained, shall extend to any Person or Persons whose Husband or Wife shall be continually remaining beyond the Seas by the Space of seven Years together”
It should also be noted the specific use of future tense in the Act meant that if a person was transported for a term longer than 7 years his/her spouse was free to marry before the seven years had expired.
If the spouse did remarry and the absent husband or wife returned then the “new” marriage was void and the earlier marriage upheld.
The 1604 Act also made exceptions divorces etc. made by an Ecclesiastical Court.
Cheers
Guy