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Marrying at 15

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  • Marrying at 15

    I know that it was perfectly legal in the C18th for fifteen year olds to marry but have you come across it very often?

    I've found a marriage for Elizabeth Blumsom in 1761 in Bethnal Green and I think it might be my Elizabeth who was baptised in 1746.
    Asa

  • #2
    Does the baptism also give a date of birth? Perhaps she wasn't baptised as a baby but was a few years old already?
    Sarah

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    • #3
      Hello Cloggie

      No, there's no date of birth with the baptism but the children are all baptised at regular intervals from the marriage so I would have guessed she was only a few months old at most.
      Asa

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      • #4
        Hi Asa

        The youngest age of a bride in my tree, that I can verify is 16.
        ~ with love from Little Nell~
        Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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        • #5
          I have one who was 12 or 13.....this was in the middles 1800s in Ireland.

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          • #6
            It seems from my observations that marrying young was about as common in the 18C as the 20C. In other words "not very" :smilee: (I didn't come right into the 21C because people are definitely marrying later now!) But, as you say, perfectly legal and therefore possible.

            Anne

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            • #7
              I have a couple in my tree.

              A boy who was DEFINITELY under 16 to a girl who was 13 or 14. Both were from farming families - and she wasn't pregnant when they married, either!

              Rare, but did occur, mostly in rural areas I would say.

              Have you seen the baptism with your own eyes? The IGI has a nasty tendency to correct the year because of the calendar change, and she may have been baptised in 1745 in fact.

              OC

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              • #8
                Thank you everyone & hello Nell;-)

                Conicidentally I came across a definite 15 year old marrying in 1804 recently, other wise I might have discounted it but it's the right name in the right place just a bit earlier than I'd expected. I'm not going to add the marriage as yet, as I'm still rambling through London PRs and might come across something else. However it is an uncommon name.
                I have seen the actual baptism and she had brothers two years older and younger so there isn't much give there. Isn't it funny how we all feel a bit iffy about a girl marrying at 15 but less so at 16?
                Asa

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                • #9
                  I have one who was baptised in May 1854 and married in July 1869 - so she was about 15y and 4 months.

                  I have pencilled in Mar 1854 for her birth, but would not have thought it was much earlier than that. She then had 16 children from 1871 to 1897, possibly the first was born in late 1870 and not registered until 1871.

                  Di
                  Diane
                  Sydney Australia
                  Avatar: Reuben Edward Page and Lilly Mary Anne Dawson

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                  • #10
                    Until the 1929 act legal age for marriage with consent or by license was 12 for girls and 14 for boys. There has been much discussion on Rootsweb mailing list all over th country giving examples of youngsters marrying
                    Mike in Droitwich

                    My family tree is on
                    http://mjfisher.tribalpages.com

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                    • #11
                      Thanks Di and Mike

                      I can see the circumstances in which it could have happened - her father was dead and her mother had remarried the previous year. I'll have a look for baptisms of any children.
                      Asa

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