> In the mid C19 it was stated that a century ago there was a brisk trade in
> smuggling people to Guernsey for secret weddings; and this rivaled Gretna
> Green.WOODWARD Bernard Bolingbroke: A General History of Hampshire, or the
> County of Southampton, including the Isle of Wight. By B. B. W. ..., T. C.
> Wilks ... and C. Lockhart. 3 vol. London, [1861-69.] 4o. ii 132
> Is anyone aware of any evidence to confirm this ?
> Jeremy
>
>
W. E. Tate, 'The parish chest' (1951), p. 64, says:
"After many dozen appalling scandals the whole business [of
clandestine marriages] was dealt with by the great Marriage Act of
1753, and since then, enterprising young men who felt disposed to
elope with heiresses have had to cross the border into Scotland,
where the marriage law was until 1939 less calculated to interfere
with their schemes, or to the Channel Islands, vessels for which,
specially designed for runaway couples, were until comparatively
recent years always ready to set sail from Southampton."
J. Charles Cox, 'The parish registers of England' (1910) doesn't have
anything to say about the Channel Isles in his section on clandestine
marriages (pp. 92-5).
Yours sincerely
Stephen Benham
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Fy marn i yw'r uchod ac nid yw o reidrwydd yn cynrychioli barn LLGC
The above is my own opinion and not necessarily that of the NLW
STEPHEN BENHAM
Archifydd Cynorthwyol / Assistant Archivist
Adran Llawysgrifau a Chofysgrifau / Dept of Manuscripts & Records
Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / National Library of Wales
Aberystwyth
Ceredigion SY23 3BU
e-bost / e-mail: [log in to unmask]
tel: 01970 632 870
ffacs: 01970 632 883
http://www.llgc.org.uk
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