Marriage confusion in Liverpool

[ElizabethHerts]

John Taylor married Martha Walker in the Liverpool area c. 1835.

I have found two marriages – both on Ancestry.

These are the banns, not the marriage:
Name: Martha Walker Marriage
Date: 29 Nov 1835 -
Parish: Toxteth Park St James
Spouse's Name: John Taylor

Name: John Taylor
Marriage Date: 6 Dec 1835
Parish: Toxteth Park St James Spouse's (in fact the register says St James Walton on the Hill)
Name: Martha Walker
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&db=LiverpoolCoEMarriages&rank=1&new=1&MSAV=1&msT=1&gss=angs-d&gsfn=John&gsln=Taylor&msgdy=1835&dbOnly=_F0005A5D|_F0005A5D_x&uidh=xt1&msgdp=5&pcat=34&fh=16&h=2973532&recoff=6+7


Then I found this Catholic marriage:
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&db=LiverpoolEngCathMar&rank=1&new=1&MSAV=1&msT=1&gss=angs-d&gsfn=John&gsln=Taylor&dbOnly=_F0005A5D|_F0005A5D_x&uidh=xt1&pcat=34&fh=1&h=1661097&recoff=6+7


Name: John Taylor Marriage Date: 18 Nov 1835 Parish: St Nicholas Spouse's Name: Martha Am Walker

The dates are so close.
A discrepancy with the second name of Ann for Martha, but I found one baptism for a child which is probably theirs which gives the name “Martha Ann”.

Name: Alice Taylor
Birth Date: 28 Feb 1849
Baptism Date: 11 Mar 1849
Parish: St Mary´s
Father's Name: John Taylor
Mother's Name: Martha Ann Taylor

Their children were given Catholic baptisms at St Mary’s.

Do you think they had two ceremonies?

[anne fraser]

I thought they had to call the banns for three weeks before the wedding in both churches so may be one was C. of E. and one catholic and there was only one ceremony.

[kiterunner]

On the St James, Walton on the Hill one (or St James, Toxteth Park, according to ancestry) they are married by John Smith, with witnesses William Filburn and Hannah Filburn. The St Nicholas one says they were married by John Maddox, witnesses William and Hannah Philbin. So it looks as though they went through two ceremonies, one C of E and one Roman Catholic. Did one of them come from a C of E family and the other from an RC family?

[ElizabethHerts]

On the St James, Walton on the Hill one (or St James, Toxteth Park, according to ancestry) they are married by John Smith, with witnesses William Filburn and Hannah Filburn. The St Nicholas one says they were married by John Maddox, witnesses William and Hannah Philbin. So it looks as though they went through two ceremonies, one C of E and one Roman Catholic. Did one of them come from a C of E family and the other from an RC family?

I don't know the parentage of either, Kiterunner.
I am guessing it is the wife Martha who was RC.

Well spotted with the witnesses. I hadn't noted them. I think you have proved to me it is the same couple, so thank you!:D

I have gone skew-eyed going through all the baptisms and noting all the godparents - a veritable gold mine as it has led me to siblings of the couple.

This is my son-in-law's tree and it is a little surprise for him tomorrow. He has got back so far and no further, and doesn't have any detail.

[Phoenix]

Catholic ceremony - for God. C OF E ceremony to make the children legal.

Catholic ceremonies were not valid pre 1837.

[ElizabethHerts]

On the St James, Walton on the Hill one (or St James, Toxteth Park, according to ancestry) they are married by John Smith, with witnesses William Filburn and Hannah Filburn. The St Nicholas one says they were married by John Maddox, witnesses William and Hannah Philbin. So it looks as though they went through two ceremonies, one C of E and one Roman Catholic. Did one of them come from a C of E family and the other from an RC family?

From the image it can clearly be seen that the parish was Walton on the Hill at St James' Church (at the top).

There has been much discussion about this church. It isn't listed in Genuki under Walton on the Hill.

I found this:
http://www.litherland-digital.co.uk/album_4/pages/merseyside1831.htm

"PARISH of WALTON on the HILL

WALTON on the HILL, a parish in the hundred of WEST DERBY, county palatine of LANCASTER, comprising the chapelries of Everton, Formby, Kirkby, and West Derby, and the townships of Bootle with Linacre, Eazakerley, Kirkdale, Simonswood, and Walton on the
Hill, and containing 14,245 inhabitants, of which number;1171 are in the township of Walton on the Hill, 2¾ miles (N. by B.) from Liverpool. The living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Chester, rated in the king's books at £69,16.10, and in the patronage of J.S. Leigh, Esq.: the vicarage is separately rated at £6.13.4.,and in the patronage of the Rector The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is partly in the decorated style of English architecture. Up to 1698 it was the mother church of Liverpool, and the present church of St. Nicholas there was a chapel of ease under, the Vicar of Walton. The church of St. James, in Toxteth Park, is dependent on Walton. In consequence of its proximity to Liverpool, this place has greatly advanced in population, and has become the residence of numerous merchants, retired tradesmen etc. The house of correction for the county is at Kirkdale, in this parish."

So both are correct - the church was geographically in Toxteth Park but part of the parish of Walton on the Hill!