kiterunner
06-05-15, 18:52
I just came across this in The Belfast News-letter, Monday morning, May 3, 1858
(Reprinted from the Essex Herald:)
FORBIDDING THE BANNS - A singular incident lately occurred in a church not distant from the parish of St Botolph, Colchester. A venerable Franklin of the neighbourhood, who had passed some seventy summers, and "wooed and won" a buxom dame, some years his junior, and fearful lest the fair one should alter her mind, he resolved to adopt the speedy process of special licence. The wedding day was fixed, the altar reached, but lo! on the clergyman asking "if any of you know any just cause or impediment," &c, a young gentleman urged thereto by the bridegroom's friends, who approved not the match, rose and exclaimed, "I forbid the marriage!" "Upon what ground?" inquired the clergyman. "Because," responded the objector, "she has not heard from her first husband." The lady was interrogated, and confessed that certainly she had not heard from her former husband, who went abroad for seven years, nor yet for twenty years. This long absence, and the objector's minority were held to invalidate the objection. The question was repeated; as all were this time silent, the ceremony proceeded.
Interesting story! I wonder whether the marriage would still have been allowed to go ahead if the objector was over 21?
(Reprinted from the Essex Herald:)
FORBIDDING THE BANNS - A singular incident lately occurred in a church not distant from the parish of St Botolph, Colchester. A venerable Franklin of the neighbourhood, who had passed some seventy summers, and "wooed and won" a buxom dame, some years his junior, and fearful lest the fair one should alter her mind, he resolved to adopt the speedy process of special licence. The wedding day was fixed, the altar reached, but lo! on the clergyman asking "if any of you know any just cause or impediment," &c, a young gentleman urged thereto by the bridegroom's friends, who approved not the match, rose and exclaimed, "I forbid the marriage!" "Upon what ground?" inquired the clergyman. "Because," responded the objector, "she has not heard from her first husband." The lady was interrogated, and confessed that certainly she had not heard from her former husband, who went abroad for seven years, nor yet for twenty years. This long absence, and the objector's minority were held to invalidate the objection. The question was repeated; as all were this time silent, the ceremony proceeded.
Interesting story! I wonder whether the marriage would still have been allowed to go ahead if the objector was over 21?