Shortest time between marriages.

[Shona]

Tangential fact. Robert Burns, the poet, on this day in 1786 decided not to leave Scotland to work in Jamaica. Burns wife, Jean Armour, gave birth to their child, Maxwell, on the same day as his funeral - 25 July 1796.

[crawfie]

More on the cynical I think - William Cotton's first wife was buried 10 Sep 1899, and he remarried on 4 Dec 1899. Not that newsworthy in itself, but wife No. 2 must have been waiting in the wings, as on the same day as his first wifes funeral, his 2 illegitimate children by his 2nd wife were christened.

[Mary from Italy]

Goodness!

[Mary from Italy]

One of other shortest marriages on record must be my great-grandmother's. After cohabiting for many years, because her first husband was still alive, she risked a bigamous marriage to her elderly gentleman friend while he was on his deathbed, and he died 3 days later. Not quite sure how compos mentis he was at the time; he'd had a stroke 2 days before the marriage, and signed with a cross, whereas he was perfectly literate.

[Merry]

That's interesting Mary - where did they marry? Did they have to get special permission to marry at an unlicenced venue?

[Mary from Italy]

This was in Australia in 1909. I assume they would have needed some kind of special licence, but Australian certificates don't mention whether the marriage is by licence or banns.

They were married by an RC priest, and I assume they were married at home, because the place of marriage is the road where they lived, but it doesn't give the house number.

[Merry]

Ah! - I would imagine the rules might have been very different in Australia!