This is confusing.....

[Merry]

www.parliament.uk says:

In 1929, in response to a campaign by the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship, Parliament raised the age limit to 16 for both sexes in the Ages of Marriage Act. This is still the minimum age.

and Ancestry says:

1763 — Minimum age for marriage set at 16 (previously the Church accepted marriage of girls of 12 and boys of 14).

I thought 1929 was correct, but now I don't know which to believe.

[Phoenix]

You are believing Ancestry above your own common sense?

Have Ancestry got their knickers in a twist somehow with consent of parents & Hardwicke's Act (a decade earlier!)?

[kiterunner]

Wow, that 1763 thing comes up on a lot of websites, but I haven't managed to figure out where they got it from yet.

[kiterunner]

It even says it on Wikipedia but with no source cited.

[kiterunner]

There is a possible explanation on here:
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.co...-01/1358211285

Good luck correcting this all over the internet!

[kiterunner]

And I'm sure it's just a coincidence that the United Nations' "Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages", which was agreed in 1962 and came into force in 1964, was convention number 1763 and had 16 signatories. I'm sure someone didn't scribble down some notes about this once which said "1763 - minimum marriage age - 16" and then when they came to write them up, completely misremember what it was about!!

[Olde Crone]

Oh, I'm sure there was a period in the interregnum when the minimum age for marriage was raised to 16, but this was totally ignored by the church when they started to perform marriages again because it was not THEIR law.

But that's not 1763, is it.

OC

[Merry]

Originally Posted by Phoenix

You are believing Ancestry above your own common sense?

Erm...............

Originally Posted by kiterunner

Good luck correcting this all over the internet!

I don't need luck because I'm not doing it

Originally Posted by kiterunner

And I'm sure it's just a coincidence that the United Nations' "Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages", which was agreed in 1962 and came into force in 1964, was convention number 1763 and had 16 signatories. I'm sure someone didn't scribble down some notes about this once which said "1763 - minimum marriage age - 16" and then when they came to write them up, completely misremember what it was about!!

lolol

Originally Posted by Olde Crone

I'm sure there was a period in the interregnum when the minimum age for marriage was raised to 16.

But that's not 1763, is it.

OC

No

[Olde Crone]

Gottit!

"According to an act of parliament passed on 29th September 1653, the legal age of marriage for males was raised to 16 and females to 14. This act was replealed in 1660 and the former ecclesiastical laws returned, i.e. 12 for girls, 14 for boys"

OC

[Olde Crone]

Sorry, I hadn't read Kate's link when I posted above!

OC