John and Alice's Fleet Marriage

And also a little about calendars, and church marriages versus common law marriages.

John and Alice married in 1733. At that time, the Julian calendar was in use. This was later replaced by the Gregorian calendar; the calendar most widely used today. In this article, I have used Julian calendar dates, where applicable, with the equivalent Gregorian calendar date (in brackets and italics), after it. You can read a more detailed explanation about the Julian and Gregorian calendars in the notes at the end of this article¹.

When John and Alice married, the rules for marriage within the Church were very restrictive. While most couples married at the family church, a significant number chose, for various reasons, to bypass the regulations and marry outside the Church where requirements associated with a valid marriage were much looser. These marriages are generally referred to as irregular or clandestine marriages².

Irregular marriages were marriages that did not comply with Church Law, whilst clandestine marriages were irregular marriages that had an added element of secrecy. Although not complying with Church Law, irregular marriages did comply with Common Law and were, therefore, considered valid marriages for the purposes of such things as inheritance and proof of legitimacy³.

Church Law Marriages vis-à-vis Common Law Marriages

Under both Church Law and Common Law, in order for marriages to be valid they had to be conducted by an ordained Anglican clergyman. In addition, each person being married must have consented to the marriage and be of legal age.

In 1733, when John and Alice married, the legal age for marriage was 14 years old for males and 12 years old for females. For Common Law marriages, parental consent wasn't required over and above the couple being of legal age. For marriages under Church Law, even though the couple was of legal age, parental consent was required if either of them was aged under 21 years⁴.

In addition, there were a number of other requirements for marriages under Church Law that didn't apply to marriages under Common Law⁵:

• Either Banns had to be called or a marriage licence obtained. Calling Banns entailed a series of public announcements made on three consecutive Sundays prior to the wedding giving the names of the engaged couple and declaring that the marriage was to take place. Obtaining a marriage licence circumvented the need to call Banns but was an expensive option.

• The marriage had to take place in the parish of at least one of the people being married and it had to be conducted between 8am and noon (‘canonical hours’).

Common Law Marriages

Irregular marriages were usually conducted by Anglican clergyman who were not in receipt of a regular income from the Church. These clergymen relied on the fees they could charge for conducting Common Law marriages. Clergymen who were in regular employment with the Church were much less likely to conduct Common Law marriages because of the disapproval this would attract from the Church and the possible negative consequences of doing so. A number of institutions met the demand for these marriages. One of these was Fleet Prison where John and Alice married in 1733⁶ ⁷. It was a popular venue for irregular and clandestine marriages.

John and Alice

John Fordham, Bachelor, and Alice Pinder, Spinster, married on 15 April 1733 (26 April 1733) at Fleet Prison in London, England⁸ ⁹:

Fleet Marriage entry - - John Fordham and Alice Pinder - London, England Clandestine Marriage and Baptism Registers 1667-1754 via Ancestry.com

The officiating Ministers are recorded as: Wigmore, Hanson, Backler, Ashwell, Cuthbert, and Gaynam¹⁰.

Fleet Prison

Fleet Prison, like the other venues that performed irregular and clandestine marriages, was popular with couples seeking a Common Law marriage. By the early 18th Century, it was estimated that up to a third of all marriages were irregular or clandestine¹¹. In addition, around half of all marriages in London (about a seventh of all English weddings) were performed at or around Fleet prison¹².

From ‘Fleet Marriages’ via FamilyHistory.co.uk [Website]

Over a number of years there had been various attempts by the Church and Parliament to reign in Common Law marriages, for example, by punishing clergymen and imposing fines:

'By the late 1600s, the Church of England and Parliament had largely succeeded in reigning in those clergymen who performed irregular or clandestine marriages; provided those clergymen had assets or a reputation to lose … However, some clergymen had ‘neither liberty, money, nor credit to lose’ . The various measures to end irregular marriages did not affect them. Quite the opposite in fact; these men had now been gifted a near monopoly on the practice. Such clergymen included debtors languishing in debtors’ prisons such as Fleet Prison and Kings Bench Prison'¹³

The Fleet prison was founded in 1197 on the eastern bank of the River Fleet, off what is now Farringdon Street, and just outside the Ludgate entrance to London. The prison was originally used by the King to hold those charged with offences against the state, including those of the highest rank¹⁴.

At the time of John and Alice's marriage in 1733, it was a debtors’ prison. A number of clergymen were imprisoned in Fleet Prison for debt. They had nothing to lose from conducting Common Law marriages. In fact, they welcomed the income they could gain. This income enabled them to live outside the prison walls. For a fee, inmates of the Prison were able to live in the surrounding area comprising parts of Ludgate Hill, the Old Bailey and Fleet Lane. This area was known as the ‘Rules’ or the ‘Liberties’.

Fleet weddings were initially held in the Fleet Prison Chapel itself, with the prison warden taking a cut of the proceeds. However, over time, more and more were conducted outside the prison in the ‘Rules’. Some marriages took place in one of the taverns within the 'Rules'; the tavern keeper taking a cut of the proceeds. By the time an Act of Parliament was passed in 1711 to impose a fine on any prison warden who allowed weddings in the Prison Chapel, most Fleet marriages were being conducted in the ‘Rules’¹⁵ ¹⁶.

A further Act of Parliament was passed the following year, in 1712, with the intention of punishing the clergymen who were already in Prison. This was unsuccessful in stopping the marriages:

'By the 1740s, it was estimated that a half of all weddings in London were performed at the Fleet i.e. around 6,500 per year … [and on 24 March 1754], the day before the ban on irregular or clandestine marriages came into effect, one Fleet register recorded 217 marriages’¹⁷.

The Marriage Act 1753 ‘For the Better Preventing of Clandestine Marriage’, also known as Hardwicke’s Marriage Act, came into effect in England and Wales on 25 March 1754. The rules for a valid marriage in Church Law became a legal requirement for all marriages except where a specific exemption was made. This finally put an end to irregular marriages in England and Wales because the penalties for non-compliance were severe. In effect, under the new legislation, a non-compliant marriage would be rendered void and the offending minister would be sentenced to 14 years’ transportation. People in search of an irregular marriage were still able to get one if they travelled to Gretna Green in Scotland¹⁸.

So, what do we know about John and Alice and what do we know about what led them to decide on an irregular marriage at Fleet Prison? Not much but the information I do have follows.

More about John and Alice

John Fordham was a farmer from Tottenham (then Middlesex), London¹⁹. He died in 1772 at the age of 63 and was buried on 1 November 1772 at All Hallows' Church in Tottenham²⁰. This suggests that he was born in about 1709. If that is the case, he would have been about 24 when he married Alice.

Alice Fordham, née Pinder died in 1766 at the age of 58 years and was buried on 8 June 1766 at All Hallows' Church in Tottenham²¹. This suggests that she was born in about 1708. If that is the case, she would have been about 25 when she married John.

I have been unable to find a birth or baptism record for either of them.

Why Did John and Alice Choose A Common Law Marriage?

Irregular marriages were popular for a variety of reasons. Key reasons suggested on the FamilyHistory.co.uk website include:

• cost (they were usually cheaper than a parish church wedding)

• privacy

• speed

• parental consent was not required

• secrecy

• flexibility of dates (it was not uncommon for marriage certificates to be backdated to confirm legitimacy or secure an inheritance)

• to claim poor relief in a particular parish (in order to prove ‘settlement’ in a particular parish, some proof of marriage was often required)

• bigamy (before centralised records, a bigamous marriage performed without banns and outside the parish of bride and groom had a good chance of going undetected)

• females escaping debt (if a single woman incurred debts and then got married, her debts would be transferred to her husband under the law).

So, why did John and Alice choose to marry under Common Law at Fleet Prison?

Age doesn’t appear to have been a factor. If John and Alice were 63 and 58 respectively when they died, then their ages at the time of marrying one another on 15 April 1733, (24 and 25 respectively), would not have been a factor influencing their choice of an irregular marriage.

Could speed have been a factor? As far as I have been able to determine, their first child was Alice who was born more than a year after John and Alice's marriage. Could there have been a child before Alice? Was 15 April 1733 really the actual date of their marriage? Had they been flexible with their dates?

Perhaps they just wanted a lower cost 'no fuss' wedding?

It appears that, after their marriage at least, John and Alice were parishioners of All Hallows' Church in Tottenham. Not only are they buried there, all their children were baptised there.

All Hallows' parish church, Church Lane, Tottenham, London N17, seen from the northwest [Photo: Alan Stanton CC BY-SA 2.0]

John and Alice's Family

John and Alice had at least 8 children, all baptised at All Hallows Church in Tottenham²²:

• Alice was baptised on 07 July 1734 (18 July 1734)

• Hannah was baptised on 30 November 1735 (11 December 1735)

• John was baptised on 23 January 1736/1737²³ (3 February 1737)

• Sarah was baptised on 15 May 1738 (26 May 1738)

• Luke John was baptised on 21 August 1743 (1 September 1743)

• Edward was baptised on 26 July 1746 (6 August 1746)

• Pinder was baptised on 3 April 1748 (14 May 1748)

• Elizabeth baptised 22 April 1750 (3 May 1750)

There may have been other children that I have, as yet, been unable to find? While most of John and Alice's children were born within a year or two of each other, there is a gap of 5 years between Sarah and Luke John. Was there a child in between?

Postscript

John and Alice are my 5th great grandparents. I would like to know more about them and their family. If you are researching them, please get in touch!

The information in this article has been drawn from my family history archive on the weare.xyz platform

1. The Julian Calendar was introduced by Julius Caesar in 45BC. Over time, it became more and more inaccurate because it didn’t properly reflect the actual time it takes the Earth to orbit once around the Sun. The Gregorian Calendar was named after Pope Gregory XIII. Although it was introduced in 1582 as a replacement for the Julian Calendar, it was not immediately accepted by many countries. Time of acceptance varied from country to country. In fact, three centuries passed (from 1582 to 1927) until the Gregorian calendar had been adopted in all countries that previously had been using the Julian calendar. The United Kingdom and its colonies switched to the Gregorian calendar following an Act of Parliament in 1752. The change allowed for a realignment of events consistent with the astronomical calendar. It required a loss of 11 days. This meant that, 2 September 1752 advanced to 14 September 1752 with the 3rd to the 13th September 1752 skipped. In addition, recognition of the New Year in England and Wales moved from 25 March to 1 January (as was already the case in Scotland). For more information, see: Gregorian Calendar, Julian Calendar, and Switch from Julian to Gregorian and The Gregorian Calendar Adopted in England.

The dates from Julian to Gregorian calendar are easily converted using Stephen P. Morse’s ‘Converting between Julian and Gregorian Calendar in One Step’ tool.

2. See the explanation 'About London, England, Clandestine Marriage and Baptism Registers, 1667-1754' on Ancestry.com. Accessed 26 June 2022.

3. Fleet Marriages - FamilyHistory.co.uk [Website]. Accessed 26 June 2022.

4. Fleet Marriages - See Note 3.

5. Fleet Marriages - See Note 3.

6. See 'About London, England, Clandestine Marriage and Baptism Registers, 1667-1754' on Ancestry.com. Accessed 26 June 2022.

7. Fleet Marriages - FamilyHistory.co.uk [Website]. Accessed 26 June 2022.

8. England, Marriages, 1538–1973. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013 via Ancestry.com. England, Select Marriages, 1538-1973 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. Accessed 25 June 2022

9. Registers of Clandestine Marriages and of Baptisms in the Fleet Prison, King's Bench Prison, the Mint and the May Fair Chapel. Records of the General Register Office, Government Social Survey Department, and Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, Registrar General (RG) series 7. The National Archives, Kew, England via Ancestry.com. London, England, Clandestine Marriage and Baptism Registers, 1667-1754 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. Accessed 24 June 2016

10. Cuthbert's register - Fleet register. 1730-1736 – National Archives RG 7/105 1730-1736 - England Clandestine Marriages via FindMyPast. Accessed 24 June 2016.

11. The Commission into Marriage Law, 1868 cited in the article Fleet Marriages - FamilyHistory.co.uk [Website]. Accessed 26 June 2022.

12. Fleet Marriages - See Note 11.

13. See Note 11.

14. Article 'Fleet Prison, City of London, London' via 'The Prison - The story of an institution' - The Prison.org.uk [Website]. Accessed 22 June 2022.

15. See 'About London, England, Clandestine Marriage and Baptism Registers, 1667-1754' at Ancestry.com. Accessed 26 June 2022.

16. Fleet Marriages - FamilyHistory.co.uk [Website]. Accessed 26 June 2022.

17. John Southerden Burn, 1833, The Fleet Registers (pp.12-19) as referred to in Fleet Marriages - FamilyHistory.co.uk [Website]. Accessed 26 June 2022.

18. Fleet Marriages - FamilyHistory.co.uk [Website]. Accessed 26 June 2022.

19. Registers of Clandestine Marriages and of Baptisms in the Fleet Prison, King's Bench Prison, the Mint and the May Fair Chapel. Records of the General Register Office, Government Social Survey Department, and Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, Registrar General (RG) series 7. The National Archives, Kew, England via Ancestry.com. London, England, Clandestine Marriage and Baptism Registers, 1667-1754 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. Accessed 24 June 2016.

20. London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; Reference Number: DRO/015/A/01/004 via Ancestry.com. London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Accessed 25 June 2022

21. London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; Reference Number: DRO/015/A/01/004 via Ancestry.com. London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

22. London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; Reference Number: DRO/015/A/01/004 via Ancestry.com. London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

23. For Julian calendar dates between 1 January and 25 March it is customary to double date them to show that. when converted to the Gregorian calendar they would be a year later. 23 January 1736 (Julian Calendar) converts to 3 February 1737 (Gregorian Calendar).