I have a marriage certificate from 1844 on which both the Bride and Groom's age is stated as "MINOR". The couple had a son born a few months after the marriage. Has anyone had occasion to look into the law in England which relates to the age of majority at that time? This event was not in Somerset, but I'm assuming the age of majority was common across England. Alan

On Tue, 19 Oct 2010 00:54:29 +0100, A&M Brown <browns.home@sympatico.ca> wrote: > I have a marriage certificate from 1844 on which both the Bride and > Groom's age is stated as "MINOR". > The couple had a son born a few months after the marriage. > Has anyone had occasion to look into the law in England which relates to > the age of majority at that time? > This event was not in Somerset, but I'm assuming the age of majority was > common across England. Hi Alan, The age when someone was legally deemed to be an adult used to be 21 until the age of majority was put down to 18 in 1969. However, in early Victorian time, brides and grooms may have been registered as "full age" even if they were under 21 years of age, if the person registering the marriage was going by the age of consent. Before the Age of Marriage Act of 1929, which prohibited marriage under the age of 16 years, it was legal for boys aged 14 and girls aged 12 to be married. None of this really answers your question, but at least this is a little bit of background. You could try putting "age of majority" into Google. If you sift through the sites or add other keywords to your search you may come up with something. Josephine -- www.ianandjo.dsl.pipex.com

I had reason to look this up a little while ago. It is not as simple as you think! Here is a little light reading for you! http://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/private-lives/relationships/overview/lawofmarriage-/ http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/dmgmanual/html/DMG46001/10_0092_DMG47063.htm http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090211065533AA2V94a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_majority http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_consent Jean > From: browns.home@sympatico.ca > To: bristol_and_somerset@rootsweb.com > Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2010 19:54:29 -0400 > Subject: [B&S] Age of majority > > I have a marriage certificate from 1844 on which both the Bride and Groom's age is stated as "MINOR". > The couple had a son born a few months after the marriage. > Has anyone had occasion to look into the law in England which relates to the age of majority at that time? > This event was not in Somerset, but I'm assuming the age of majority was common across England. > Alan > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to BRISTOL_AND_SOMERSET-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message