No, marriages by licence took place at a parish church. The application Bond & Allegation) would have been kept in the Diocesan office and copies of all marriage register entries were sent to the Bishop (Bishop's Transcripts) but the marriages by licence were not treated any differently.(unless of course the Allegation proved false and the Church would claim the money put up by the bondsman as well as prosecuting the offender for bigamy, incest or whatever). As has already been said, normally a licence named the specific church but the even more expensive special licence which could only be granted by the Archbishop of Canterbury allowed the couple to marry anywhere. Marriages by licence were the same as any other marriage, the licence just allowed the usual rule of a public announcement for 3 consecutive weeks to be bent. There is nothing anywhere that suggests that Holy Trinity acted as a sub office for the cathedral and I think it unlikely. I looked on FMP at the original images for the Holy Trinity, Exeter and the Thomas Mitchell who married Rebecca in 1747 was "of Ottery St Mary". Thomas Mitchell and Eliz Skinner who married 1744 were both "of this parish" and no mention of licence on the the entry. The marriage you are looking for may be at a church which has not been transcribed or the records may be lost or badly damaged. Joy On Monday, 24 Nov, 2014 at 12:05, Liz & Tom Thompson via<cornish-gen@rootsweb.com> wrote: Hello, Many thanks to Maureen, Joy and Alan for their replies. As you will know, I am trying to find a marriage that took place in or around Plymouth in about 1747. As well as one at Brixton (3 miles east of Plymouth) there were two at Holy Trinity, Exeter, but these seemed to have happened too far away to be relevant. Someone then suggested that the marraige may have been by licence, particularly since my Thomas Mitchell was a sailor/marine. Hence I wondered whether, since the whole of Cornwall and Devon came under one Diocese centred on Exeter, licenced marriages were "collected together" in Exeter, in the "mother church" and not recorded in the local register. I have since found that there is/was a Holy Trinity Church in South Street, Exeter, a mere stone's throw from the Cathedral, so maybe that acted as a "sub-office" at the time? In the absence of anything better I think the marriage in Brixton is the most likely. However, although Thomas, his wife and child returned to his home village of St Agnes, I haven't found a burial record for the wife in the St Agnes registers, and I don't know the child's name either. If anyone has any other ideas, I'd be grateful to hear of them. Tom Thompson, St Agnes. ------------------------------- Listmom: ybowers@gmail.com or CORNISH-GEN-admin@rootsweb.com Visit the OPC (Online Parish Clerk) web page for transcription information http://www.cornwall-opc.org/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to CORNISH-GEN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message