It is incorrect to say that the couple were not legally married.  As I understand it, Canon Law of the Church of England was/is not the same as Civil Law. Although the marriage of a man to his sister in law was within the 'prohibited degrees' (see the back of any old Book of Common Prayer where there is usually a Table) this did not apply to Civil Law, so such a marriage in the Register Office was legal and the couple were legally married. The problems would come if the incumbent of their parish found out when the time came to baptize the children! Stephen >________________________________ > From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> >To: [email protected] >Sent: Tuesday, 29 January 2013, 20:56 >Subject: CORNISH-GEN Digest, Vol 8, Issue 37 > > > >When replying to a digest message, be sure and highlight ONLY the message you are quoting and select "reply quoted text" or whatever option you have in your email program.  Please don't quote the entire digest.  And don't forget to change the subject line from "Reply to CORNISH-GEN Digest, Vol X, Issue XXX" with the subject line from the message you are replying to.  > >Cornish Volunteer Lookup Library http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~yvonne/cornishlib/cornishlib.htm > >Online Parish Clerks (OPC) http://www.cornwall-opc.org/ > >Questions or assistance: Contact >Yvonne Bowers, Listmom [email protected] > >Today's Topics: > >  1. Re: Common law marriages? (Wesley Johnston) >  2. COMMON LAW MARRIAGES (Joyce Harris) >  3. Re: Common law marriages? (Joy Langdon) >  4. Weekly Newspaper 13th February, 1857. ([email protected]) > > >---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > >Message: 2 >Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:21:10 -0000 >From: "Joyce Harris" <[email protected]> >Subject: [CORNISH-GEN] COMMON LAW MARRIAGES >To: "CORNISH-GEN" <[email protected]> >Message-ID: <[email protected]> >Content-Type: text/plain;    charset="iso-8859-1" > >Hello Wesley > >Using just surnames to search on the Free BMD site brought up in just a couple of minutes the following marriage : > >Banadick Edwards and Maria Collins >December 1864 Qr >GRO Reference St Austell 5C 238. > >Joyce Harris > >------------------------------ > >Message: 3 >Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:40:08 +0000 (GMT) >From: Joy Langdon <[email protected]> >Subject: Re: [CORNISH-GEN] Common law marriages? >To: Wesley Johnston <[email protected]>, >    "[email protected]" <[email protected]> >Message-ID: >    <[email protected]> >Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 > >In the case of Robert Edwards and Christiana, the marriage may not have taken place in a church because marrying your wife's sister was not allowed at the time and the Vicar may have known of the relationship?whilst the Registrar didn't (the? law was changed in 1907 by the Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act).? So although they underwent a civil ceremony, strictly speaking they weren't legally married! >? >Regards, >? >Joy > > >

This was derived from Canon law but from the 1835 Marriage Act until the Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act in 1907 it was also Civil Law (see link below):   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deceased_Wife's_Sister's_Marriage_Act_1907   Joy ________________________________ From: est <[email protected]> To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, 30 January 2013, 9:58 Subject: Re: [CORNISH-GEN] CORNISH-GEN Digest, Vol 8, Issue 37 It is incorrect to say that the couple were not legally married.  As I understand it, Canon Law of the Church of England was/is not the same as Civil Law. Although the marriage of a man to his sister in law was within the 'prohibited degrees' (see the back of any old Book of Common Prayer where there is usually a Table) this did not apply to Civil Law, so such a marriage in the Register Office was legal and the couple were legally married. The problems would come if the incumbent of their parish found out when the time came to baptize the children! Stephen >________________________________ > From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> >To: [email protected] >Sent: Tuesday, 29 January 2013, 20:56 >Subject: CORNISH-GEN Digest, Vol 8, Issue 37 > > > >When replying to a digest message, be sure and highlight ONLY the message you are quoting and select "reply quoted text" or whatever option you have in your email program.  Please don't quote the entire digest.  And don't forget to change the subject line from "Reply to CORNISH-GEN Digest, Vol X, Issue XXX" with the subject line from the message you are replying to.  > >Cornish Volunteer Lookup Library http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~yvonne/cornishlib/cornishlib.htm > >Online Parish Clerks (OPC) http://www.cornwall-opc.org/ > >Questions or assistance: Contact >Yvonne Bowers, Listmom [email protected] > >Today's Topics: > >   1. Re: Common law marriages? (Wesley Johnston) >   2. COMMON LAW MARRIAGES (Joyce Harris) >   3. Re: Common law marriages? (Joy Langdon) >   4. Weekly Newspaper 13th February, 1857. ([email protected]) > > >---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > >Message: 2 >Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:21:10 -0000 >From: "Joyce Harris" <[email protected]> >Subject: [CORNISH-GEN] COMMON LAW MARRIAGES >To: "CORNISH-GEN" <[email protected]> >Message-ID: <[email protected]> >Content-Type: text/plain;    charset="iso-8859-1" > >Hello Wesley > >Using just surnames to search on the Free BMD site brought up in just a couple of minutes the following marriage : > >Banadick Edwards and Maria Collins >December 1864 Qr >GRO Reference St Austell 5C 238. > >Joyce Harris > >------------------------------ > >Message: 3 >Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:40:08 +0000 (GMT) >From: Joy Langdon <[email protected]> >Subject: Re: [CORNISH-GEN] Common law marriages? >To: Wesley Johnston <[email protected]>, >    "[email protected]" <[email protected]> >Message-ID: >    <[email protected]> >Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 > >In the case of Robert Edwards and Christiana, the marriage may not have taken place in a church because marrying your wife's sister was not allowed at the time and the Vicar may have known of the relationship?whilst the Registrar didn't (the? law was changed in 1907 by the Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act).? So although they underwent a civil ceremony, strictly speaking they weren't legally married! >? >Regards, >? >Joy > > > ------------------------------- Listmom:  [email protected] or [email protected] 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 [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message