Perhaps Mike, instead of common law marriage I should have said the couple were co-habitating. In fact there was a marriage involved - Charity Edwards and James Tregurtha in 1845. As divorce was almost unheard of at that time, even for the titled and wealthy, James was a bigamist with his marriage to Louisa Batcock in 1849. Leigh ---------------------------------------- > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:34:06 +0000 > Subject: Re: [CORNISH-GEN] Common Law Marriages > > I understand that under the laws of England there is no such thing (since > about 1750) as a Common law marriage ( i.e. living together with no official > marriage has no status in English law and therefore cannot be registered). > This is important for property rights, status of children, inheritance and > all the rights of marriage etc. I think the expression just means > co-habitating. It follows if no marriage then no bigamy. > Mike > > > ------------------------------- > 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