On 17/08/2011 08:02, [email protected] wrote: > I guess my question is what was the process of annulling a marriage that was > not of the church? Did this occur thru a petition of one of the civil > courts? Or was it just not done? To put it in a nutshell, a marriage was legal for most centuries, whether or not it was sanctioned by the Kirk. As a result, a legal marriage would not normaly be annulled, unless you had the CONSIDERABLE finances to support a legal claim against it. Almost all marriages were never contested in that way. The Kirk tended to steer clear of legal tussles over a marriage which was not a church marriage( and then there were the marriages in the Roman Catholic/ Scottish Episcopal/ etc. churches). Gordon.

I recall reading somewhere that the various churches weren't all that interested in performing marriage ceremonies in the church building itself until they realized two things: one, it was more meaningful to the participants, and two, it was a source of revenue. I don't recall whether it was the mid-1700s or mid-1800s though that it became more fashionable to use the church buildings for wedding ceremonies - someone will have to help me out with that one. Before this time the closest the couple got sometimes was the front steps of the church building for their wedding. Cliff. Johnston "May the best you've ever seen, Be the worst you'll ever see," >From A Scots Toast by Allan Ramsay -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Gordon Johnson Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2011 10:47 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [DUMFRIES-GALLOWAY] marriages question On 17/08/2011 08:02, [email protected] wrote: > I guess my question is what was the process of annulling a marriage > that was not of the church? Did this occur thru a petition of one of > the civil courts? Or was it just not done? To put it in a nutshell, a marriage was legal for most centuries, whether or not it was sanctioned by the Kirk. As a result, a legal marriage would not normally be annulled, unless you had the CONSIDERABLE finances to support a legal claim against it. Almost all marriages were never contested in that way. The Kirk tended to steer clear of legal tussles over a marriage which was not a church marriage( and then there were the marriages in the Roman Catholic/ Scottish Episcopal/ etc. churches). Gordon. ------------------------------- 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