In a message dated 15/09/2003 15:11:54 GMT Daylight Time, ADRABBOTT@aol.com writes: > Ann Wilson, > who was his Deceased Wife's Sister, which was of course illegal at that > time. > > So they went abroad. I have found no evidence that they ever came back to > England, and if they did I suppose they could have been arrested. > Hi Adrian, Before 1835 it was a violation of Canon Law, and after the 1835 Act a violation of Civil Law. Lord Lydhurst's Act of 1835, stated that any marriage within the prohibited degrees taking place after the act was absolutely null and void, this was a Civil Law and not a Criminal Law, so they would not have been arrested. However many couples ignored the law, and many clergy overlooked it. For many years an active and ceaseless agitation was carried on behalf of the legalisation in England of marriage with a deceased wife's sister. In fact there were petitions from clergymen who implored that a Bill might be passed, since many of their parishioners had already married their sisters-in-law, under the belief that this was the best thing for the children — and of course it was the best thing for the children. As the law stood any offspring were regarded as illegitimate and had no legal claims to any inheritance. In all the self-governing colonies, with the exception of Newfoundland, the restriction had ceased to exist. The first act legalising marriage with a deceased wife's sister was adopted by South Australia. In quick succession similar statutes followed in Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales, Queensland, New Zealand, West Australia, Barbados, Canada, Mauritius, Natal and Cape Colony. As regards the Channel Islands, marriages of the kind in question were made legal in I899, and in 1907 in the Isle of Man. Regards Stan Mapstone