Hi Frances Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act of 1753 set the legal minimum at 12 for girls and 14 for boys, and this remained the legal position until 1929, when it was raised to 16 for both. However, marriages of such young people were phenomenally rare in practice, except in the realms of the aristocracy, where children were legally "married" to cement dynastic alliances but didn't live together as man and wife until they were much older. By and large, where records appear to suggest marriages at a very young age, you should be very circumspect. Sometimes you are dealing with a case of mistaken identity (cousins with identical names can be tricky), sometimes with a late baptism (it is always a mistake to assume that a baptism followed a birth by a few weeks or months - it could be years). Hope this helps Caroline > -----Original Message----- > From: essex-uk-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:essex-uk- > bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Fran Vose > Sent: 08 September 2008 21:45 > To: essex-uk@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [Ess] mARRIAGE AGE - 1600'S, 1700's, 1800-1850 for women > > Could anyone advise the official minimum legal marriage age (if there > was > one) in above centuries for women. Think it could be helpful for > research > purposes. Many thanks! > > Frances > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Any problems, please contact the List Admin: Essex-UK- > admin@rootsweb.com > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ESSEX-UK- > request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in > the subject and the body of the message