Cathy, Thanks. I had marriage laws confused with Christenings. It seems that the late date of the law would have resulted in having a minimal effect on many Huguenot marriages. An interesting sidenote for all: When searching the English parish registers, it isn't uncommon to find a notation usually stated something like: "Burial of a stranger." Often there is no mention of the person's name, suggesting the person was unknown to the locals. I wonder how many of these strangers have pasted through time unrecorded. Shane > From: "Cathy Day" <cathy.day@homemail.com.au> > Date: 2006/01/09 Mon AM 06:41:10 EST > To: HUGUENOTS-WALLOONS-EUROPE-L@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [HWE] Christening practices in England > > Hi Shane, > > There were no laws in England regarding christenings, but there were > laws regarding marriage and church attendance. > > After the Hardwicke Marriage Act of 1754, a marriage had to be performed > in an Anglican church for it to be legally valid. The only exceptions were > Jews and Quakers. Huguenots were not excepted. If the marriage was conducted > in a place other than an Anglican church then it was not legal, and the > children of the marriage would be legally (but not ecclesiastically) > illegitimate. This would severely restrict their rights to inherit property. > Many Dissenters, Catholics and so on had two marriage ceremonies - one in > their own church and one in an Anglican church. Just to complicate the issue > with respect to Huguenot churches - some of them were considered part of the > Established church and others were not. The Hardwicke Marriage Act was > repealed in 1837. > > From Elizabethan times (the exact date escapes me) it was illegal not to > attend an Anglican church on a Sunday. This law was aimed primarily at > Catholics. Huge fines were imposed but rarely collected. The Catholic > Emancipation Act of 1827 removed this requirement. Dissenters were freed > from the requirement by an earlier Act - about 1780 I think. As above, some > Huguenot churches were considered part of the Established Church but others > were not. In any case, it would be a pretty rare event to see a Huguenot > prosecuted for non-attendance at church. I haven't seen any references to > the practice, but others may have something else to add. > > English law did not require baptisms to be performed in any particular > denomination, and even at the height of religious intolerance, all churches > recognised "one baptism for the forgiveness of sins". That is, once you were > baptised, it didn't matter in the name of which denomination it was done. > > Regards, > > Cathy Day > Canberra, Australia > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: <smdtarry@bellsouth.net> > To: <HUGUENOTS-WALLOONS-EUROPE-L@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Saturday, January 07, 2006 2:07 AM > Subject: [HWE] Christening practices in England > > > > Folks, > > > > Can someone please refresh my memory on the Christening laws in England? > Didn't the Huguenots/ > > Walloons have to have Christenings performed in Anglican churches? > > > > Thanks, > > > > Shane > > > > > > ==== HUGUENOTS-WALLOONS-EUROPE Mailing List ==== > > Not sure how to post a message to the list? > > Instructions are on list website at: > > http://www.island.net/~andreav/post.htm > > > > ============================== > > New! Family Tree Maker 2005. Build your tree and search for your ancestors > at the same time. Share your tree with family and friends. Learn more: > http://landing.ancestry.com/familytreemaker/2005/tour.aspx?sourceid=14599&targetid=5429 > > > > > > > > > > ==== HUGUENOTS-WALLOONS-EUROPE Mailing List ==== > Website for the Huguenots-Walloons-Europe list at: > http://www.island.net/~andreav/index.html > Lots of information, links to other sites, surnames list. > > ============================== > Census images 1901, 1891, 1881 and 1871, plus so much more. > Ancestry.com's United Kingdom & Ireland Collection. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13968/rd.ashx > >