The bondsman was someone who stood surety for the marriage licence - likely to be a relation but not certain which relation e.g could be a brother, uncle etc of the bride not necessarily the father. I wonder if it would ever have been the son if the bride was a widow? ----- Original Message ----- From: "angel" <thewolverine@thexmen.freeserve.co.uk> To: <ISLE-OF-WIGHT-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, April 03, 2004 10:36 PM Subject: [IoW] bondsman? > hi > I'm working on the Warder family that seem to be spread from yarmouth to cowes on the IoW and i have come accross the marriage of George Warder to rebecca Hatton that says bondsman john hatton of newport at the very end... is this likely to be the father and his job? the others from around this period (1770's) don't seem to put more than the names of the people marrying so i find this unusual... can u help? > Freeserve AnyTime - HALF PRICE for the first 3 months - Save £7.50 a month > www.freeserve.com/anytime > > ______________________________