On 23/02/2015 2:57 PM, Bart Simon via wrote: > https://books.google.co.za/books?id=ZZ7VAAAAMAAJ&q=Public+House+baptisms&dq=Public+House+baptisms&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Pz7rVI-eEIPfOPy3gIAL&ved=0CBoQ6AEwADgU > > [In the space for the sponsors' and witnesses' names is the succinct > comment, "illegitimate," and it is noted that the baptismal rites were > conducted at a "public house." Baptisms and marriages were not uncommonly > held in places other than the church in those days.] > If my memory serves me right, then the only place a marriage could take place after Hardwick's Marriage Act until 1836 was the C.of E. parish church EXCEPT with an Archbishop's Licence (place specified in the Licence) or according to the practice of Jews or of Quakers. The book quoted seems to refer to American practice. Regards John Henley