I know this may seem a strange question but what was the age that a man had to get permission to marry and would this require a licence below 21? I have a chap, Thomas Rockett, marrying at Wendling 3 Sept 1822. In the later census returns he indicates he was born c1805, making him 16-17 when marrying. This is borne out when he dies and his birth year is estimated at 1805. I cannot find his baptism anywhere and have looked at the Wendling baptisms from 1790 onwards to no avail. I can find a chap by that name in Chardstock and know from a surname atlas that there were a lot of Rocketts' from there but can find nothing to indicate he was born there. Can anyone throw any light onto this please?? Jan

On 2011/07/26 00:46, Jan Rockett wrote: > I know this may seem a strange question but what was the age that a man had > to get permission to marry and would this require a licence below 21? I have > a chap, Thomas Rockett, marrying at Wendling 3 Sept 1822. In the later > census returns he indicates he was born c1805, making him 16-17 when > marrying. This is borne out when he dies and his birth year is estimated at > 1805. I cannot find his baptism anywhere and have looked at the Wendling > baptisms from 1790 onwards to no avail. > I can find a chap by that name in Chardstock and know from a surname atlas > that there were a lot of Rocketts' from there but can find nothing to > indicate he was born there. > Can anyone throw any light onto this please?? Officially, the age at which parental consent was not required to get married varied, but was normally taken to be 21. There again, if the man lied about his age, how was the priest supposed to know? Unless he was known. You don't say what age he gave on the marriage entry, and where he claimed to come from. -- Regards, Mike Fry Johannesburg

Legally a boy could marry at 14 and a girl at 12 in these years. I am not sure that they needed parental permission seeing they were of legal age. Karen On Tue, Jul 26, 2011 at 8:46 AM, Jan Rockett <jan.rockett@ntlworld.com>wrote: > I know this may seem a strange question but what was the age that a man had > to get permission to marry and would this require a licence below 21? Jan > > > >