Hi folks, not sue which Sheriff my old friend Dave McLean is referring to as collecting taxes etc, it certainly isn't the Scottish variety. Scotland is divided into Sheriffdoms (at present there are 6) which at the time of the outbreak of WWII was more based on County lines. Each Sheriffdom is divided into Sheriff Court Districts. In the Highlands on the mainland there is Wick, Dornoch, Tain, Dingwall, Inverness, Fort William, Oban and Elgin. There is also Kirkwall and Lerwick in the Northern Isles, Stornoway, Portree and Lochmaddy in the Western Isles and Skye. Prior to 1973 Nairnshire was attached to Morayshire (Elginshire) and after 1973 to Inverness-shire. Nairn itself doesn't have a Sheriff Court, only a District Court. In Scotland, A Sheriff is a senior judge and in 1939 was almost certainly a senior Advocate probably a K.C. (King's Counsel), the equivalent of a Barrister in England or Supreme Court Attorney in the U.S. The Sheriff could hear cases civil or criminal up to a fairly serious or complex level, somewhere between a County Court Judge and a High Court Judge in England. An Irregular marriage was any sort of marriage which was not conducted within the prescribed form laid down by the Marriage(Scotland) Act 1933. As Dave suggested, it may be that the couple didn't wait the prescribed three weeks for the reading of Banns but my reading of your note is that the Sheriff pronounced his Interlocutor a week before WWII started. Remember at that time a couple could be legally married in Scotland's without going through any sort of marriage service. If a couple declared themselves to be married to one another, called themselves Mr and Mrs so and so and ALL their respective families recognised them to be married, then they were married "by habit and repute" under Scots law and any children were legitimate. Of course both had to be legally able to marry at the time they began to consider themselves married and if not, the Law would not recognise the union as valid until both were free to enter a formal marriage, e.g. a pre-existing spouse of one or both were divorced or died. Any children born prior to the marriage were illegitimate but became legitimated on the parents subsequent marriage. The court papers from 1939 may still exist in Edinburgh. Regards, Mark, Genealogist: Clan Sutherland Co-Genealogist: Clan Mackenzie Professional Genealogist specialising in the Highlands and 18th century see my web-site: http://www.highland-family-heritage.co.uk ----- Original Message ----- From: <ScotHeritage@aol.com> To: <SCT-INVERNESS-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2000 7:49 PM Subject: Re: [SCT-INV-L] Irregular Marriage Question > In a message dated 15/05/00 12:49:43 PM Central Daylight Time, > mackenzi@cytanet.com.cy writes: > > << Hello all, > > In paragraph 6 of an extract of marriages, my G Grandfather's certificate is > signed "Warrant of Sheriff Substitute of Inverness Elgin and Nairn dated 6th > Sep 1939" (the date is the same date as the marriage). > > I presume that this was an irregular marriage. Can anyone assist on this at > all ie. what is the definition of an irregular marriage, does the fact that > it has been signed by the Sheriff signify that he has been a "naughty boy "? > > Many thanks for your help > > Alan Mackenzie > >> > Scotland was at war in 1939 perhaps they were military which made the > marriage irregular in as much as times of bands etc., may of been eased. The > Sheriff in Scotland is different from in the US. more involved in the > collection of fees taxes and tariffs. > DaveM. > >