both cases the marriage must take place between eight and twelve in the SOLEMNISATION forenoon, the doors of the building or office being open. OF MARRIAGE. 1 & 2. Stat. 3 & 4 Vict. c. 72. ss. In what case a marriage may be solemnised out of the dis dwell. By stat. 3 & 4 Vict. c. 72. ss. 1 & 2. no superintendent registrar is to give any certificate of notice of marriage where the building in which the marriage is to be solemnised, as stated in the notice, shall not be within the district wherein one of the parties shall have dwelt for the requisite time. But if the party intending marriage indorses on his notice the religious appellation of the body of Christians to which he belongs, and the forms which the trict in which parties wish to adopt in marrying, and that there is not within the district the parties in which one of the parties dwells any registered building in which marriage is solemnised according to such form, as well as the nearest district in which there is such a registered building, then, after the expiration of seven or twenty-one days, as the case may be, the superintendent registrar may issue his certificate, and the marriage may be solemnised in such building. The truth of the facts so to be indorsed need not be proved in support of the marriage, nor is evidence to the contrary admissible. 4. c. 85. ss. 14. 16, 15. & 17. By stat. 6 & 7 Gul. 4. c. 85. s. 14. no marriage (unless by licence to be Stat. 6 & 7 Gul. granted by the superintendent registrar) is to be solemnised until after the expiration of twenty-one days after the day of the entry of the notice; and no marriage is to be solemnised by such licence until after the expiration of seven days. (1) Time of solemnisation. Marriages not to be solem. nised until after days after entry of notice, unless by licence. Superintendent By sect. 16. the superintendent's certificate, or (in case the parties shall have given notice to different superintendents) the certificate of each is to be delivered to the officiating minister, if the marriage is to be according to the rites of the Church of England; the certificate or licence is to be delivered to the registering officer of the Quakers for the place where the marriage is solemnised, if it be according to the usages of that people; or to the officer of a synagogue by whom the marriage is solemnised, if ac- licence to be decording to the usages of the Jews; and in all other cases to the registrar present at the marriage. By sect. 15., if the marriage be not had within three calendar months after the notice entered by the superintendent registrar, the notice and certificate, and any licence which may have been granted thereupon, and all other proceedings, will be utterly void. (2) By sect. 17. the superintendent registrar may, subject to the approval of the board of guardians, appoint registrars to be present at marriages; and the number of such registrars and their qualifications may be fixed by the registrar general. (3) They hold their offices at the pleasure of the superintendent registrar, or registrar general. (4) registrar's certificate or livered to the person, by or before whom, the marriage is solemnised. When notice, certificate, and licence to be void. Superintendent registrar may appoint regis trars of mar riages. REGISTER AND 9. REGISTER AND CERTIFICATE OF MARRIAGE UNDER STAT. 6 & 7 UNDER STAT. 6 & 7 GUL. 4. cc. 85 & 86. Certificate of marriage by clergyman. By registrars. FORMS UNDER All marriages are now to be registered according to the enactments of stat. 6 & 7 Gul. 4. cc. 85. & 86. (1) Marriages performed in chapels, licensed by the bishop, are subject to the same regulations as those performed in parish churches. (2) By the new registration acts the rector, vicar, or curate of every church or chapel in England is, in April, July, October, and January in every year, to deliver to the superintendent registrar of his district, certified copies of the entries of marriages in his register book. (3) It is also the duty of the registrars of dissenters' marriages to send certified copies of the marriage register books quarterly to the superintendent registrar, who is himself to verify, and if found correct, to certify the same under his hand to be a true copy (4); and the same rule is obligatory on the registering officer of the society of Quakers, and on the secretaries of Jewish synagogues. (5) A certificate of marriage is liable, under the Stamp Act of 55 Geo. 3. c. 184., to a stamp duty of 5s.; but a certified copy of, or extract from the parish register of marriages does not come within the description of "certificate of marriage." On such copies or extracts no stamp duty is chargeable by whomsoever they may be signed or given. 10. FORMS UNDER Stat. 6 & 7 GUL. 4. c. 85. Schedule (A.) Rank Profession. Residence. Church or Building in which Marriage is to be solemnised. James Smith Widower Carpenter Of full 16, High 23 Days Sion Chapel District and County in which the other Party resides when the Parties dwell in different Districts. Martha Green Spinster Age "[The italics in this schedule to be filled up as the case may (1) Vide etiam stat. 6 & 7 Gul. 4. c. 86. ss. 30, 51. 33, and schedule (C), and stat. 7 Gul. 4. & 1 Vict. c. 22. s. 25. (2) Stat. 4 Geo. 4. c. 76. ss. 3, 4, & 5. Stat. 6 & 7 Gul. 4. c. 85. s. 30. be.] (3) Vide stat. 6 & 7 Gul. 4. c. 86. & $3. Stat. 7 Gul. 4. & 1 Vict. c. 22. s. 26–31. (4) Vide stat. 6 & 7 Gul, 4. c. 85. & 24. 7 Gul. 4. & 1 Vict. c. 22. s. 26. (5) Stat. 6 & 7 Gul. 4. c. 86. s. 3S. No. 14. FORMS UNDER STAT. 6 & 7 GUL. 4. c. 85. "Schedule (B). "Registrar's Certificate. "I, John Cox, registrar of the district of Stepney, in the county of Middlesex, do hereby certify, that on the sixth day of May notice was duly entered in the marriage notice book of the said district, of the marriage intended between the parties therein named and described, delivered under the hand of James Smith, one of the parties; (that is to say,) James Smith Widower Carpenter Of full 16, High 23 Days Sion Chapel Age Street. District and County in which the other Party dwells where the Parties dwell in different Martha Green Spinster "Date of notice entered, 6th May, 1837. "Date of certificate given, 27th May, 1837. The issue of this certificate has not been "Witness my hand this twenty-seventh day of May, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven. "This certificate will be void unless the marriage is solemnised on or before the sixth day of August, 1837. “[The italics in this schedule to be filled up as the case may be.] "Whereas ye are minded, as it is said, to enter into a contract of marriage under the provisions of an act made in the seventh year of the reign of his majesty King William the Fourth, intituled [here insert the title of this act], and are desirous that the same may be speedily and publicly solemnised; and whereas you C.D. [or you E.F.] have made and subscribed a declaration under your hand that you believe there is no impediment of kindred or alliance, or other lawful hindrance to the said marriage, and that you, C.D. [or E.F.] have [or has] had your [or his or her] usual place of abode for the space of fifteen days last past within the dis FORMS UNDER GEL. 4. c. 85. trict of [ A.B., superintendent registrar. "Schedule (D). “I, John Cox, registrar of the district of Stepney, in the county of Middlesex, do hereby certify that this is a true copy of the entries of marriage registered in the said district from the entry of the marriage of John Wood and Ann Simpson, number One, to the entry of the marriage of James Smith and Martha Green, number Fourteen. Witness my hand this first day of July, 1837. "[The italics in this schedule to be filled up as the case may be.]" MARRIAGE 11. MARRIAGE FEES. No fee is due to the clergyman of common right for performing the marriage ceremony. In a canon of Archbishop Langton (1) it is directed "We do firmly enjoin that no sacrament of the church (2) shall be denied (3) to any one upon the account of any sum of money (4), nor shall matrimony be hindered therefore (5); because, if anything hath been accustomed to be given (6) by the pious devotion of the faithful, we will that (1) Lyndwood, Prov. Const. Ang. 278. was one. (3) Shall be denied:- Or delayed. Lyndwood, Prov. Const. Ang. 278. (4) Upon the account of any sum of money: - Vide ante, 215. in not. (5) Nor shall matrimony be hindered therefore-But by the rubric, in the office of matrimony, at the time of delivering the ring, the man is then to lay down the accustomed duty to the priest and clerk: but whether the minister is bound to proceed in case such duty be refused, does not appear from any rubric or canon. (6) Hath been accustomed to be given:Vide ante, 127. in not. Lyndwood, Prov. Const. Ang. 279. justice be done thereupon to the churches by the ordinary of the place. afterwards." Marriage fees seem at the common law to be recoverable in such places and cases only where there is a custom for the payment thereof upon performance of the duty. Mr. Johnson (1) says, it was an ancient custom that marriage should be performed in no other church but that to which the woman belonged as a parishioner; and therefore, to this day, the ecclesiastical law allows a fee due to the curate of that church, whether she be married there or not. And this fee was expressly reserved for him by the words of the licence, according to the old form, which is not yet disused in all dioceses. But it is said that judgment hath been otherwise given in the temporal courts. In Thompson v. Davenport (2) the plaintiff, in his libel, set forth a custom in the parish of Ellington, in Derbyshire, that of every woman who is a parishioner, and dwells there, and marries with a licence, the husband at the time of the marriage, or soon after, shall pay to the vicar five shillings as an accustomed fee, and so brought his case within that custom: the defendant, however, suggested for a prohibition that all customs are triable at common law, and that the plaintiff had libelled against him, setting forth the custom as aforesaid; and a prohibition was granted. 66 Sir William Blackstone says, that of common right no fee is due to the minister for performing such branches of his duty, and that such a fee can only be supported by special custom; but no custom can support the demand of a fee without his performing the duty. (3) Thus, it was held in Patten v. Castleman (4) that the claim of a vicar for a fee on the wedding of one of his parishioners in the church of another parish could not be maintained; the general principle of law being, that where no service is done no fee is by law due. Anciently," says Sir George Lee, "no fee was demandable for marriage, but only a voluntary offering was made of what sum the party married thought fit to give, which appears from Lyndwood (5), in these words: Quia quidam maledictionis filii in nubentium solemniis, purificationibus mulierum, mortuorum exequiis, et aliis in quibus ipse Dominus in ministrorum suorum personis solebat oblationum libamine populariter honorari ad unius denarii vel alterius modicæ quantitatis oblationem, populi devotionem restringere moliti sunt, residuum oblationis fidelium suis pro libito vel alienis usibus multoties applicantes;' therefore excommunicating the instigators. And Lynd. Gloss. verb. Nubentium solemniis sets forth the times when it was lawful to marry, and when not; and therefore the Constitution must speak of offerings for marriages actually performed. If then no law has established a fee for actual marriage, it can be demandable only by custom; and, accordingly, Watson's Clergyman's Law (6) says, Accustomary payments for marriages, christenings, churchings, and burials properly belong to the parson or vicar of the church where they are made, and are recoverable by law where there is a custom for the pay (1) Canons 188, 189. (2) Lutw. 1059.; vide etiam Naylor t. v. Scott, 2 Ld. Raym. 1558. (3) 3 Black. Com. 90. St. David's (Bishop of) v. Lucy, 1 Ld. Raym. 450. Naylor q. t. v. Scott, 2 ibid. 1558. 1 Barnard. 159. (4) 1 Lee (Sir G.), 387. (5) Lib. 3. tit. 16. c. "Quia quidam." MARRIAGE FEES. Judgment of in Patten v. Castleman. |