CURIOSITIES OF MARRIAGE STATISTICS.

Evening Star, Issue 3274, 18 August 1873, Page 3

CURIOSITIES OF MARRIAGE STATISTICS.

Out of ihe 181,655 marriages solemnised in 1870, 148.848 were between bachelors and spinsters, 8,134 between bachelors and widows, 15,366 between widowers and spinsters, and 9,307 between widowers and widows. There were, therefore, 164,214 spinsters and 156,982 bachelors married, and 24,673 widowers and 17,441 widows re-married in 1870, showing that the disposition and ability to marry again are much greater in men than in women. In 34 instances, one or other of the parties had been previously divorced. Twenty of these were men and 14 women—l 9 divorced men marrying spinsters, and 1 divorced man a widow, while ten bachelors and four widowers mated with divorced women. In the ten years—lß6l-70—six divorced men married each a divorced woman. Two of these marriages took place in 1869, but in 1870 there was no instance of the kind recorded. In the statistics relating to the ages of the persons married is material enough for a long dissertation, but a few particulars only must here suffice. In a great many instances the exact ago is not recorded, the words “ of full age,” “ minor,” or “ under age,” being entered instead; but in the 127,040 cases, that is, about 70 per cent., the precise ages of both parties are noted, and they furnish the data for a couple of pages of most interesting tables. The average ages of the men married in 1870 was, it appears, 27*9 years, that of the women was 25-7. The mean age of the widowers was 42*6, and of widows 38-8, that of bachelors being 25’8, and of spinsters 24*4. In eleven instances the husbands were from 80 to 85 years old ; ene of these gentlemen married a lady of fourscore, two others taking wives of between 30 and 35. One old lady, after leading a life of spinsterhood for more than 70 years, became the bride of an old gentleman of over 75, of whom it is only right to add, that he, too, had never before participated in the joys and sorrows of matrimony. Another elderly spinster of over 65 induced a bachelor of about 30 to make her his wife ; and two widows of 70 married husbands of 40 and 65 respectively, while three more sought for connubial bliss by alliances with widows of, in one case, 55, and in the other two cases, of more than 70 years. The most striking instances of disparity of age are those of old men marrying young girls. In one case a widower of 60 married a girl of 15, and another of 75 a spinster of 21. The eagerness displayed by the female

portion of the community for marrying early is exemplified by the fact that the number under 21 who married in 1870 was 32,971, the newly-made husbands of the same age being but 12,448. Among the females 36 wore fifteen years of age only, 289 were sixteen, 1,602 seventeen, 5,267 eighteen, 11,033 nineteen, and 14,044 twenty ; among the males 7 were sixteen years old, 64 seventeen, 720 eighteen,*3,393 nineteen, and 8,264 twenty. One widow of sixteen, 2 of nineteen, and 6 of twenty, married husbands of from twenty-one to thirty-five; and a widower of nineteen took a second spouse in the person of a spinster of twenty-one. The lack of education is apparent when we say that 19.8 per cent, of the men, and 27.3 of the women married in 1870 signed the marriage register by mark; but even this is a great improvement upon the state of things thirty years ago, when 41 per cent, of the people married signed the register with their marks instead of their names. It is supposed, however, that from nervousness some only make their mark who are capable of signing. —Echo.