Queer Marriages.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 685, 4 November 1876, Page 2 (Supplement)

Queer Marriages.

Marma-GES en chemise, or iv a while sheet, have from time to time becu celebrated. The following is au instance: — ' A few days ago a handsome, well-dressed young woman came to a church iv Whitehavea to be married to a man who was attending there with a clergyman. When she had advanced a little into the church, a nymph, her bridesmaid, bej;au to undress her, and by degrees stript her to her shift ; thus was she led, blooming and unadorned to the altar, where the marriage ceremony was performed It seems this droll wedding was occasioned by an embarrassment in the affairs of the intended husband, upon which account the girl was advised to do this, that he might be entitled to no | other marriage portion than her smock.'— [Annual Register, 1766; Chronicle, p. 106.] Ihe motive, however, for the adoption of this strange bridal garb was evidently that the wife's property might not be seized by the husband's creditors to pay "his own j debts. See, also, Jeafferson's • Jirides and Bridals,' (vol. ii, p. 93), where the author gives the following elucidation of the custom : — " it being a legal doctrine. Laid down in Bacon's ' Abridgement,' that a husband was answerable for his wife's debts, ' because he acquired an absolute interest in her personal estate,' it was inferred by the pppulace that if he acquired no pro- , perty with her, he could not be com- ' polled to satisfy the claims of her creditors" —an explanation which equ illy meets the cases cited from the \ nnual Register ; for if the man acquired no property with his wife, it is plain that there would be no more for , his creditors to lay their hands upon after than before his marriage. i In his list of ' Various Vulgar Enors,' Brand (Pop. Anfciq., vol. iii, p. ' •280, Bonn's cd.) includes the following : — ' When a man designs to marry a woman who is in debt, if he takes her from the hands of the priest, clothed only in her shift, it is supposed that ho-, will not be liable to her engagements.' f this custom I have mot with two examples : ' An extraordinary method was adopted by a brewer's servant, in February, 1723, to prevent his liability for the payment of the debts of Mrs. I tfrittain, whom he intended to marry, j The lady made her appearence at the ' iloor ot -t. Clement Danes, habited in , her shift ; hence her inamorata con- j veyed the modest pair to a neighboring i ipothecary's, where she was completely ' equipped with clothing purchaser!, "by him ; and in these Mrs. Brit tain, •hanged her name at the church.' — » [Malcom's Anecdotes of London, p. 332. Wood, in 'The Wedding Day iv all j Ages and Countries' states .. — * In • Lincolnshire, between 1833 and 1811, j wo man was married enveloped in a' sheet. And not many years back a | iimilar marriage took place, the clergyman, finding nothiug in the rubric i ibouttho woman's dress, thought he ' could not refuse to marry her .in her oheiniae only.' Q-oocgo Walker, linon woavei, and Mary G-oe, of the ' George md Dragon,' on Q-orton Green, widow, were ln.imod at the ancient chapel close by, on June 23, 1738. bhe was in her ' shi t' sleeves during the ceremony, believing that would, make her j r'ree from her dehts. Nathan Adier i married Widow Hibbert with only a smock on, (for the same reason) at the old church m the adjoining parish of Ashtonunder, Lyne, on Maroi 7, 1771.