Charles Baghurst & Hannah Davis at Blakeney (General)

by Paul Andrews , Shropshire, England, Monday, March 09, 2009, 10:48 (5811 days ago) @ Bobaus

As they were married 'with the Consent of Parents',I assume that they were minors.

I have a marriage in 1833 by J H Malpas at Awre where it states 'with the Consent of Parents'. The man was born 1791, his father died 1816 and his mother 1808. The woman was born 1787. I wouldn't call this pair minors!

Before Hardwicke's Marriage Act of 1753 there was no lower legal age of marriage, except during the 1650s when it was sixteen for 'men' and fourteen for 'women'. In 1753 it was fixed at fourteen for men and twelve for women, and remained at those ages until the Age of Marriage Act in 1929, which raised it to sixteen for both.