The Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act 1907 ( 7 Edw. 7. c. 47) was an Act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace ...

, allowing a man to marry his dead wife's sister, which had previously been forbidden. This prohibition had derived from a doctrine of

canon law Canon law (from , , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical jurisdiction, ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its membe ...

whereby those who were connected by

marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

were regarded as being related to each other in a way which made marriage between them improper.

Legal background

Prohibited degree of kinship for marriage included relatives by blood (

consanguinity Consanguinity (from Latin '':wikt: consanguinitas, consanguinitas'' 'blood relationship') is the characteristic of having a kinship with a relative who is descended from a common ancestor. Many jurisdictions have laws prohibiting people who are ...

) to prevent

incest Incest ( ) is sexual intercourse, sex between kinship, close relatives, for example a brother, sister, or parent. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by lineag ...

, and extended to relatives by marriage (

affinity Affinity may refer to: Commerce, finance and law * Affinity (law), kinship by marriage * Affinity analysis, a market research and business management technique * Affinity Credit Union, a Saskatchewan-based credit union * Affinity Equity Pa ...

) apparently reflecting an analogous

taboo A taboo is a social group's ban, prohibition or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, offensive, sacred or allowed only for certain people.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...

, or the idea that a married couple were " one flesh". Originally, marriage was a matter of

in the United Kingdom and its predecessor kingdoms of

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, and

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. Before the

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

, the affinity rules of

Catholic canon law The canon law of the Catholic Church () is "how the Church organizes and governs herself". It is the system of religious laws and ecclesiastical legal principles made and enforced by the hierarchical authorities of the Catholic Church to regul ...

applied, which since the Council of Elvira had regarded a deceased wife's sister as within the prohibited degrees, which could be exempted only by matrimonial dispensation from the

pope The pope is the bishop of Rome and the Head of the Church#Catholic Church, visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the po ...

. The Reformation saw all three kingdoms replace the Catholic prohibitions with ones based on the incest prohibitions of Leviticus 18: in England by the Marriage Act 1540 and Matthew Parker's 1563 "Table of Kindred and Affinity", both later adopted in Ireland, and in Scotland by the Marriage Act 1567, the Scots Confession 1560 and the Westminster Confession of Faith 1646. In Scotland, while the Confession absolutely prohibited marrying one's deceased wife's sister, the 1567 Act did not, causing some uncertainty. In 1889 Arthur Elliot introduced a bill to clarify this but it was defeated as superfluous, since the Confession had been adopted by statute. In the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

and

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland (, ; , ) is a Christian church in Ireland, and an autonomy, autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the Christianity in Ireland, second-largest Christian church on the ...

, a marriage within the prohibited degrees was not absolutely void ab initio but it was

voidable Voidable, in law, is a transaction or action that is valid but may be annulled by one of the parties to the transaction. Voidable is usually used in distinction to void ''ab initio'' (or void from the outset) and unenforceable. Definition The a ...

at the suit in

ecclesiastical court In organized Christianity, an ecclesiastical court, also called court Christian or court spiritual, is any of certain non-adversarial courts conducted by church-approved officials having jurisdiction mainly in spiritual or religious matters. Histo ...

of any interested party. Matthew Boulton married his deceased wife's sister in 1760. He advised ''silence, secrecy and

'', although they married in London; the marriage was opposed by her brother. Similarly Charles Austen, the younger brother of

Jane Austen Jane Austen ( ; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for #List of works, her six novels, which implicitly interpret, critique, and comment on the English landed gentry at the end of the 18th century ...

, married his deceased wife's sister in 1820 and remained married to her until he died in 1852.

1830s changes

As long as both spouses of a voidable marriage lived, their children had the uncertain prospect of being made bastards by the voiding of the marriage. This prompted John Copley, 1st Baron Lyndhurst to introduce "Lord Lyndhurst's Act", later the Marriage Act 1835 ( 5 & 6 Will. 4. c. 54), which hardened the English and Irish law into an absolute prohibition, so that from then on such marriages could no longer take place in the

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the union of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into one sovereign state, established by the Acts of Union 1800, Acts of Union in 1801. It continued in this form until ...

and colonies at all. However, such marriages which had already taken place were validated. After 1835 a marriage between a widower and his late wife's sister was still recognised in the United Kingdom if it took place abroad where it was lawful. For example, the painters William Holman Hunt and John Collier married the sisters of their deceased wives in, respectively, Switzerland and Norway. However, this was only possible for those who could afford to travel abroad; moreover, in 1861 the House of Lords ruled in '' Brook v. Brook'' that one spouse had to be domiciled in the jurisdiction of the wedding. While the Marriage Act 1836 allowed for civil marriage in a register office, the prohibitions of affinity remained unaffected. An 1848 parliamentary inquiry concluded that the Marriage Act 1835 had not appreciably diminished the number of putative marriages within the prohibited degrees. Its survey of part of England found 1364 such marriages since 1835 — more than 90% with a deceased wife's sister — compared with only 88 planned marriages prevented by the Act, of whom 32 couples remained in "open

cohabitation Cohabitation is an arrangement where people who are not legally married live together as a couple. They are often involved in a Romance (love), romantic or Sexual intercourse, sexually intimate relationship on a long-term or permanent basis. ...

Campaigns

In 1842 a ''Marriage to a Deceased Wife's Sister Bill'' was introduced, and defeated by strong opposition. "Although seemingly a minor skirmish, thad far-ranging implications and was fought on the political scene almost annually for most of the Victorian period". Peter Ferriday observed in his biography of Edmund Beckett, 1st Baron Grimthorpe: "Was there a single eminent Victorian who did not at some time or other announce his views on the 'deceased wife's sister'? She was the teething ring of all Victorian controversialists...". The topic was a main point in several novels: Felicia Skene's 1849 ''The Inheritance of Evil; or, the Consequences of Marrying a Deceased Wife's Sister'' opposed change, while Dinah Craik's ''Hannah'' (1871) and William Clark Russell's ''The Deceased Wife's Sister'' (1874, published anonymously) supported change. Craik had accompanied Edith Waugh to her Swiss wedding with her sister Fanny's widower William Holman Hunt. Widowers' desires to marry their sisters-in-law became the subject of particular agitation from the 1860s onward, and strong feelings were roused on both sides. However, it was to be nearly 50 years before the campaign for a change in the law was successful, despite the introduction of draft legislation in Parliament on many occasions. The lengthy nature of the campaign was referred to in the Gilbert and Sullivan opera '' Iolanthe'' (1882), in which the Queen of the Fairies sings "He shall prick that annual blister, marriage with deceased wife's sister". Near the end of

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Literary realism, Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry ...

's novel ''

Tess of the d'Urbervilles ''Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman'' is the twelfth published novel by English author Thomas Hardy. It initially appeared in a Book censorship, censored and Serialized novel, serialised version, published by the British illustrated newsp ...

'' (1891), Tess suggests that after her death, her husband Angel should marry her younger sister Liza-Lu; at the time the novel was set and published, such a marriage would have been illegal in England. In 1855, a year after resigning as Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria, Charles La Trobe married his deceased Swiss wife's sister in Neuchâtel. This ended his prospects of further public office, although he was made Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1858. After Stella Duckworth's 1897 death, her husband John Hills courted her half-sister Vanessa Stephen , but Stella's brother George Herbert Duckworth pressed them to break up, given that the 1835 Act prohibited their marrying. Edward Marjoribanks, 2nd Baron Tweedmouth, told the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

in 1907: :Between 1851 and 1889 you rejected the Deceased Wife's Sister Bill thirteen times. In 1883 you read it a second time, and in 1896, on the Motion of Lord Dunraven, it was read a second time by a majority of 38, the figures being 142 to 104; and the Bill was in that year passed through your Lordships' House to suffer extinction in the other House. In the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

, during the fifty-eight years between 1849 and this year, the Deceased Wife's Sister Bill was carried by large majorities nineteen times.

Colonies

Although the 1835 Act applied throughout the

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

, it was among the class of laws which the Colonial Laws Validity Act 1865 allowed colonies with

responsible government Responsible government is a conception of a system of government that embodies the principle of parliamentary accountability, the foundation of the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy. Governments (the equivalent of the executive br ...

to amend. Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Acts were passed by the Australian colonies in the 1870s, and by the Dominion of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

in 1882. Although British law recognised foreign marriages, it was unclear, until the passage of the Colonial Marriages (Deceased Wife's Sister) Act 1906, whether such colonial marriages would be recognised within the United Kingdom.

1907 act

The Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act 1907 ( 7 Edw. 7. c. 47) removed the prohibition while providing savers for various existing laws, some to placate opposition of the

Lords Spiritual The Lords Spiritual are the bishops of the Church of England who sit in the House of Lords of the United Kingdom. Up to 26 of the 42 diocesan bishops and archbishops of the Church of England serve as Lords Spiritual (not including retired bish ...

(Church of England bishops). The Bill was introduced as a

private member's bill A private member's bill is a bill (proposed law) introduced into a legislature by a legislator who is not acting on behalf of the executive branch. The designation "private member's bill" is used in most Westminster system jurisdictions, in wh ...

by William Brampton Gurdon, a backbencher of the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

, which was then in government. The government belatedly decided to support the Bill, which David G. Barrie sees as evidence of its commitment to social reform and willingness to take on the Lords, foreshadowing the Parliament Act 1911.

Provisions

Section 1 of the act removed the affinity between a man and his deceased wife's sister as grounds for annulment of a past or future marriage. It allowed a

clergyman to refuse to officiate at such a wedding, and to nominate a substitute clergyman of the same

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

to officiate in his stead. Past marriages of such affinity would remain null, notwithstanding the change in law, if they had already been annulled or either spouse had subsequently married someone else. Section 2 provided that inheritance rights and obligations would not be changed by the validation of past marriages under the Act. Section 3 provided that the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857 would be unaffected; adultery with one's wife's sister remained grounds for divorce proceedings, and a man was still forbidden from marrying his divorced wife's sister. Section 4 retained the liability to ecclesiastical censure of a Church of England clergyman who married his deceased wife's sister. Section 5 provided that the provisions applied to

half-sister A sibling is a relative that shares at least one parent with the other person. A male sibling is a brother, and a female sibling is a sister. A person with no siblings is an only child. While some circumstances can cause siblings to be raise ...

s. Section 6 assigned the Act's

short title In certain jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom and other Westminster system, Westminster-influenced jurisdictions (such as Canada or Australia), as well as the United States and the Philippines, primary legislation has both a short title an ...

Case law

The 1907 refusal of Holy Communion by the

vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English p ...

of Eaton, Norfolk, to a

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

ioner legally married to his deceased wife's sister was overruled in 1908 by the statement of the Arches Court (a ruling upheld in 1912 by the House of Lords) that section 1 of the 1907 Act meant the Sacrament Act 1547 no longer applied to such spouses. The will of a man who died in 1902 specified that income from his investments would be paid to his widow until her remarriage. The income continued after her invalid 1904 remarriage to her deceased sister's widower. In 1911, Robert Parker ruled that, although s. 1 of the 1907 Act validated the 1904 marriage, s. 2 prevented termination of the 1902 income. A putative widow died shortly after the 1907 enactment. A son from her late husband's first marriage to her sister died

intestate Intestacy is the condition of the estate of a person who dies without a legally valid will, resulting in the distribution of their estate under statutory intestacy laws rather than by their expressed wishes. Alternatively this may also apply ...

in 1911. Later that year, Thomas Warrington ruled that the widow's children were entitled to the same share of their half-brother's estate as his full siblings. If one was forbidden from marrying someone even after one's current spouse died, then sex with them while one's current spouse lived was considered to constitute the crime of incest under the Scottish Marriage Act 1567, and considered grounds for divorce under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857. As regards sex with one's living wife's sister, the Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act 1907 explicitly preserved the 1857 position but was silent on the 1567 position. A 1913 decision of the High Court of Justiciary held that such sex, though still adulterous, was no longer incestuous under the 1907 act.''Solicitor-General v AB'
1914 SC(J) 38
/ref> Where settlement funds were to be held in trust for the children of A as well by B as by every and any future wife he might marry, and A, after the death of B, by whom he had three children who all attained 21 in his lifetime, went through the form of marriage with the sister of his dead wife and had three children by her, and subsequently s. 1 of the 1907 Act legalized that marriage. In 1922, Frank Russell held that the effect of s. 2 was to provide that rights of property existing at the date of that marriage were not to be altered or interfered with, and that accordingly the children of the second marriage took no share of the settlement funds.

Subsequent legislation

The 1907 Act did exactly what it said and no more. It was amended by the Deceased Brother's Widow's Marriage Act 1921 to allow a widow to marry her deceased husband's brother. This was a response to First World War deaths to encourage remarriages, reducing war widows' pensions and increasing the birth rate. In

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

, section 3 of the 1907 Act was repealed by the Supreme Court of Judicature (Consolidation) Act 1925. The Marriage (Prohibited Degrees) Relationship Act 1931 extended the operation of the 1907 Act to allow the marriages of nieces and nephews by marriage as well. Section 4 of the 1907 Act was rendered moot in 1944, when the

Convocations of Canterbury and York The Convocations of Canterbury and York are the synodical assemblies of the bishops and clergy of each of the two provinces which comprise the Church of England. Their origins go back to the ecclesiastical reorganisation carried out under Archb ...

voted to align the Church of England prohibited degrees with the civil law. In

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the Law of the United Kingdom#Legal jurisdictions, three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. Th ...

the 1907, 1921, and 1931 Acts were repealed and consolidated by the Marriage Act 1949.12, 13 & 14 Geo. 6 c. 76
ss. 79 and 80, Schedules 5 and 6 In Scotland they were repealed the Marriage (Enabling) Act 1960 ( 8 & 9 Eliz. 2. c. 29), which also permitted marriage in Great Britain with a relative of a former spouse who was divorced rather than deceased.1960 c. 29
/ref> The prohibition on marriage with a divorced wife's sister is the crux of the plot of Cyril Hare's 1949 novel ''When the Wind Blows''. In 1947 the House of Lords personal bill committee rejected a petition from a couple for a private act of Parliament exempting them from this prohibition. In

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

, the Parliament of Northern Ireland passed the Deceased Brother's Widow's Marriage Act (Northern Ireland) 1924 to remove doubts as to the application of the 1921 act there. Section 3 of the 1907 Act was repealed by the Matrimonial Causes Act (Northern Ireland) 1939. The provisions of the 1931 and 1960 Acts regarding nieces and nephews in Great Britain were replicated for Northern Ireland in 1949 and 1978Matrimonial Causes (Northern Ireland) Order 1978
I 1984 No. 1045 (N.I. 15)Art. 61 Sch. 5 respectively. The 1978 statute repealed the 1939 Act and replaced the others. A 1984 statute replaced the 1978 statute, and repealed it and the earlier unrepealed ones.Family Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Northern Ireland) Order 1984
I 1984 No. 1984 (N.I. 14)Art. 21 Sch. 3 In Republic of Ireland law the 1907 Act has not been amended since 1921, amendments made by Westminster subsequent to the coming into force of the Constitution of the Irish Free State being held not to apply. In 1984, the Law Reform Commission recommended abolishing all restrictions based on affinity as opposed to consanguinity. In 2006, ruling in favour of a woman wishing to marry her divorced husband's brother, the High Court found section 3(2) of the 1907 Act as amended by the 1921 Act was incompatible with the

Constitution of Ireland The Constitution of Ireland (, ) is the constitution, fundamental law of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It asserts the national sovereignty of the Irish people. It guarantees certain fundamental rights, along with a popularly elected non-executi ...

since the 1996 legalisation of divorce. Other degrees of affinity remain prohibited in law, although jurist Maebh Harding suggests a case similar to 2006 would find them unconstitutional.

Sources

;Primary: * * ''

Hansard ''Hansard'' is the transcripts of parliamentary debates in Britain and many Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries. It is named after Thomas Curson Hansard (1776–1833), a London printer and publisher, who was the first official printe ...

'' index: *
Marriage with a Deceased Wife's Sister Bill
*
Deceased Wife's Sister Bill
*
Deceased Wife's Sister Act
*
Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act 1907
;Secondary: * * * * * * * *