A Fleet Marriage was a common example of an irregular or a

clandestine marriage Clandestinity is a diriment impediment in the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church. It invalidates a marriage performed without the presence of three witnesses, one of whom must be a priest or a deacon. History It was promulgated in the 16th ...

taking place in England before the

Marriage Act 1753 The Clandestine Marriages Act 1753, also called the Marriage Act 1753, long title "An Act for the Better Preventing of Clandestine Marriage", popularly known as Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act (citation 26 Geo. II. c. 33), was the first statutory ...

came into force on March 25, 1754. Specifically, it was one which took place in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

's Fleet Prison or its environs during the 17th and, especially, the early 18th century.

Irregular and clandestine marriages

An " irregular" marriage was one that took place either away from the home parish of the spouses (but after

banns The banns of marriage, commonly known simply as the "banns" or "bans" (from a Middle English word meaning "proclamation", rooted in Frankish and thence in Old French), are the public announcement in a Christian parish church, or in the town co ...

licence A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

), or at an improper time. "Clandestine" marriages were those that had an element of secrecy to them: perhaps they took place away from a home parish, and without either banns or marriage licence. It is often asserted, mistakenly, that under

English law English law is the common law legal system of England and Wales, comprising mainly criminal law and civil law, each branch having its own courts and procedures. Principal elements of English law Although the common law has, historically, b ...

of this period a marriage could be recognized as valid if each spouse had simply expressed (to each other) an unconditional consent to their marriage. While, with few local exceptions, earlier Christian marriages across Europe were by mutual consent, declaration of intention to marry and upon the subsequent physical union of the parties,Excerpt from Marriage, Sex, and Civic Culture in Late Medieval London
"the sacramental bond of marriage could be made only through the freely given consent of both parties." in 1563 the

Council of Trent The Council of Trent ( la, Concilium Tridentinum), held between 1545 and 1563 in Trent (or Trento), now in northern Italy, was the 19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation, it has been described a ...

, twenty-fourth session, required that a valid marriage must be performed by a priest before two witnesses. By the 18th century, the earlier form of consent-based marriages ("

common-law marriage Common-law marriage, also known as non-ceremonial marriage, marriage, informal marriage, or marriage by habit and repute, is a legal framework where a couple may be considered married without having formally registered their relation as a civi ...

s" in modern terms) were the exception. Nearly all marriages in England, including the "irregular" and "clandestine" ones, were performed by ordained clergy. The

Marriage Duty Act 1695 The Marriage Duty Act 1695, also known as the Registration Tax, was a 1695 Act of the Parliament of England which imposed a tax on births, marriages, burials, childless widowers, and bachelors over the age of 25. It was primarily used as a reven ...

put an end to irregular marriages at parochial churches by penalizing clergy who married couples without banns or licence. By a legal quirk, however, clergy operating in the Fleet could not effectively be proceeded against, and the clandestine marriage business there carried on. In the 1740s, over half of all London weddings were taking place in the environs of the Fleet Prison. The majority of Fleet marriages were for honest purposes, when couples simply wanted to get married quickly or at low cost. From 1742 to 1754 a large number of such marriages were also conducted at

Keith's Chapel Keith's Chapel, also known as Mr Keith's Chapel and the May Fair Chapel, was a private chapel in Curzon Street, Mayfair, Westminster, operated by the 18th century Church of England clergyman Alexander Keith. Keith had been the first incumbent of ...

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...

, by the Rev. Alexander Keith.

Fleet Prison

The earliest recorded date of a Fleet Marriage is 1613 (although there were probably earlier ones), while the earliest recorded in a Fleet Register took place in 1674. As a prison, the Fleet was claimed to be outside the jurisdiction of the church. The prison warders took a share of the profit, even though a statute of 1711 imposed fines upon them for doing so: it only moved the clandestine marriage trade outside the prison. There were, in fact, so many debtors that many lived in the area outside the prison (itself a lawless area which operated under the "rules of the Fleet"). Disgraced clergy (and many who pretended to be clergy) lived there, and marriage houses or

tavern A tavern is a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food such as different types of roast meats and cheese, and (mostly historically) where travelers would receive lodging. An inn is a tavern t ...

s carried on the trade, encouraged by local tavern-keepers in the neighbourhood who employed

tout A tout is any person who solicits business or employment in a persistent and annoying manner (generally equivalent to a ''solicitor'' or '' barker'' in American English, or a '' spruiker'' in Australian English). An example would be a person wh ...

s to solicit custom for them. There were also many clerks who made money recording the ceremonies. During the 1740s, up to 6,000 marriages a year were taking place in the Fleet area, compared with 47,000 in England as a whole. One estimate suggests that there were between 70 and 100 clergy working in the Fleet area between 1700 and 1753. It was not merely a marriage centre for criminals and the poor, however: both rich and poor availed themselves of the opportunity to marry quickly or in secret.

Marriage Act 1753

The scandal and abuses brought about by these clandestine marriages became so great that they became the object of special legislation. In 1753, Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act was passed, which required, under pain of annulment, that banns should be published or a licence obtained; that, in either case, the marriage should be solemnized in church by a recognised cleric; and that in the case of minors, marriage by licence must be by the consent of parent or guardian; and that at least two witnesses must be present.

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

and Quaker ceremonies were exempt. Clergy conducting clandestine marriages were liable to

transportation Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land ( rail and road), water, cable, pipelin ...

. This Act had the effect of putting a stop to these marriages, so far as England and Wales were concerned, and henceforth couples had to travel to Scotland, the nearest point being

Gretna Green Gretna Green is a parish in the southern council area of Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, on the Scottish side of the border between Scotland and England, defined by the small river Sark, which flows into the nearby Solway Firth. It was histo ...

. This had substantial use until 1856, when Scottish law was changed to require 21 days' residence. The Act did not extend to Scotland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man. Similar legislation was passed in the Isle of Man in 1757.

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