Genealogy Chat

How long ago was it legal for a girl to marry young?...and was it 12 years old? Gerri.

girls 12 years boys 14 years up until i think 1927ish Roy

Hi Gerri 'Before Hardwicke's Marriage Act of 1753 there was no lower legal age of marriage, except during the 1650's when it was 16 for men and 14 for women. In 1753 it was fixed at 14 for men and 12 for women and remained at that until the Age of Marriage Act 1929 when it was raised to 16 for both.' Above taken verbatim from The Family Tree Detective by Colin D Rogers

Thanks boys. Looks like i was correct in my find of a 12 year old girl marrying in 1919! wow. Gerri x

Interesting that today we are shocked when teenagers have sex under 16, when prior to 1929 boys could marry at 14 and girls at 12. According to the 'experts' youngsters and girls in particular are maturing earlier than they ever did. Does that mean that prior to 1929 children were marrying before they hit puberty?

Liz The interesting thing about it is that before the late 1800s, there was no minimum age set down for legal consent to sex. In the 1880s, it was set, by law, at 16, but the aim was to protect very young GIRLS from prostitution. Before that, girls could not consent legally, to sex - consent was inferred by the marriage contract. What happened outside the marriage contract was no concern of the law. I have details of marriage contracts in the 14th and 15th centuries, of new born children, but these marriages did not seem to produce children until the couple were in their mid-teens. I also have farmer's daughters marrying at 12 and their sons at 14 (one was actually under 14, but no one seemed bothered) in the early 1700s. Women and daughters were commodities,and bartered like cattle, for centuries. OC