Genealogy Chat

Two ancestors were married in London in 1857. The bride's family lived in Surrey. The groom's family lived in Essex, but the groom may have lived in London prior to the wedding. Was it common for the bride to marry outside of her parish?

Although it may be tradition to marry at the Brides parish, its not uncommon to marry out of it.

Hi Alexandra. Actually her father was in the same business as his grandfather, so I believe that's how they met. It's just that her family had a lot of connections to their church, so I thought it odd. Thank you for your reply. I don't know very much about marriages in the UK at that time (a lot of mine were already in Canada at that time).

Well seeing as Essex and Surrey are share borders with London it wouldn't be a surprise. Its generally considered to be tradition to marry in the Brides parish even today, but of course not everyone goes with tradition - even back then!

I guess a lot would have depended on the circumstances of the family too. I went to a fascinating talk given by someone from Kew who said that often people married on their way to work in the morning. Weddings were, for a lot of people, just a formality, more like taking out a dog licence than what we know as weddings today! If the two people concerned were working they probably wouldn't have been able to get enough time off from work, or have had enough money to 'waste' to travel to the bride's home. And of course, if they attended church in the area where they were currently living.... The man from Kew pointed out that St Marylebone had, nominally, a congregation of 80,000 so clearly, it was also the case that VERY, very few went to church. Victoria

One reason I know of for marying elsewhere was if they were living as husband and wife before marriage and to avoid local gossip and condemnation they married outside their parish, again not unusual in those times. Suzanne

Maybe it was a question of finance-one of 'my marriages' took place in Manchester Cathedral ,not because they were 'posh' ,but because of a law at the time making it half the price of their local parish church ! (1841)

Thank you Alexandra, Victoria, Suzanne and Lynda. You've suggested some wonderful ideas. Perhaps they only had one reason for marrying there -- perhaps they had a combination of reasons! There is a chance they left England shortly after the wedding, so perhaps timing played a part as well. (I do know they were in Canada one year after the marriage.) Thank you all for your comments and suggestions!