My
sincerest thanks to Maria Grazia for hosting me on My Jane Austen Book Club today. It
is an honor to be here, and a great pleasure to share a bit of my research with
your readers, as well as my latest novel. Darcy and Elizabeth: Hope of the Future
is the second book in the two-volume Darcy
Saga Prequel Duo, which began with Darcy and Elizabeth: A Season of Courtship.
These two novels perfectly fit with my Darcy
Saga Sequel to Pride and Prejudice,
the series now including nine lengthy novels and one novella.
Three Ways to Wed during the Regency
Today I
thought I would talk about the legitimate avenues for a legal marriage in
England during the period our beloved characters lived. As a result of the
Hardwicke Marriage Act of 1753, the rules and requirements were strictly
detailed, in large part to prevent the rash marriages of the prior decades.
The
five major points of the 1753 Marriage Act were:
1. A license and/or the reading of
the banns were required to legally marry.
- Essential parental consent if either person
was under the age of 21.
- The ceremony must take place in a public
chapel or church where at least one of the two resided AND by an
authorized Church of England clergyman.
- The marriage must be performed between 8am
and noon, AND before designated witnesses.
- The marriage had to be recorded in the marriage register with the signatures of both parties, the witnesses, and the minister.
