[MR] Wilipedia: Shakespeare's Marriage Bond

[Lorelei Elkins via Atlantia]

Delightful!  Thank you for this, Lord Mungo.


M. Lorelei Greenleafe

On Sat, Nov 28, 2015 at 5:09 AM, Garth Groff via Atlantia <
atlantia at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org> wrote:

> Noble Friends,
>
> On this date in 1582 William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway "paid" a £40
> bond for their marriage license. Actually this statement by Wikipedia is
> somewhat in error.
>
> According to the Wikipedia article on Anne Hathaway, the couple did not
> obtain the bond themselves. Fulk Sandells and John Richardson, friends of
> the Hathaway family from Stratford, signed a surety of £40 as a financial
> guarantee for the wedding of "William Shagspere and Anne Hathwey":
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Hathaway_(Shakespeare%27s_wife) .
> Shakespeare's marriage is quite controversial, and a reading of the
> Hathaway page is very interesting.
>
> The concept of a marriage bond is something now lost in the U.S., but was
> an English invention and was used here until well after colonial times. Two
> of my own ancestors who married in 1796 at Bath, Virginia, have a bond
> recorded (and guaranteed by the bride's guardians; she was likely an
> indentured servant and like Anne Hathaway was about three months pregnant).
> Here's what Wikipedia has to say about this practice:
>
> "To obtain a marriage licence, the couple, or more usually the bridegroom,
> had to swear that there was no just cause or impediment why they should not
> marry. This was the marriage allegation. A bond was also lodged with the
> church authorities for a sum of money to be paid if it turned out that the
> marriage was contrary to Canon Law. The bishop kept the allegation and bond
> and issued the licence to the groom, who then gave it to the vicar of the
> church where they were to get married. There was no obligation for the
> vicar to keep the licence and many were simply destroyed. Hence, few
> historical examples of marriage licences, in England and Wales, survive.
> However, the allegations and bonds were usually retained and are an
> important source for English genealogy." Here's more if you want to go that
> far: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage_license .
>
> Thus the marriage bond was actually not paid, but was a promise to pay in
> case of bigamy or other fraud. This replaced the customary reading of the
> banns in the parish church for three successive weeks, by which someone
> could assert the groom or bride were already married or were not supposed
> to marry by law. This practice has an echo today in the traditional
> marriage ceremony text where the officiant asks for any man (note the
> sexism here) to speak or forever hold his peace.
>
> You can read more about William Shakesepeare, mostly about his acting and
> writing career, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare . Or
> you could spend a lifetime reading the thousands of speculative books about
> him, since much of his life is a mystery.
>
> Yours Aye,
>
>
> Lord Mungo Napier, Who Once Trod the Boards as Robin Starvling (Midsummer
> Night's Dream)
>
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