[Marriage Certificate.]

£1,500 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

The document reads in full (ms. additions in parentheses): “These are to Satfy whom it may Concern That [Benjamin Lewis of St Mary Le bone, Labourer and Elis Woods of Edgeware in ye county of middx.] Were married [in ye Fleet] London, on ye [14] Day of [January] 17[39] according to the Rites Ceremonies of the Church of England, as appears by ye Register, in the Custody of [Hen. Pickering].” The register that included the marriage between Benjamin Lewis and Elisabeth Wood still survives and was used principally by four clergymen conducting marriages viz. D.Wigmore; W. Wyatt; Thos. Ryder; and Rich. Sidney. Although this particular marriage was not signed off in the register by the officiating parson, it is clear from the writing style that the union was conducted by Richard Sindrey. Marriages at the Fleet are believed to have begun around 1611. Until the 1690s, the primary clandestine wedding sites in London were Holy Trinity, Minories, and St. James, Duke’s Place, with the Fleet Prison playing a minor role. However, the Marriage Duty Act of 1696 penalised beneficed clergymen for conducting marriages without banns or a license, significantly reducing such unions in parish churches. Fleet clergy, being unbeneficed, exploited a legal loophole that shielded them from prosecution, leading to a surge in clandestine marriages. These officiants, reportedly ordained members of the Church of England—though some credentials were questionable—conducted fully legal ceremonies. The Fleet Pr

• Year: 1739

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