Clarissa

Clarissa being the monster novel I am presently reading, a monster first noticed at reference 1 and at various points after that. With Microsoft Excel demonstrating above reasonably steady progress during April - with pages left and letters right. With the book proper starting at around page 50. With the numbering of letters being slightly confused by there being letters within letters. 

On which basis I expect to finish the 1,500 pages towards the end of the coming summer, thus making a good break from my previous diet of Simenon. It is also a good read, holding one's interest remarkably well considering how little, by the standards of a drama on television, is going on.

Today's point of interest being the regulations regarding marriage - given Clarissa's brother's intent to marry her off against her sustained aversion for, and objection to, the designated husband. And it should be noted that Clarissa's family had money, and that monied interests were important in this story. We don't get to know so much about what happened where there was not much money.

My first call is to references 2 and 3, from which I learn that (roughly speaking) a marriage must be conducted by an authorised person (often a parson) in an authorised place (often a church). Voluntary vows must be expressed by both parties, in public, in front of witnesses. There are elaborate procedures underpinning the integrity of the national - rather than parochial - registration process. A system which would have given Clarissa quite a good level of protection from her brother.

Given the interest in family history, which depends heavily on the registration of births, deaths and marriages, there is plenty of stuff about all this on the Internet and my next call is reference 4, from which I learn that the present system kicked off in 1837 with the Civil Registration Act, well after the publication of Clarissa.

I then jumped back to the Book of Common Prayer of 1549 where the form of the 'Solemnization of Matrimony' is to be found. That is to say a public exchange of vows. We also have the words 'Who giveth this Woman to be married to this Man' - a relic of the days when a woman was given in marriage by her father, the days when the business of consent was rather skated over, when women were property, included along with other fixtures and fittings. What we do not have is anything about record keeping, about the business of registration.

From where I jump forward to references 6 and 7 and Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act of 1754 which regulated marriage by license (as opposed to regular marriage with banns in a church), which was being widely abused, and brought in a national form of registration, including witnesses, even though the forms remained in the custody of the parish. Interestingly, just a few years after Clarissa was published in 1748.

Maybe the act was prompted in part by recognition of the sort of abuse of marriage highlighted by this very successful novel. Perhaps if I read the scholarly introduction I will get to find out.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/04/clarissa.html.

Reference 2: Guidebook for Clergy - General Register Office - 2019. Curiously, the cover features HM Passport Office as loudly as the General Register Office (the people who used to be headquartered in Somerset House).

Reference 3: A Guide for Authorised Persons - General Register Office - 2019.

Reference 4: https://media.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php/introduction-to-birth-marriages-and-death-registers-in-england-and-wales.

Reference 5: Book of Common Prayer - King Edward VI - 1549. 

Reference 6: https://ukmarriages.org/before1837.htm.

Reference 7: https://intriguing-history.com/hardwickes-marriage-act-1754/.

Reference 8: Married Women's Property Act - Queen Victoria - 1882. Maybe the next port of call.