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The Early Nineteenth-Century Unitarian Campaign to change English Marriage Law
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 June 2023
Abstract
The 1836 Marriage Act has received surprisingly little attention from historians of Dissent, despite its significance in permitting non-Anglicans to conduct legally recognized marriages according to their own ceremonies in Dissenting places of worship. The Clandestine Marriages Act (1753), better known as the Hardwicke Act, had limited valid marriages to the rites of the Church of England. Only Jews and Quakers were exempt. By the early nineteenth century the Anglican marriage service was objectionable to Unitarians because of the references to the Trinity. The struggle to change the Marriage Act was initiated by the Freethinking Christians, who engaged in a controversial and highly visible public protest during the marriage service. They successfully engaged the broader Unitarian movement in their campaign, who through the medium of the Unitarian Association undertook a remarkable, though largely fruitless, struggle to change the law until joined by the rest of Dissent in the early 1830s.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Studies in Church History , Volume 59: THE CHURCHES AND RITES OF PASSAGE , June 2023 , pp. 289 - 311
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Ecclesiastical History Society.
Footnotes
I wish to thank Professor G. M. Ditchfield and the two anonymous referees for their helpful comments.
References
1 The incident was very widely reported, largely based on an account the Freethinking Christian Church provided. The following report is derived from ‘Dissenters’ Marriage’, Morning Chronicle, 15 January 1827, 3; Morning Post, 16 January 1827, 4, The Times, 16 January 1827, 2–3. Simpson is not identified in the accounts, but see Morning Advertiser, 24 September 1835, 4.
2 Ibid.
3 St James's Chronicle, 16 January 1827, 3.
4 Ibid. See also Morning Post, 16 January 1827, 4.
5 The Times, 16 January 1827, 2.
6 St James's Chronicle, 16 January 1827, 3.
7 The Examiner, 19 June 1814, 16; ‘Dissenters’ Marriages’, Freethinking Christians’ Quarterly Register [hereafter: Register] 1 (1823), 267–316, at 292–3, 297–300, 302–4, 305–9; W. L., ‘Protest against the Marriage Ceremony’, Monthly Repository [hereafter: MR] 12 (1817), 570–1; ‘Controversy on a Marriage Protest of “Freethinking Christians”’, MR 20 (1825), 467–74; The News, 30 November 1817, 8; The Times, 30 May 1823, 3.
8 Register 1, 293.
9 Ibid. 306–9.
10 The two Acts have consecutive statute numbers, 6 & 7 Wm IV c. 85 and 86: Cullen, M. J., ‘The Making of the Civil Registration Act of 1836’, JEH 25 (1974), 39–59Google Scholar.
11 Probert, Rebecca, Marriage Law and Practice in the Long Eighteenth Century: A Reassessment (Cambridge, 2009), 1–2, 5–6, 320–3CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
12 JHC 27, 717 (17 February 1757).
13 The 1753 Jewish Naturalisation Act (26 Geo. II c. 26) allowed Jews who lived in Great Britain or Ireland for three years to become citizens by act of parliament without taking the Anglican sacrament. It was repealed six months later.
14 R. B. Outhwaite, Clandestine Marriage in England, 1500–1850 (London, 1995), 35.
15 See Caffyn, John, Sussex Believers: Baptist Marriage in the 17th and 18th Centuries (Worthing, 1988), 128Google Scholar. I am grateful to the Rev. Stephen Copson, Secretary of the Baptist Historical Society, for his comments on this subject.
16 Probert, Marriage Law, 140, 145.
17 See, for example, Welch, E., ‘The Origins of the New Connexion of General Baptists’, Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society 49 (1995), 59–70, at 67Google Scholar; A letter from the Rev. John Roe, Minister of the Protestant Dissenters at Calverton, near Nottingham, concerning the Imprisonment of their Wives, for Life, for Nonconformity to the Church of England, by Force of the Writ excommunicato capiendo: Addressed to the Rt. Hon. Ld. George Gordon, President of the Protestant Association (Nottingham, 1789).
18 For an account of this transformation, see Bolam, C. Gordon et al., The English Presbyterians: From Elizabethan Puritanism to Modern Unitarianism (London, 1968), 134–40, 145–50Google Scholar.
19 Ditchfield, G. M., ‘Anti-Trinitarianism and Toleration in late Eighteenth-Century British Politics: The Unitarian Petition of 1792’, JEH 42 (1991), 39–67Google Scholar.
20 Ibid. 44.
21 Smith, Valerie, Rational Dissenters in Late Eighteenth-Century England: ‘An ardent desire of truth’ (Woodbridge, 2021), 140–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
22 Wykes, David L., ‘Rational Dissent, Unitarianism, and the Closure of the Northampton Academy in 1798’, Journal of Religious History 41 (2017), 3–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 14, 18; A Daventry Student, ‘Recollections of Mr Belsham, at Daventry’, Christian Reformer 16 (1830), 102–3.
23 Wykes, David L., ‘Educating Students for the Unitarian Ministry in the Early Nineteenth Century’, Transactions of the Unitarian Historical Society 26 (2015), 79–98, at 82Google Scholar.
24 Seed, John, ‘Gentlemen Dissenters: The Social and Political Meanings of Rational Dissent in the 1770s and 1780s’, HistJ 28 (1985), 299–325Google Scholar, at 302–6; David L. Wykes, ‘Sons and Subscribers: Lay Support and the College, 1786–1840’, in B. Smith, ed., Truth, Liberty, Religion: Essays Celebrating Two Hundred Years of Manchester College (Oxford, 1986), 31–77, at 62–3, 67–8.
25 Richard W. Davis, Dissent in Politics, 1780–1830: The Political Life of William Smith, M.P. (London, 1971).
26 Report of the Committee of the Unitarian Association for Protecting the Civil Rights of Unitarians to the General Meeting (3 June 1819), [1]; Short Statement of the Case of the Unitarian Dissenters, Petitioners for Relief from some parts of the Ceremony imposed by the Marriage Act (n.pl., [after June 1819]), 2.
27 ‘Free-thinking Christians’, MR 4 (1809), 284–6; John Evans, A Sketch of the Denominations of the Christian World (London, 1814), 311–21 (by a member appointed by the society); ‘A Brief Account of the Church of God known as Free-Thinking Christians’, Christian Teacher n.s. 3 (1841), 284–6. Joan Christodoulou, ‘The Freethinking Christians and the Millennium’, London Journal 14 (1989), 148–59, is concerned with the links to other nineteenth-century radical groups, and only briefly mentions their marriage campaign.
28 ‘Unitarian Batchelors’, MR 3 (1808), 377–8. The letter was by a leading member of the Freethinking Christian Church: see Register 1, 287–8. See also Candidus, ‘On the Marriage Ceremony’, dated Homerton, 11 December 1810, Freethinking Christians’ Magazine 1 (1810–11), 33–7.
29 ‘An Unitarian Husband's Advice to an Unitarian Bachelor’, MR 3 (1808), 470.
30 See also ‘The English Unitarians and the Marriage Question; a Conversation’, Christian Pioneer 4 (1829), 86.
31 T., ‘Dissenters’ Marriages’, MR 7 (1812), 567–8. The reference to the right of Dissenters to baptize their children indicates that the correspondent was not a Freethinking Christian, since they rejected baptism.
32 Register 1, 290–1.
33 Ibid. 291–2; ‘On Marriage’, Freethinking Christians’ Magazine 3 (1813), 513–20.
34 ‘Protest against the Marriage Ceremony’, Freethinking Christians’ Magazine 4 (1814), 326–36, at 327.
35 The Examiner, 19 June 1814, 16; ‘A Protest against the Marriage Ceremony’, MR 9 (1814), 354–6.
36 Register 1, 294. There is no record of Thompson's speech in the Unitarian accounts of the annual dinner.
37 ‘Marriage Service of the Established Church Trinitarian’, MR 10 (1815), 80–1.
38 The Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813 (53 Geo. III c. 160) amended the 1689 Toleration Act (1 Wm & Mary c. 18) to include non-Trinitarians and repealed the provisions of the 1697 Blasphemy Act (9 Wm III c. 35) against those who denied the Trinity.
39 [Thomas] P[ine], ‘The Fourth Anniversary of the Kent and Sussex Unitarian Association and Tract Society’, MR 10 (1815), 527.
40 ‘Mr Worsley on the Marriage Ceremony’, MR 11 (1816), 208.
41 Consistianus, ‘Unitarian Marriages’, Monthly Magazine 42 (1816), 210.
42 The various Unitarian national bodies were poorly supported: see H. L. Short, ‘The Founding of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association’, Transactions of the Unitarian Historical Society: Supplement (1975), 15s–16s.
43 JHC 72, 466 (8 July 1817); Morning Post, 11 July 1817, 1; Register 1, 294.
44 Register 1, 294–5.
45 London, Parliamentary Archives, UAM/1–3, The Unitarian Association Marriage Law Petitioning Papers, 3 vols, 1819–37. The volumes are a rare example of a parliamentary agent's papers. Originally collected together by Edgar Taylor, they were given by Sharpe & Pritchard, the successors to his firm, to the British Record Association in 1965, who donated them to the House of Lords Record Office (now the Parliamentary Archives). I am grateful to Dr Mari Takayanagi, senior archivist, for information about the archive's provenance, and for granting permission on behalf of the Parliamentary Archives to cite and quote from the Unitarian Association's petitioning papers.
46 Parliamentary Archives, UAM/1/5, Edgar Taylor to William Smith, 4 February 1819.
47 ‘Unitarian Association. Marriage Laws’, MR 14 (1819), 125. In response to suggestions, a second version was issued: ibid. 198.
48 ‘Marriage Law’, MR 14 (1819), 382–6, at 382.
49 Parliamentary Archives, UAM/1/9, Gaskell to Taylor, 10 May 1819.
50 Parliamentary Archives, UAM/1/15, 23, James Tayler (Nottingham) to Taylor, 23 May, 23 June 1819.
51 Parliamentary Archives, UAM/1/11, W. Stevens (Newport, Isle of Wight) to Taylor, 14 May [1819].
52 Parliamentary Archives, UAM/1/12, J. Fullagar (Chichester) to Taylor; UAM/1/13, Lant Carpenter (Bristol) to Taylor, 17 May 1819; UAM/1/14, Israel Worsley (Plymouth) to Taylor, 28 May 1819.
53 The Crediton congregation suggested the Whig politician Lord Ebrington, who sat in the Commons: Parliamentary Archives, UAM/1/10, G. Hinton (Crediton) to Taylor, 13 May 1819.
54 Parliamentary Archives, UAM/1/17, Lansdowne to Taylor, 9 June 1819.
55 Carpenter to Taylor, 17 May 1819.
56 Worsley to Taylor, 28 May 1819.
57 Parliamentary Archives, UAM/1/19, 21 Thomas Morgan (Dr Williams's Library) to Taylor, 17 June 1819.
58 JHC 74, 532, 597, 621 (14, 30 June, 6 July 1819).
59 Ibid. 621 (6 July 1819); see also Cockermouth, ibid. 597 (30 June 1819).
60 ‘Unitarian Association: Marriage Laws’, Christian Reformer 5 (1819), 275–6, at 275; ‘Marriage Law’, 382. For Richmond, see ‘Obituary’, MR n.s. 6 (1832), 127.
61 Taylor to Smith, 4 February 1819.
62 ‘Unitarian Association’, 275
63 ‘Marriage Law’, 382; Report of the Committee, 1819, 1.
64 ‘Marriage Act Amendment Bill’, HC Deb. (1st series), 16 June 1819 (vol. 40, cols 1200–1); ‘Marriage Act’, The Times, 17 June 1819, 2.
65 JHC 74, 588, 598, 606–7 (29, 30 June, 1 July 1819).
66 Parliamentary Archives, UAM/1/30, Archbishop of Canterbury to Smith, 9 April 1822.
67 ‘Marriages of Unitarian Dissenters’, HC Deb., 17 April 1822 (vol. 6, col. 1462).
68 New Times, 20 May 1822, 3.
69 Parliamentary Archives, UAM/1/43, copy of letters from Taylor to Lansdowne and Holland, 24 February 1823.
70 Parliamentary Archives, UAM/1/44, 46, Holland to Taylor, 25 February 1823, Lansdowne to Taylor, 1 March 1823.
71 Parliamentary Archives, UAM/1/47, 48, Lord Ellenborough to Smith, 8 and 15 March 1823.
72 Parliamentary Archives, UAM/1/57, 58, 59, Taylor to Smith, 29 May, 5 June 1823, Taylor to Coates (Secretary of the Dissenting Ministers of the Three Denominations), 5 June 1823.
73 ‘Dissenters Marriages Bill’, HL Deb. (2nd series), 12 June 1823 (vol. 9, cols 969, 973).
74 Parliamentary Archives, UAM/1/64, 65, Smith to Taylor, n.d. [early June 1823].
75 Parliamentary Archives, UAM/1/[66], Richmond to Taylor, n.d.
76 Parliamentary Archives, UAM/1/63, Taylor to Wilks, 11 June 1823.
77 Parliamentary Archives, UAM/1/65, Smith to Taylor, n.d.
78 ‘Unitarian Marriage Relief Bill’, HL Deb. (2nd series), 2 April 1824 (vol. 11, cols 75–6, 79, 82, 84, 95).
79 Leeds Mercury, 10 April 1824, 2.
80 ‘Unitarian Marriage Bill’, HL Deb. (2nd series), 4 May 1824 (vol. 11, cols 435–6, 446); ‘Unitarian Marriages’, Morning Post, 5 May 1824, 2.
81 ‘Dissenters’ Marriages Bill’, HL Deb. (2nd series), 29 June 1827 (vol. 17, col. 1427).
82 The Standard, 3 January 1828, 3; 10 January 1828, 4; 12 January 1828, 2; Yorkshire Gazette, 12 January 1828, 3.
83 B. L. Manning, The Protestant Dissenting Deputies (Cambridge, 1952), 260–2, 272.
84 For a detailed account of the final years of the campaign to change the law, see Cullen, ‘Making of the Civil Registration Act’, 40, 43, 48–9, 51–4; Rebecca Probert, Tying the Knot: The Formation of Marriage 1836–2020 (Cambridge, 2021), 21–53; eadem, Marriage Law, 332–8.