FT Academy Jul 2023: the answers

Beginners

Using Ancestry’s Clandestine Marriage and Baptism Registers database at: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/5344/ search for the marriage of John Bell and Ann Dudley. When were they married?

John Bell and Ann Dudley were married on 20 Jul 1747.

Intermediate

Which two religious groups were specifically exempted from the terms of Hardwick’s Marriage Act.

Section XVIII of the Act stated that the terms should apply to, ‘... any Marriages amongst the People called Quakers, or amongst the Persons professing the Jewish Religion...’.

Advanced

On 29 July 1745, James Pettigrew and Lydia Mongomery were married in a ‘Fleet’ marriage. Lydia was a widow. Can you find a record of her previous marriage? What was her first husband’s occupation?

Lydia Williams married Joseph Mongomery on 3 Jun 1722 in a clandestine ceremony. Joseph was a farrier.

Thinking Outside The Box

What can you find out about the clandestine marriage of Henry Fox and Lady Caroline Lennox?

The Honourable Henry Fox, Esquire (1705-1774) was a prominent Whig politician, who served as a Member of Parliament for nearly 30 years from 1735 to 1763. In May 1744, he eloped with a young heiress, Georgiana Carolina Lennox. Lady Caroline Lennox was the granddaughter of Charles Lennox, Duke of Richmond, the illegitimate son of King Charles II. On 3 May Henry and Caroline were married at Lilly’s, a notorious Fleet marriage house, by a minster called Standly. The marriage is recorded in two volumes, a register and a notebook credited to William Dare, another Fleet parson.
 

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