BISHOPS' TRANSCRIPTS, BANNS, ALLEGATIONS and LICENCES

Beginning in 1598, every parish of the Church of England was supposed to make a copy of the parish register and send it annually to either the archdeacon or the bishop. These copies are known as archdeacons' transcripts (Ats) or bishops' transcripts (BTs). These copies were normally in the same format as a regular parish register but many marriages were recorded with just a date and the names of the bride and groom - nothing else. Many parishes stopped recording marriages in the transcripts after the start of civil registration began in 1837. Few transcripts exist after the early 1870s.

Bishops' transcripts were not required during the period of the English Civil War.

As the transcripts contain more or less the same information as parish registers, they become invaluable as a resource where parish registers have been damaged, destroyed, or otherwise lost. The transcripts are even useful  if the parish registers exist because they can contain additional,  contradictory or different information from that in the original registers.

Do NOT ignore BTs.

Marriage banns are formal proclamations of an intent to marry, and they have been prerequisite for marriage in the Church of England since 1754 - unless the marriage was by licence. Under the provisions of Hardwicke's Act 1753, a marriage was only legally valid if the banns had been called or a marriage licence had been obtained. Omission of this formality rendered any subsequent marriage void. Although they are not actually parish registers, records of banns contain information leading to an entry in parish marriage registers, and the registers form part of the parish chest collections.

A marriage bann is a public announcement of an intended marriage, usually made in a parish church on three consecutive weeks. They were usually proclaimed on three consecutive Sundays prior to a marriage taking place. However, the publication of banns is no guarantee that the marriage took place and was actually solemnised. Banns should be  called in the parish where each party normally resided and the marriage could have taken place in either parish, usually that of the bride. Sometimes the banns' registers have not always been fully completed; this might suggest that the banns were not declared three times, but this situation does not mean that they weren’t called.

Because fees were payable to each parish, the banns were sometimes only read in one parish if the bride and groom were from two different parishes. There was a residency qualification and because of this both parties would in theory reside in the same parish for the duration of the publication of banns. Initially no time limit was set on the time between the reading of the banns and the marriage. Today under the Marriage Act of 1949, a marriage has to take place within three months of the reading of the banns. Historically, the marriage was usually fairly close to the final publication date.

If anyone legitimately objected to the marriage, then a note of the person making the objection is usually recorded in the banns' book, usually as a margin note. Some records give a synopsis of the reason but in practical terms the layout of the banns' registers does not give sufficient space to do so.

For people wanting to marry in private or in haste - soldiers on leave perhaps or people who wanted the status of being married - the Church of England allowed them to be married by licence. The information needed to obtain a licence may include details not available in other associated documents. One advantage from a research viewpoint is that the records were retained by the diocese or even higher ecclesiastical offices such as that of the Faculty Office or Vicar General. These records may survive should the marriage record or register itself is not be available.

In general there was a much shorter residency qualification attached to a licence; it was also easier to avoid the residence requirement completely by allowing the couple to marry away from their usual places of residence.

A marriage by licence could easily be taken as a symbol of social status. Licences, however, exist across the social classes. It was not uncommon for overseers of the poor to pay for a licence in order to marry off a pregnant pauper before the birth of her child, thus removing their responsibility for its upkeep. It was very often the cheaper option.

The issue of marriage licences began in the fourteenth century but it was not until 1604 that ecclesiastical law stated that a licence should only be granted upon good caution and security taken. It was normally the groom who applied for the licence and he had to provide a bond and allegation which are the two documents that were retained, although not all of them have survived.

The marriage allegation was a statement by the groom about the age, marital status and place of residence of both parties and often included information about the groom's occupation. An oath was added stating that there was no formal impediment of kindred or alliance to the marriage.

The exact ages of the parties may be given but commonly after 1754 the phrase twenty-one years and upwards regularly appears, although practice varied in different dioceses. If either of the parties was under twenty-one, then a written statement of permission from a parent or guardian was required. No minor, unless previously married and widowed, was able to marry in church without the permission of their parents.

The bond was sworn by two witnesses, including groom, his father or a friend with a pledge to forfeit a sum of money - usually upwards of £40 - if there was any consanguinity (prohibited relationship) between the parties or a pre-contract to another person. The money element was to emphasise the seriousness of the oath. In some cases the second surety was often completely fictitious!

Before 1754 the marriage was supposed to take place in the parish in which one of the parties had lived for four weeks and in no other place. There was, however, a degree of flexibility. It was not unusual for no place to be stipulated in the documents and sometimes more than one church could be included but the marriage was often found in a different place altogether albeit usually within the same diocese. After Hardwick’s Act, the marriage had to take place in the parish stated and where either the bride or groom resided. The residential requirement of four weeks was reduced to fifteen days in 1823 but, as with banns, it was easily avoided by using a temporary residence.

For a six month period between September 1822 and March 1823, formal evidence of age, usually a baptismal certificate, was required when an application for a licence was made. These were usually attached to the bonds and allegations.

Not all bonds and allegations survive although within most jurisdictions the records are considered complete from around 1660. It is not always easy to locate an individual document and in some areas bonds and allegations were filed separately whereas others were filed together. Most are held by local record offices but the papers formed part of the diocesan record which may not be the same place.

Marriage allegations and bonds are valuable family history documents but be aware that they only record the fact that permission was sought for the couple to marry; they do not prove that the marriage actually took place.

Despite their standard format, some details varied over time as the conditions for obtaining a licence changed. Bonds were no longer required after November 1823, and from then on the allegations were shorter and in a simpler format.