Conversion to Church of Ireland

oceanclub

I think I've traced my great-grandfather's sister (that side of the family has been particular difficult). A Mary Catherine Slater attended as a witness to his (Michael Walsh) wedding. There's a Mary Kate Walsh born in 1860 who married in a Church of Ireland ceremony to a Philip Slater in 1878 (shown as a minor and date is just shy of Mary's 18th birthday).

https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Walsh-5886

1. Would she have had to convert to the Church of Ireland first? If so, any idea where I could find records of that?
2. Would she have been allowed to be a witness at her brother's Catholic wedding if she was Church of Ireland?

P.

Waitsian

I'm pretty sure the answer to both is no.

tabbey

I do not know the canon law in relation to being a witness to a marriage,but a witness is not a sponsor with responsibility for the faith of the couple, merely a person who can swear in an ecclestical court,that they witnessed the marriage, in the event of the marriage being annulled, or suspicion of bigamy.

It is theoretically possible that a witness could be one religion at the time of marriage, but subsequently give up that faith. Such a person would still have to give evidence if the marriage ended up in a tribunal.

pedroeibar1

As Tabby has pointed out above a witness is simply a person who witnessed X signing a name to a document. In simple terms the witness does not even have to know that X actually is who s/he is or purports to be, the legal requirement stops at the witness being able to swear that a person signing as X actually signed the document. (different rules for will, etc, where there is an interest - the witness cannot be a beneficiary.

On the ‘conversion’ from RC to C of Irl prior to a marriage - I doubt that would be a requirement. Both faiths are Christian, so the baptism should work both ways. However, I suspect that the RC were stricter – I have a C of I relative who in 1856 appears in a RC baptismal register as ‘was today admitted into the Catholic Church by me ……I married her to a Catholic on 5 Feb.’ It does not mention any baptism – if it did it would be ‘sub conditione’ meaning that it was a baptism only if a previous baptism was invalid (or that one did not take place).
Ne Temere did not happen for RCs until several decades later, the C of Irl did not have an equivalent.

Earnest

I think it was quite normal for Protestants who became Catholics to be baptised again whether or not a marriage was in the offing. E.g. a relative of mine, Vereker Robinson, "convert", baptised in Cloughjordan R.C. church 7 May 1880. As his mother was born 1812 and 9 siblings were born 1842 to 1866, he is likely to have been in his 20s or 30s. Although the most likely Church of Ireland register for their baptisms, Modreeny, is not extant, it is likely that they had all been baptised, otherwise why is "convert" necessary?