What age would a minor be getting married in 1878?

kilsmum

Just wondering what age would you be considered a minor on a marriage cert dating back to 1878?

Thanks in advance

Kilsmum

spurious

Probably 19 to 21, but I suppose 17-19 would be possible too.

Jellybaby1

I think 'minor' would have referred to under 21, but there could have been earlier marriages before 17 years of age. I know in the country there were arranged marriages. I know of a family who tried this for their daughter aged 16 in the 1960's and she scarpered!!

srmf5

I think that most would have been between 18 and 21. However, there are always going to be exceptions. The sister of my great grandfather was 16 when she married and her sister was 19 when she married so both were minors in those cases.

The majority were over 21 in my family when they married though.

Vetch

Under 21 - 21 was 'age of majority'.

Jellybaby1

I just checked one of my family trees as I remembered a couple in our family who were married in the 1950's. The lady would never tell anyone how old she was. When I started that particular branch I just got her marriage record, she was 17 and he (an oul' bachelor) was in his 40's.

pedroeibar1

Don’t confuse the ‘age of majority’ with the ‘legal age’ for marriage. If you are looking at a Civil Cert and it states ‘Full’ age it means over 21 years at the date (1878) you give.

In Ireland the age of majority was not reduced from 21 to 18 until 1 Jan 1970 (by the Family Law Reform Act 1969). The ‘drivers’ for that change primarily were commercial – legally anyone under 21 was an ‘infant’, could not enter into most contracts, e.g. buy a house, etc. although they could marry.

Legal age for marriage is quite different. In 1904 a male could marry at fourteen and a girl at 12, but marriages at that age were extremely rare. Under Roman Catholic canon law, the age of marriage was raised in 1917 to 16 for males, 14 for females (with a stipulation that marriages were not to be celebrated unless the parties were also of age to marry according to the local civil law). In Ireland the civil law ages were 14 and 12 and remained so until the Marriages Act 1972 raised the minimum age for marriage to 16 years, with a provision enabling the President of the High Court to grant an exemption for a person who has not attained that age. Today the parties being married must be over 18 years of age or have a Court Exemption Order if this is not the case and parental consent is no longer a condition.

KildareFan

I have found a marriage in 1912 of a girl born 1897 [she was aged 13 in the 1911 Census]; she had just turned 15 when she married in November 1912, yet the marriage certificate states she was of full age. When she died in 1936, her age was given as 47 when she was actually 39.

kilsmum

Thanks for all your advice.

I found a birth in 1864 but that would have made the groom 14 and l can't go back any further!!

Thanks again Kilsmum