Marriage consent in 19C!

[Misty_Blue]

Does anyone know what the age of consent was (to marry) for a girl in the nineteenth century?
I'm not sure whether I can work in this option into my current WIP, as my MC is fourteen and 'with child'.

Thanks, if anyone can help.

[Carmy]

I believed it varied according to country. In which country does your novel take place?

[johnnysannie]

It varies from one country to another - in the US it varies (even now) from state to state. In the 19th century - i.e. the 1800's - early marriages were common. Age of consent, of course, means the age in which a person can marry without parental permission....

I don't if this helps but I've done a lot of family history and in the 19th century and before, I've found quite a few 14 and 15 year old brides.

[BardSkye]

In the province of Quebec, which follows Napoleonic law, the age of consent even into the very late 20th century was 14 for a boy and 16 for a girl.

I don't know if they've repealed that even now.

[Misty_Blue]

oops cant believe i didnt specify that, sorry folks, the story takes please in east end, London, roundabouts 1850.

[PattiTheWicked]

In Britain around 1885 there was a huge public outcry over child prostitution. At that time, the legal age of consent was raised from 13 to 16. Interesting article on it here: http://www.wickedness.net/els/els1/dcruze%20paper.pdf

Some time earlier, the Marriage Act of 1753 was passed in England and Wales. This stated that if both parties to a marriage were under the age of 21, then parental consent had to be given for the marriage to take place --- and if it was given, then girls as young as 12 could marry. The age for boys was 14. Prior to that, children could be married to one another as young as age seven, but had to wait until the ages of 12 and 14 to consummate the marriage. The 1753 act came about following a nasty Scottish court case regarding inheritances. Interestingly, when it went into effect in 1754, it did not apply to Scotland.

The law made English marriage laws much stricter, and said that all weddings had to be performed in a church (or a Temple, if you were Jewish) and duly recorded. Any children born to a marriage that was NOT official were considered ineligible to inherit property later on. The result was to put an end to "clandestine" marriages, but a lot of couples managed to get around it by eloping to Scotland and getting married at Gretna Green.

This nifty site here http://www.umich.edu/~ece/student_projects/wedding_bride/tofc.html looks at the ramifications of the 1753 Act.

[Misty_Blue]

Thank you all for your help! Pattithewicked, that's a great resource thank you also. I guess that I can go with this plot then since the girl in my book does have parental consent (even forced into it) to avoid scandal etc.

[pdr]

you'll find that the young children went through a betrothal service not a marriage. It was legal and usually led to a marriage when the girl was fourteen but could be broken if needed.

The parental consent was interesting. It came about because heiresses were actually kidnapped and forced into marriage. Nice resource, thank you, Patti.