Marriage: Love and Law exhibition catalogue - Flipbook - Page 21
While permission to marry was refused to some applicants, others were
successful. For example, between 13 May and 23 June 1828, permission
to marry was granted to 24 couples (12). The youngest applicant was
17 year old Elizabeth Parker, and the oldest, 51 year old Thomas Cox.
Most applicants had been sentenced to seven years transportation.
Some had received life sentences. Those still bonded to a master
or mistress had to remain in service until free.
The seven year transportation sentence caused some confusion for applicants
and administrators. Transportation to NSW meant forced separation for
thousands of couples. An absence from a spouse for seven years—the length
of most sentences—it was believed, entitled one to remarry. The Solicitor
General advised in 1841 that such parties married at their own ‘peril’.
After all, a first wife or husband could still be living, and therefore, couples
risked a charge of bigamy.
Once the Governor had granted permission, forthcoming marriages were
publicised through ‘marriage banns’. A clergyman would announce the union
on three occasions, providing the opportunity for anyone who opposed the
match to come forward.
12
Two couples, Thomas Brooks/Mary Ward, and Thomas Badham/Elizabeth
Rogers, expected to have their unions publicised through marriage banns
at St Philip’s, Sydney, in September 1832 (13). Each of the four had been
given good character references and clergyman, William Cowper, had granted
approval (14 and 15).
12 Principal Superintendent
of Convicts
Register of convicts’
applications to marry –
permission granted
Rebound volume
1825–1831
NSW State Archives,
NRS 12212 [4/4511]
The State, however, dismissed the Badham/Rogers application. Elizabeth had
listed herself as ‘married’ when arriving in the Colony, now she was claiming
to be widowed. A letter from Elizabeth’s aunt, Mrs Vanderburg notifying
the young woman that her London-based husband was ‘no longer’—thus
confirming her status as a widow—was rejected as a falsehood by authorities.
This was unsurprising given that aunt Vanderburg’s letter from ‘London’ had,
in fact, been postmarked in Sydney (16). Undeterred, the couple soon
reapplied, and were married six months later at St Luke’s, Liverpool.
13 William Cowper
List of persons applying for
the publication of banns,
at St Philip’s Church,
Sydney, 7 September 1832
Paper
1832
NSW State Archives,
NRS 905 [4/2151.3]
13
20
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