Gretna Green
By
Maggi Andersen
“I
publish the Banns of marriage between Groom’s Name of–his local parish–and
Bride’s Name of–her local parish. If any of you know cause or just impediment
why these two persons should not be joined together in Holy matrimony, ye are
to declare it. This is the first [second, third] time of asking.”
In the third
of my Baxendale Sisters series, LADY HOPE AND THE DUKE OF DARKNESS, lovers set
out on the long journey to Gretna Green. Whether they marry there or not, I
shan’t reveal, but since Georgette Heyer first created her charming Regency
world, we have been reading about lovers escaping to Gretna Green to be
married, when no other option is open to them.
So why Gretna Green?
The introduction of the “Scottish Elopements and the
Marriage Act of 1753. An Act for Better Preventing of Clandestine Marriage, was
also known as Lord Hardwicke’s Marriage Act), and was the first statutory
legislation in England and Wales to require a formal ceremony of marriage. The
Act prevented clandestine marriages (valid marriages performed by an Anglican
clergyman but not in accordance with the canons). And ended the notorious Fleet
Marriages associated with London’s Fleet Prison.
Boomsbeat.com
Scottish law allowed for “irregular marriages,”
meaning that if a declaration was made before two witnesses, almost anybody had
the authority to conduct the marriage ceremony. To be married “over the anvil,”
meant that the eloping couple took their vows at the blacksmith’s shop. “Blacksmith
priests” conducted the ceremony, which was a public acknowledgment of a
couple’s desire to pledge themselves to one another.
Any man could set himself up as an ‘anvil priest.”
Although they were frowned on by the local church for calling themselves a
priest, the fee and a tip which could be as much as fifty guineas, made it very
attractive. Couples could also marry at an inn.
So where is Gretna Green?
The village of Gretna Green lies on the main road
from Carlisle to Glasgow and is situated on the most southerly point of the
English border on Scotland’s west side. The Sark River marks the border itself,
a half mile from Gretna Green.
From Gretna
Green Memoirs by Robert Elliot (1842):
Near the Solway Firth, the Regency era’s Greta Green
is “…[a] small village with a few clay houses, the parish kirk, the minister’s
house, and a large inn. From it you have a fine view of the Solway, port
Carlisle and the Cumberland hills, among which is the lofty Skiddaw; you also
see Bowness, the place where the famous Roman wall ends.”
LADY
HOPE AND THE DUKE OF DARKNESS Coming soon.
Learn more at my web page:
#Regencymarriage #Regencyromance #maggiandersen
#HistoricalResearch #GretnaGreen
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