Up to 1870 the (Protestant) Church of Ireland was the Irish State Church. Apart from religion it administered legal functions such as Probable and the regulation of marriage with its own internal legal system.

The format for Marriage was an application for a Marriage License Bond. Some Catholics applied for MLBs for legal purposes or because of the Penal Laws and may have got married in Protestant Churches. There are a very large number of ‘Catholic’ names in the surviving registers.

This was expensive and as most Cork Protestant were labourers, artisan or small farmer the popular method was Bans where the proposed marriage was read out three times at service.

Of the  jurisdiction of Cork Consistory Court:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FWBV3gRAeVpYqD5Nlq9j4by9xQGww9Y141pT1mZshpA/edit

The litigation arose from the marriage of White/Dillon. Presumable he impregnated her and went through a marriage ceremony. He then applied to re marry and her legal advisors issued a caveat at the Cork Consistory Court to prevent the purported bigamous marriage. A Case to counsel was prepared. The case would have major implication as the proper entitlement of heirs was at stake. This will be posted shortly.

The Dillons were influential in Bantry/Durrus the main line was Catholic. There is a very large tomb in Moulivard Graveyard (Durrus East).  One was Master of the workhouse, another Thomas a Poor Law Guardian and Council member the funeral of his wife nee Roycroft in 1892 was enormous:

1892. Immense Funeral of Mrs Thomas Dillon, nee Roycroft, Husband Thomas Poor Law Guardian (PLG) Bantry, Obituary a Who’s Who of West Cork.

The vast bulk of the records were destroyed in the Public Records in 1922.

However the great Australian born, Cork antiquarian Herbert Gillman (1832-98):

Herbert Webb Gillman, BL, JP, Cork Antiquarian, in 1892 ‘The writer takes the opportunity of expressing his opinion that the greater part of our County Histories in Ireland can be, and indeed ought to be, rewritten in the light of the documents of late being made readily available by the Public Record Office. It is a Department of which any Nation ought to be justly proud; and the work done in arranging, indexing and editing by the able officers engage there, so well by their courtesy and ready help, afforded freely to all comers are beyond praise.

Herbert Webb Gillman (1832-1898), Clonteadmore, Coachford, Co. Cork, Judge Ceylon, Antiquarian, Authority on Castles of Co. Cork and Author of Index to the Licence Bonds of Cork and Ross.

copied the abstract before destruction and they are reproduced here

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6hnQGE3ANjzaE5yemFTbEZTMkk/view?ts=560a8f7a

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