1805 Sample Marriage License Bond.

This is from a large bundle from St. Peters Church Cork, donated to the National Archives.

In the Church of Ireland marriage was by Licence Bond generally for the better off.  For other it was by Banns reading the intention at service three Sundays in a row.  Sometimes Catholics applied for Marriage Licence Bonds for legal reasons.

 

https://durrushistory.wordpress.com/2015/09/29/marriage-license-bonds-of-1679-and-1698-from-dioceses-of-cork-ross-and-cloyne-mid-18th-century-marriage-litigation-arising-from-marriage-of-two-protestants-white-of-bantry-an-miss-dillon-bantry/?preview_id=15410&preview_nonce=dda5de1bcb&post_format=standard&_thumbnail_id=-1&preview=true

 

 

https://durrushistory.wordpress.com/2017/04/15/1746-sample-marriage-licence-bond/?preview_id=31867&preview_nonce=aa11228e9d&post_format=standard&_thumbnail_id=-1&preview=true

 

https://durrushistory.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit.php?s=marriage+licence+bond&post_status=all&post_type=post&action=-1&m=0&cat=0&paged=1&action2=-1

 

https://durrushistory.com/2014/03/03/1741-deed-of-contemplated-marriage-rooska-barony-of-bantry-and-bere-west-cork-names-mentioned-varian-vickery-baker-denis-ferguson/

 

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Gillman’s Index to Marriage Licence Bonds – Cork and Ross

Published in 1896-7, Herbert Webb Gillman’s Index to the Marriage Licence Bonds of the Diocese of Cork and Ross contains an index of marriage licence bonds made in Cork and Ross between the years 1623 and 1750. Although the marriages in question were usually between Protestants, the author notes in his preface that some Catholics also entered into these bonds; this might have been the case if, for instance, the couple did not wish to have their banns of marriage read. However, the religion of the parties involved is not indicated in the bonds themselves.

 

 

http://www.corkpastandpresent.ie/genealogy/gillmansindextomarriagelicencebonds-corkandross/

 

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Due to circumstances peculiar to the county of Cork, the Marriage

 

Licence bonds between the above dates are in most cases the only

 

official evidence now available of the marriages to which they refer.

 

The best evidence of a marriage in past times is of course the entry

 

thereof in a Parish Register, but in county Cork very few of these

 

registers contain records earlier than about A.D. 1800, and none, except

 

Christ Church, Cork (A.D. 1643 to 1878, but with a large chasm from 1666 to 1708),

 

St. Mary Shandon, Cork (1671 to 1873), St. Multose, Kinsale (1684 to 1875), extend

 

back into the seventeenth century. Kilgariffe (Clonakilty) begins in 1700, but has a

 

chasm between 1753 and 1794. The next best evidence is a Marriage Licence, but

 

the Grant Books for Cork Marriage Licences, preserved in the Public Record Office,

 

only commence in 1750, so that before that date this class of evidence also is wanting

 

in most cases in county Cork.

 

In the absence of Parish Registers and of Marriage Licence Grants, the next best

 

evidence (which in such absence becomes then primary presumptive evidence) is a

 

Marriage Licence Bond. Such a bond had to be entered into before a Bishop would

 

grant his licence for a proposed marriage, because the Bishop was open to an action

 

for damages if he issued a licence for the solemnisation of a marriage against which

 

there existed some ” canonical let or impediment,” or some other legal objection such

 

as a pre-contract of one of the parties to marry some other person; and so, to protect

 

himself, the Bishop required two solvent persons, of whom the intending bridegroom

 

was generally one, to enter into a bond for a sum stated therein—generally propor-

tioned to the status of the parties—that there existed no such impediment or objection.

 

It will thus be seen that the Marriage Licence bonds of the diocese of Cork and

 

Ross from their commencement to A.D. 1750 are of the highest value to genealogists,

 

or to those who have to prove their descent for the purposes of claiming property, or

 

making or proving pedigrees connected with that portion of the county Cork, included

 

in the diocese of Cork and Ross.

 

These bonds contain the names of the respective persons proposing to be married,

 

and of the surety who joins, generally with the intending bridegroom, in the bond, and

 

the residences or parishes of these persons, with occasionally other particulars relative

 

to them. The bonds themselves, to which the subjoined list of names and dates is the

 

Index, are on record in the Public Record Office of Ireland, Four Courts, Dublin; and

 

any person can, on application and payment of the prescribed fees (one shilling per

 

folio) obtain from that office a certified copy of any of these bonds, or of any portion

 

of a bond, e.g. omitting the merely formal part if not required.

 

The nature of the information afforded by these bonds may be gathered from the

 

following copy of one of which I happen to have an official copy : —

 

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1805 Sample Marriage License Bond.

This is from a large bundle from St. Peter’s Church Cork, donated to the National Archives.

In the Church of Ireland marriage was by Licence Bond generally for the better off.  For other it was by Banns reading the intention at service three Sundays in a row. Sometimes Catholics applied for Marriage Licence Bonds for legal reasons.

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