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.
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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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West Cork History 
