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BIGAMOUS MARRIAGE IN EARLY MODERN ENGLAND

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2009

BERNARD CAPP
BERNARD CAPP*
Affiliation:
University of Warwick
*
Department of History, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7ALb.s.capp@warwick.ac.uk
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Abstract

Though divorce followed by remarriage was illegal in early modern England, a considerable number of people whose marriage had failed or whose spouse had deserted ventured to marry again, either uncertain of the law or choosing to defy it. Bigamy, traditionally a spiritual offence, came to be seen as a significant social problem and was made a felony in 1604. Drawing on ecclesiastical and secular court records and a variety of other sources, this article examines the legal framework, offers a typology of bigamists, and explores the circumstances surrounding their actions. It finds that offenders, predominantly male, ranged from the unlucky or feckless to the cynically manipulative, among them a small number of serial bigamists. It also asks how such offences might come to light in an age of relatively poor communications, and examines the plight of those who had married a bigamist in good faith. Finally it examines the likelihood of conviction, and the punishment of those who confessed or were convicted.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 52 , Issue 3 , September 2009 , pp. 537 - 556
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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References

1 See Mary Jo Kietzman, The self-fashioning of an early modern Englishwoman. Mary Carleton's lives (London, 2004), esp. pp. 37–77, for a full account of the case.

2 Martin Ingram, Church courts, sex and marriage in England, 1570–1640 (Cambridge, 1987), pp. 125–88; Eric Josef Carlson, Marriage and the English Reformation (Oxford, 1994); Lawrence Stone, Road to divorce: England, 1530–1987 (Oxford, 1990), pp. 139–230, 301–22; idem, Uncertain unions (Oxford, 1992); idem, Broken lives: separation and divorce in England, 1660–1857 (Oxford, 1993); see also Bernard Capp, When gossips meet: women, family and neighbourhood in early modern England (Oxford, 2003), pp. 38–42, 118–19.

3 Stone, Uncertain unions, p. 232; Ingram, Church courts, p. 149, challenged Stone's earlier remark that bigamy was ‘easy and common’. For a good, short discussion of bigamy cases in Essex see J. A. Sharpe, Crime in seventeenth-century England: a county study (Cambridge, 1983), pp. 67–8.

4 Stone, Uncertain unions, pp. 232–74.

5 Bridewell Court Minutes, Guildhall Library, London (henceforth GL), MS 33011/6, 8 Sept. 1621; cf. e.g. London Metropolitan Archives (henceforth LMA), MJ/SR 1032/54.

6 GL, MS 33011/5, fo. 108. On clandestine marriage see R. B. Outhwaite, Clandestine marriage in England, 1500–1850 (London, 1995); Stone, Road to divorce, pp. 96–120.

7 Ingram, Church courts, chs. 4 and 5, passim.

8 Carlson, Marriage, pp. 75–7, 83–5; Stone, Road to divorce, pp. 301–8, 347–8; Tim Stretton, ‘Marriage, separation and the common law in England, 1540–1660’, in Helen Berry and Elizabeth Foyster, eds., The family in early modern England (Cambridge, 2007), pp. 18–39.

9 1 Jac. 1, c. 11, ‘An Act to restrain all persons from marrying until their former wives and former husbands be dead’; English reports, King's Bench, 79, pp. 1000–1, 82, p. 430, 84, p. 1066.

10 Roderick Phillips, Untying the knot: a short history of divorce (Cambridge, 1991), pp. 22–4; Stone, Road to divorce, pp. 302–3. For divorce in Protestant Germany and Switzerland see Steven Ozment, When fathers ruled (Cambridge, MA, 1983), pp. 80–99; Thomas Safley, Let no man put asunder (Kirksville, MS, 1984).

11 John Raynolds, A defence of the iudgment of the Reformed churches ([Dordrecht], 1609), p. 18 and passim; cf. R. G. Usher, ed., The Presbyterian movement in the reign of Queen Elizabeth as illustrated by the minute book of the Dedham classis, 1582–1589 (Camden Third Series, 8, London, 1905), pp. 27–8, 36.

12 Edmund Bunny, Of divorce for adulterie (Oxford, 1610), sig. **2v–***.

13 Stone, Road to divorce, pp. 302–3; John Dove, Of diuorcement (London, 1601); John Howson, Uxore dismissa propter fornicationem (Oxford, 1602); Thomas Pye, Epistola ad … Johannen Housonum (London, 1603). The 1606 edition of Howson's work printed a letter from Rainolds to Pye, supportive but urging restraint: sig. Gg3v–Hh3v.

14 Ralph Houlbrooke, Church courts and the people during the English reformation, 1520–1570 (Oxford, 1979), pp. 70–1.

15 Bunny, Of divorce, sig. **2v–3v.

16 John Strype, The life and acts of … John Whitgift (London, 1718), pp. 508–10, Appendix 36, pp. 222–3; Simonds D'Ewes, The journals of all the parliaments during the reign of Queen Elizabeth (London, 1682), pp. 555–62.

17 Stone, Road to divorce, pp. 305–6; 1 Jac. 1, c. 11.

18 Bunny, Of divorce, sig. ***; William Whately, A bride-bush (London, 1619), pp. 25–8; William Whately, A care-cloth (London, 1624), sig. A8–v.

19 Christopher Maginn, ‘Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy’, in Oxford dictionary of national biography (Oxford, 2004).

20 Christopher Durston, The family in the English revolution (Oxford, 1989), ch. 4; Thomas Edwards, Gangraena (London, 1646), part 1, p. 34; Commons journals, vii (1651–60), p. 388.

21 LMA, MJ/SR 1258/61; cf. e.g. MJ/SR 1173/50.

22 Louis A. Knafla, ed., Kent at law, 1602: the county jurisdiction: assizes and sessions of the peace (London, 1994), pp. 179, 181.

23 LMA, MJ/SR 1155/96; cf. LMA, MJ/SR 1183/90.

24 Old Bailey Proceedings (henceforth OB; online at http://oldbaileyonline.org), t16871012-39; t17000115-30.

25 OB, t16840515-20; cf. LMA, MJ/SR 1064/63, MJ/SR 1115/210.

26 Mercurius jocosus, 28 July – 4 August 1654, pp. 27–8.

27 Leicestershire Record Office (henceforth LRO), Archdeaconry papers, 1D 41/13/26, fo. 10v.

28 LRO, Hall papers, BRii/18/13, fo. 478.

29 GL, MS 33011/4, fos. 184, 194v.

30 GL, MS 33011/2, fo. 202.

31 GL, MS 33011/3, 15 Aug. 1579.

32 B. H. Cunnington, ed., Records of the county of Wilts.: being extracts from the quarter sessions great rolls of the seventeenth century (Devizes, 1932), pp. 210–11.

33 A. J. Willis and Margaret J. Hoad, eds., Portsmouth borough sessions papers, 1653–1688 (London, 1971), pp. 37–8.

34 LMA, MJ/SR 1114/16.

35 Certain Passages, 372 (16–23 Mar. 1655), pagination erratic.

36 See e.g. Thomas Harman, A caveat for common cursitors (1567) in Gamini Salgado, ed., Cony-catchers and bawdy baskets (Harmondsworth, 1972), pp. 128–37.

37 The last will and testament of Richard Brandon, esquire (London, 1649), p. 7.

38 The German princess revived (London, 1684), p. 8.

39 GL, MS 33011/4, fos. 161v, 172.

40 GL, MS 33011/3, fo. 327; cf. Laura Gowing, Domestic dangers: women, words and sex in early modern London (Oxford, 1996), pp. 181–2; Stone, Road to divorce, pp. 304–8; Ingram, Church courts, p. 179.

41 GL, MS 33011/4, fo. 285.

42 R. Greene, The black bookes messenger (1592), in Salgado, ed., Cony-catchers, pp. 325–6.

43 GL, MS 33011/4, fo. 158.

44 GL, MS 33011/4, fo. 18.

45 See e.g. Sharpe, Crime, pp. 67–8; Bernard Capp, Cromwell's navy: the fleet and the English revolution, 1648–1660 (Oxford, 1989), pp. 252–4.

46 See e.g. LMA, MJ/SR 1066/53 (thirty-year gap); MJ/SR 1071/87 (Barbados), MJ/SR 1093/244 (Dorset); J. S. Cockburn, ed., Calendar of assize records: Kent indictments, Charles I (London, 1995), pp. 102 (Hereford), 515 (Derbyshire); OB, t16891009-5 (Dublin).

47 Perfect Proceedings, 299 (13–21 June 1655), p. 4748; Publick Intelligencer, 5 (29 Oct.-5 Nov. 1655), pp. 75–6.

48 Strange newes from Newgate and the Old-Bailey (London, 1651), 2; Perfect Passages, 28 (17–24 Jan. 1651), p. 186; OB, t16840903-15.

49 Perfect Passages, 56 (5–12 Mar. 1652), p. 403; Moderate Occurrences, 1 (29 Mar. – 5 Apr. 1653), p. 8. The Northampton case was deferred as no witnesses appeared.

50 The Faithfull Scout, 121 (15–22 July 1653), p. 1087.

51 OB, t16760510-1.

52 OB, t16991213-39.

53 OB, t16920831-12.

54 LRO, 1D 41/4/652; Cambridge University Library (henceforth CUL), Ely Diocesan Records (henceforth EDR), D2/11, fo. 80 (a clergyman, 1575); English reports, 78, King's bench, p. 353; LMA, MJ/SR 1088/285, MJ/SR 1148/293. John Bunyan was smeared as a bigamist, witch, highwayman, and Jesuit: Bunyan, Grace abounding, ed. Roger Sharrock (Oxford, 1962), p. 93.

55 J. S. Cockburn, ed., Calendar of assize records: Sussex indictments, James I (London, 1975), p. 91; cf. LMA, MJ/SR 1183/481; William Le Hardy, ed., Middlesex: calendar to the sessions records, 1612–1618 (4 vols., London, 1935–41), ii, pp. 71–2.

56 OB, t16810706a-1.

57 Sharpe, Crime, p. 67; Cockburn, ed., Calendar of assize records: Kent: James I, Charles I, 1649–1659, 1660–1675, 1676–1688 (5 vols., London, 1980–97), passim; Old Bailey Proceedings, passim; LMA, MJ/SR, sessions files 1649–60.

58 GL, MS 33011/7, fo. 187v.

59 Perfect Passages, 63 (27 Aug. – 3 Sept. 1652), p. 492.

60 LMA, MJ/SR 1067/52–3.

61 E.g. LMA, MJ/SR 1046/152, MJ/SR 1050/41.

62 Perfect Passages, 39 (11–18 Apr. 1651), p. 278.

63 GL, MS 33011/2, fo. 117.

64 GL, MS 33011/4, fo. 175v.

65 LRO, BRii/18/24a, fos. 209–11.

66 LMA, MJ/SR 1053/38; cf. MJ/SR 1043/183, MJ/SR 1152/41a.

67 GL, MS 33011/4, fos. 193v–4.

68 Bernard Capp, ‘Republican reformation’, in Berry and Foyster, eds., The family, p. 53.

69 CUL, EDR, B/21, fo. 75v; GL, MS 33011/8, fo. 110.

70 LRO, 1D 41/13/25, fo. 20; cf. 1D 41/13/22, fo. 20, 1D 41/13/24, fo. 7v, 1D 41/13/25, fo. 19, 1D 41/13/82, fo. 74.

71 OB, t16761011-7.

72 CUL, EDR, B2/21, fo. 51v; Edward Burghall, Memorials of the civil war in Cheshire, ed. J. Hall (Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 19, Chester, 1889), p. 6.

73 E.g. LMA, MJ/SR 1156/265, MJ/SR 1185/269.

74 LMA, MJ/SR 1115/245; cf. MJ/SR 1117/81.

75 J. S. Cockburn, ed., Calendar of assize records: Surrey indictments, James I (London, 1982), pp. 230, 253; idem, Calendar of assize records: Kent indictments, James I (London, 1980), p. 136; idem, Calendar of assize records: Kent indictments, 1649–1659 (London, 1989), p. 131.

76 LMA, MJ/SR 1071/87.

77 F. J. C. and D. M. Hearnshaw, eds., Court leet records, part iii, 1603–1624 (Southampton Record Society, Southampton, 1907), p. 392.

78 LRO, BRii/18/5/802.

79 GL, MS 33011/3, fo. 183.

80 LRO, 1D 41/13/57, fo. 267; cf. CUL, EDR D2/9, fo. 139v.

81 LRO, 1D 41/13/39, fo. 62. For a failed attempt to purge see 1D 41/13/59, fo. 41.

82 LRO, 1D 41/13/12, fo. 33v; cf. 1D 41/13/26, fo. 18.

83 W. L. Sachse, ed., Minutes of the Norwich court of mayoralty, 1632–1635 (Norfolk Record Society, 36, Norwich, 1967), p. 124.

84 LRO, BRii/18/11/171–2.

85 E.g. J. S. Cockburn, ed., Calendar of assize records: Essex indictments, James I (London, 1982), p. 39; OB, t16800115-5, t16830712-12.

86 The Old Bailey records are incomplete, and the figures exclude three men discharged under royal pardons, and a Jewish man whose case fell outside the scope of the Act.

87 Cockburn, Calendar: Kent, Charles I, pp. 233–5, 457; idem, Calendar: Kent, 1649–1659, p. 131; idem, Calendar of assize records: Kent indictments 1676–1688 (London, 1997), pp. 66, 181–2.

88 E.g. OB, t16741014-4, t16761011-7, 8, t16820223-5, t16831212-26, t16850225-8, t17000828-42.

89 OB, t16910115-20.

90 E.g. OB, t16820916-8, t16820916a-8.

91 OB, t16870406-33.

92 E.g. OB, t16891211-28.

93 OB, t16811017a-4.

94 OB, t16820916-8, t16820916a-8, cf. t16811017a-4.

95 OB, t16861013-21.

96 Outhwaite, Clandestine marriage, pp. 24–31; David M. Turner, Fashioning adultery: gender, sex and civility in England, 1660–1740 (Cambridge, 2002), pp. 68–73.

97 OB, t16920115-18.

98 OB, t16880711-20, t16871012-39, t16930426-27.

99 LRO, 1D 41/13/26, fo. 16v.

100 E.g. GL, MS 33011/1, fo. 205v, MS 33011/3, fos. 183, 184r–v, 187v.

101 GL, MS 33011/3, fo. 326.

102 GL, MS 33011/3, 12, 14, 15 Aug. 1579.

103 OB, t16920831-12.

104 E.g. Cunnington, ed., Records of Wilts., pp. 60–1; Cockburn, Calendar: Surrey, James I, pp. 7, 8; idem, Calendar: Essex, James I, pp. 191, 249, 258.

105 OB, t16760510-1, t16931206-14.

106 Cockburn, Calendar: Kent, 1649–1659, p. 131.

107 J. C. Jeaffreson, ed., Middlesex county records (4 vols., London, 1886–92), ii, p. 27; OB, t16930906-25.

108 Cockburn, Calendar: Essex, James I, p. 191; LMA, MJ/SR 1071/33; OB, t16760628-6, t16770711a-6.

109 Cockburn, Calendar: Surrey: James I, pp. 7, 8.

110 Cockburn, ed., Calendar: Kent, Charles I, p. 457.

111 OB, t16760510-2.

112 LMA, MJ/SR 1068/40, 1075/38; on Waterton see Capp, ‘Republican reformation’, pp. 43, 65.

113 A Perfect Diurnall, 36 (12–19 Aug. 1650), p. 433; Perfect Passages, 56 (5–12 Mar. 1652), p. 403; Norwich and Norfolk Record Office, Great Yarmouth sessions book, 1651–79, Y/S 1/3, fo. 18.

114 OB, t16920831-12, t16930906-59.

115 OB, t16971208-13.

116 For summaries of colonial American arrangements see Phillips, Untying the knot, pp. 37–45, 69–72; Roger Thompson, Women in Stuart England and America (London, 1974), pp. 174–8. See also John Cairncross, After polygamy was made a sin: the social history of Christian polygamy (London, 1974).

117 Joanne Bailey, Unquiet lives: marriage and marriage breakdown in England, 1660–1800 (Cambridge, 2003), pp. 183–7; Sharpe, Pamela, ‘Bigamy among the labouring poor in Essex, 1754–1857’, Local Historian, 24 (1994), pp. 139–45Google Scholar; Frost, Ginger, ‘Bigamy and cohabitation in Victorian England’, Journal of Family History, 22 (1997), pp. 286–306CrossRefGoogle Scholar; cf. Safley, Let no man, pp. 136–9.