Details
GRETNA GREEN. Marriage Register of Gretna Hall, including transcripts of the certificates of approximately 1134 marriages celebrated there from 12 July 1825 to 1 November 1854, most presided over by John Linton, a few by Robert Elliott, David and Simon Lang, Richard Linton and (from 1852 to 1854) William Jardine, written in an fluent contemporary cursive script (from 1852 in a less educated hand) on lined paper, watermarked 1825, 486 pages, 4to, blanks. Contemporary half-reversed-calf, decorated with fillets and rolls, marble end papers, marbled edges (extremities worn causing losses at head and tail of spine).
THE RECORD OF MARRIAGES AT THE FAMOUS INN AT THE MOST NOTORIOUS VILLAGE ON THE SCOTTISH BORDER. Clandestine marriages took place usually because of parental opposition. After the Marriage Act of 1754 made the marriage of anyone under 21 without the consent of both parents illegal, eloping couples had to travel to Scotland where local custom recognised a marriage ceremony in which the couple merely made their vows in front of witnesses. Gretna (or 'Graitney') Green, the first village over the border, became the centre of the runaway marriage trade, which reached its peak between 1810 and 1856.
Around 1825 John Linton, formerly a valet and familiar with the ways of the gentry, became the innkeeper of Gretna Hall and assured its prosperity by arranging for the post-chaises from the South to stop there. The Hall rapidly became the principal scene of 'irregular' marriages, Linton presiding as chief witness (and sometimes self-styled 'priest'), with two or three others, and bestowing elegance and dignity upon the occasion. A most lucrative business, it brought in large fees, plus substantial charges for rooms and food and wine, and extravagant gratuities.
The journey to Gretna was expensive, and while at first many of the addresses in the Register are close to the Border, increasingly the couples were well-born, wealthy and from further afield. Entries in the Register include the notorious marriage on March 8th, 1826, of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, an impecunious widower, to Ellen Turner, a 16 year old heiress of Cheshire, whom he had decoyed from her school. He was arrested in France, and the marriage annulled by Parliament. On 17 May 1835, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, grandson of the dramatist (who had also eloped) married Maria Grant, another heiress. On 7 May 1836, Carlo Ferdinando Borbone, son of the King of Naples, married Miss Penelope Smyth, going through a nuptial ceremony for the third time in six months; in proof of their determination they followed it with a fourth wedding in London. On 25 May 1840, Lord Drumlanrig and young Miss Caroline Clayton were married. Both excellent riders, they made the entire journey from Surrey on horseback.
This romantic traffic, which at its height included over 600 marriages in Gretna Green in a year, declined after Linton's death in 1851, and effectively ceased when the Marriage Act of 1856 required one of the couple to have resided in Scotland for three weeks before the marriage.
The present Register appears to be an unrecorded duplicate of the Register kept in Linton's own hand (and described and illustrated in Irregular Border Marriages by 'Claverhouse' [Miss Meliora Smith, Linton's grand-daughter], 1934).
THE RECORD OF MARRIAGES AT THE FAMOUS INN AT THE MOST NOTORIOUS VILLAGE ON THE SCOTTISH BORDER. Clandestine marriages took place usually because of parental opposition. After the Marriage Act of 1754 made the marriage of anyone under 21 without the consent of both parents illegal, eloping couples had to travel to Scotland where local custom recognised a marriage ceremony in which the couple merely made their vows in front of witnesses. Gretna (or 'Graitney') Green, the first village over the border, became the centre of the runaway marriage trade, which reached its peak between 1810 and 1856.
Around 1825 John Linton, formerly a valet and familiar with the ways of the gentry, became the innkeeper of Gretna Hall and assured its prosperity by arranging for the post-chaises from the South to stop there. The Hall rapidly became the principal scene of 'irregular' marriages, Linton presiding as chief witness (and sometimes self-styled 'priest'), with two or three others, and bestowing elegance and dignity upon the occasion. A most lucrative business, it brought in large fees, plus substantial charges for rooms and food and wine, and extravagant gratuities.
The journey to Gretna was expensive, and while at first many of the addresses in the Register are close to the Border, increasingly the couples were well-born, wealthy and from further afield. Entries in the Register include the notorious marriage on March 8th, 1826, of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, an impecunious widower, to Ellen Turner, a 16 year old heiress of Cheshire, whom he had decoyed from her school. He was arrested in France, and the marriage annulled by Parliament. On 17 May 1835, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, grandson of the dramatist (who had also eloped) married Maria Grant, another heiress. On 7 May 1836, Carlo Ferdinando Borbone, son of the King of Naples, married Miss Penelope Smyth, going through a nuptial ceremony for the third time in six months; in proof of their determination they followed it with a fourth wedding in London. On 25 May 1840, Lord Drumlanrig and young Miss Caroline Clayton were married. Both excellent riders, they made the entire journey from Surrey on horseback.
This romantic traffic, which at its height included over 600 marriages in Gretna Green in a year, declined after Linton's death in 1851, and effectively ceased when the Marriage Act of 1856 required one of the couple to have resided in Scotland for three weeks before the marriage.
The present Register appears to be an unrecorded duplicate of the Register kept in Linton's own hand (and described and illustrated in Irregular Border Marriages by 'Claverhouse' [Miss Meliora Smith, Linton's grand-daughter], 1934).
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