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John Bowditch - Section 4 - Parish Records - Specific

 

Parish Records - Specific

 The following tables are an extract of my collated Marriage Parish records for Broadwindsor filtered by Groom Surname - BOWDITCH, and then Forename(s) - John. This filter produced four records listed here.

UID Mar UID Register Transcriber PR or BT County Parish Church or Chapel Denomination Page No
969 BWMarriage0969 VOLUME IV.   Stephen Spurle PR Dorset Broadwindsor Church COE    
1211 BWMarriage1211 VOLUME V.   Stephen Spurle PR Dorset Broadwindsor Church COE    
1411 BWMarriage1411 Mar 1813 - 1837 Beverly Roth PR Dorset Broadwindsor Church COE   310
1603 BWMarriage1603 Mar 1837 - 1901 Beverly Roth PR Dorset Broadwindsor Church COE   177

 As our focus of interest is recorded by his Will Proving as having died in 1820, only the 8 July 1777 marriage to Elizabeth GRAY appears to be relevant. 

Day Month Year By Consent of Groom Family reference Groom Person reference Forename(s) Groom Surname Groom Gender
8 Jul 1777     BWMarriage0969 BWMarriage0969/P001 John BOWDITCH Male
26 Nov 1811     BWMarriage1211 BWMarriage1211/P001 John BOWDITCH Male
19 Apr 1836 0   BWMarriage1411 BWMarriage1411/P001 John BOWDITCH Male
29 Aug 1858 0   BWMarriage1603 BWMarriage1603/P001 John BOWDITCH Male

 Information improves in later records.

Groom Cond Groom X Groom Age Groom Occupation Groom Parish Groom Father Groom Father Occupation
             
             
        OTP    
Bach X Full Labourer OTP John Bowditch Labourer

 

Bride Family reference Bride Person reference Bride Forename(s) Bride Surname Bride Gender Bride Cond Bride X Bride Age Bride Occupation Bride Parish
BWMarriage0969 BWMarriage0969/P002 Elizabeth  GRAY Female          
BWMarriage1211 BWMarriage1211/P002 Maria  PYE Female          
BWMarriage1411 BWMarriage1411/P002 Sarah SAINT Female   X     OTP
BWMarriage1603 BWMarriage1603/P002 Mary Ann ROWE Female Spin   20   Thorncombe

 

Bride Father Bride Father Occupation Fullname Witness 1 Fullname Witness 2 Fullname Witness 3
         
         
    Henry HOLT Margaret? HENRICH? John BISHOP
Thomas ROWE Labourer Noel HUSSEY Mary BOWDITCH  

 The tables above represent the four rows in the filter.

Take to summary, John Bowditch marriage to Elizabeth Gray at St John the Baptist Church, Broadwindsor, Dorset on 8th July 1777.

Unfortunately there is very little additional information to be derived from this record.

So the next stage is to look for baptisms for the issue of John and Elizabeth form say 1778 to maybe 1808 initially. That is assuming an approximate age of marriage of 20 and another 30 years of child bearing age.

A short dive down the rabbit warren, Full Age.

The Marriage Act 1753, full title "An Act for the Better Preventing of Clandestine Marriage", popularly known as Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act (citation 26 Geo. II. c. 33), was the first statutory legislation in England and Wales to require a formal ceremony of marriage. It came into force on 25 March 1754. The Act was precipitated by a dispute about the validity of a Scottish marriage, although pressure to address the problem of clandestine marriage had been growing for some time.

Before the Act, the legal requirements for a valid marriage in England and Wales had been governed by the canon law of the Church of England. This had stipulated that banns should be called or a marriage licence obtained before a marriage could take place and that the marriage should be celebrated in the parish where at least one of the parties was resident. However, these requirements were directory rather than mandatory and the absence of banns or a licence – or even the fact that the marriage was not celebrated in a church – did not render the marriage void. The only indispensable requirement was that the marriage be celebrated by an Anglican clergyman. The mistaken assumption that a simple exchange of consent would suffice is based on later conflations between the theological position that consent made a marriage and the actual practice of the church courts. Prior to the passage of the 1753 Act such an exchange only created a binding contract to marry rather than a legal marriage.

The Act tightened the existing ecclesiastical rules regarding marriage, providing that for a marriage to be valid it had to be performed in a church and after the publication of banns or the obtaining of a licence. Those under the age of 21 had to have parental consent if they married by licence; marriages by banns, by contrast, were valid as long as the parent of the minor did not actually forbid the banns. Jews and Quakers were exempted from its provisions, although the Act did not go so far as to declare such marriages valid and it was many years before their legal standing was assured. Nor did the Act apply to members of the British Royal Family. Indeed, members of the Royal Family have been consistently exempted from all general legislation relating to marriage since this date, which is why doubts were expressed in 2005 about the ability of Prince Charles to marry Camilla Parker-Bowles in a civil ceremony, civil marriage being the creation of statute law. It was also provided that the 1753 Act had no application to marriages celebrated overseas or in Scotland.

The Act was highly successful in its stated aim of putting a stop to clandestine marriages, i.e., valid marriages performed by an Anglican clergyman but not in accordance with the canons. Thus the notorious practice of clandestine Fleet Marriages associated with London's Fleet Prison was ended, although there were various short-lived and abortive attempts to claim exemption for the Savoy Chapel in the Strand and the parish of Temple in Cornwall. The early death of the Savoy's minister on board ship while waiting to be transported for his flouting of the Act may have discouraged others from making similar claims, even if his demise was due to gout rather than to the conditions of his imprisonment.

However, some couples evaded the Act by travelling to Scotland. Various Scottish "Border Villages" (Coldstream Bridge, Lamberton, Mordington and Paxton Toll) became known as places to marry. And in the 1770s the construction of a toll road passing through the hitherto obscure village of Graitney led to Gretna Green becoming synonymous with romantic elopements.

The above does however contribute to the idea that a general assumption of marriages being at or around the age of 21.

Back to the task in hand.

From the will, the following children survived until after 1820 when the will was written. Richard Bowditch, Michael Bowditch, John Bowditch, Robert Bowditch, Elizabeth Bowditch, and Ann Bowditch.

First port of call, the Baptism record of Broadwindsor.

The only record fulfilling the filters for father and mother in the appropriate period is;-

Elizabeth Bowditch daughter born to Baptism Elizabeth Bowditch 16 Jul 1780John Bowditch and Elizabeth Bowditch on 28 June 1780 of the Gregorian calendar and Baptised on 16 July 1780 at St John the Baptist Church, Broadwindsor, Dorset

A pleasant surprise in the register of this period is the column for the date of birth.

There is nothing to definitively link this record to the John Bowditch in question, however, the probability is that it is correct.

The next thing to look at is for more baptisms in nearby parishes including non-conformist registers.

Starting with Beaminster, which identified three children baptised in the period 1775 - 1799, all to William and Peggy Bowditch. The next period of 1800-1812 provided 1 William & Margaret Bowditch and 4 William & Sarah Bowditch 

1803 JUN 10th; Mary daughter of John & Elizabeth BOWDITCH; Beaminster

Henry John & Elizabeth BOWDITCH baptised 28th July 1805 born 21st June

James Oliver Richard & Sarah BOWDITCH baptised 25th December 1806 born 14th May

Giles John & Jane BOWDITCH baptised 31st July 1808 born 18th May 1808

John Oliver son of Richard & Sarah BOWDITCH baptised 20th Sep 1810 born 1809 Sep 20

Elizabeth daughter of John & Jane BOWDITCH baptised 20th Sep 1811 born 1811 14 July

 

 More later

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