Irish Clandestine Marriages
- jimryan1
- Feb 8
- 5 min read
Those of you searching for Irish marriage records may not welcome hearing another reason why they may never be found. This reason is that some Irish couples in the period 1760 to about 1840 were rather married by ‘private’ clergy who conducted marriages for money. These clergymen were willing, for a fee, to marry couples in secret or clandestine marriages. The reasons for such secret ceremonies ranged from the usual romantic urges to problems with religious affiliation, under-age couples, or financial difficulty.
Some clerics who performed these clandestine marriages were defrocked Church of Ireland clergymen. Others were clergy of smaller sects, and others were plain opportunists whose only motivation was money. These ‘clerics’ were popularly known as ‘couple-beggars’ or ‘Father tack-ems’ (from the idea that they were ‘tacking’ people together). Several advertised in newspapers using thinly-disguised language to convey their meaning.
An example from 1780 is “A clergyman .. not disqualified to exercise any ecclesiastical function …if wanted ON A PARTICULAR OCCASION, may be found at No. 4 Tighe street’ (1). One famous couple beggar went by the name Samuel D’Assigny and is reported to have “joined many thousands in wedlock, though he was never in holy orders, yet wore a band and gown and so imposed on the credulous and hasty lovers.”(2).
There were two major reasons for the success of these ‘alternate’ clergy. The first is that marriages between Catholics and Church of Ireland members were discouraged by both churches, and by the authorities. However, the realities of romance is that such liaisons existed and they demanded legal ratification. A further reason was an unwillingness to wait for the formal church processes, which seems to have been a particular feature with marriages of soldiers and officers. Denied the blessings of their churches by canon law, parental displeasure or other reason, couples could either go to England to be married, or they could use one of these alternative clergymen to achieve their purposes. The evidence is that many couples did take this course.
The second reason for the success of these couple-beggars among poorer couples was financial. Marriage for poorer Catholics was expensive. A marriage fee of 7 shillings was required in the 1790s, for instance, which was 2 weeks’ pay for day-labourers at 6 pence per day. While most parishes seem to have adopted a compassionate approach to marriage of the poor, it seems that some Catholic clergy were over-zealous in their demands for fees. Some refused performance of marriage and baptismal ceremonies to those who could not pay the fee, even though such refusal was banned by their bishops.
The seriousness of this problem of ‘clerical avarice’ is well documented. In 1786 the Catholic Bishop of Cloyne (Cork), felt the need to publish a lengthy notice to his clergy in a local newspaper. The central message in this notice was “We earnestly desire you to be as little burdensome to the people under your care as you possibly can… and we strictly enjoin that no clergyman under our care be so meanly mercenary as to demand anything for the administering of sacraments..” (3) However, it appears that some priests continued to insist on payments.
A further cost to the couple was a requirement that Banns be read in advance, i.e. that their intention to marry must be publicised in advance to allow valid objections to be made. However, for whatever reason, this became socially unacceptable and couples paid a surety to avoid publication of banns. A further fee was due to the Church of Ireland minister, even for Catholics. All of these fees together became a challenge for many, and pushed many poor people into the hands of the couple beggars, whose fees were very significantly lower. Their popularity waned because many were prosecuted. Figure 1 shows a Government 'caution' to couple beggars; while Figure 2 gives a clear impression of the attitude of one Catholic bishop to their activities. Despite these remonstrations, they continued to practice until well into the 1800s. Their trade among Catholics effectively ended in 1827 when the Catholic Church formally declared such marriages as invalid. All of these issues are further described in Irish Church Records (4).
While most of these "couple-beggars" did not keep a record of the marriages they conducted, some did. A report published by the Public Record Office (now the National
Archives) in the 1890s noted that 28 such registers were held by the PRO and that they contained ‘an estimated 30,000 marriages of which in most cases no other record exists and all ranks and creeds seem to have taken advantage of the expeditious and generally inexpensive method of celebrating marriages’ (5). All of these registers were unfortunately destroyed in the Public Record Office fire of 1922.
The only records of ‘clandestine’ marriages to survive were those of the Rev. J.G.F. Schulze, minister of a Lutheran Church in Poolbeg Street in Dublin which served the small community of German, Dutch and Scandinavian merchants. From 1806 to 1837 the minister, Rev. J.G. Schulze conducted marriage ceremonies, and some baptisms, for couples of any denomination. He was only licensed to act for his own congregation, but he seems not to have attracted any adverse legal attention. He is known to have conducted 6,000 marriages between 1806 and 1837 for couples of all sects and circumstances.
Two registers of these marriages survive, and are held by the General Register Office (GRO) in Roscommon. The records are held in the GRO is because a court case resulted in these marriages being declared legally sound. They therefore became de facto formal public marriages. Two volumes of Rev. Schulze records were acquired by the GRO. They record 55 baptisms and c. 4,000 marriages for 1825-37. Each entry contains only the date and names of the contracting couple. There are no signatures, and no witnesses. Neither is a residence or description given for the parties (see Fig.3). All of the Schulze records are searchable on the Irish Genealogical Research Society’s excellent Marriages Database.
So, if your ancestor was of humble birth, or is known to have married in haste or under age, perhaps the absence of a record from the formal church records is that they availed of the services of one of these gentlemen.
If this unusual genealogy source has inspired you to dig deeper, Ancestor Solutions can help you take the next step. Contact us for personalised Irish family history research. Please contact us hello@ancestorsolutions.ie
References:
(1) Hibernian Journal 6 November 1780
(2) Report of the Deputy Keeper of Public Records of Ireland, No. 33, p.7.
(3) From Dublin Evening Post of 28 September 1786
(4) James G. Ryan (2001) Catholic Church Records in Irish Church Records. Flyleaf Press, Dublin
(5) Report by Mr Herbert Wood on certain registers of irregular marriages celebrated by unlicensed clergymen. Report of Deputy Keeper of Public Records, No. 34, Appendix II.
(6) Flood, W. H. Grattan. “The Diocesan Manuscripts of Ferns during the Rule of Bishop Sweetman (1745-1786).” Archivium Hibernicum, vol. 3, 1914, pp. 113–123. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25485472. Accessed 11 May 2021.
James G Ryan - https://jimryan43.academia.edu/
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