General Chat

Can anyone tell me when it became legal to marry your deceased wife's sister.

We have a case in our family where a man married in 1908, his wife died 1914, and he married her younger sister in 1917.

Would it have been legal then?

From Google

In the UK it was illegal to marry your dead wife's sister until 1907 when the Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act was passed.
Until this time canon law had prevailed. Canon law is basically Church Law and this had taken the point of view that if a man and woman marry then the husband is related ot the wife's family and therefore any marriage would be improper.
However, the reality of many peoples lives was such that if a wife died and she had a younger sister who was unmarried (or even an older sister) then the spinster would move in and look after the children.
Obviously in the late 19th Century a man and a woman living out of wedlock gave rise to concern for many within the Community, so the law was passed in 1907 to ensure that standards could be 'maintained'. However, it was not until 1921 that the Deceased Brother's Widow's Act was passed!

Or another explanation.

Such marriages were against criminal law in England only between 1835 and 1907/1921. Before 1835 canon law, as enshirned in the Elizabethan table of kindred and affinity outlawed it. Under this law no distinction was made between consangunity [relationship by blood] and affinity [relationship by marriage]. Therefore, to marry your sister-in-law was exactly the same as to marry your sister, even if your brother was dead.

TeddysGirl
I have a similar situation in my family. Gt.Gt. Grandad lost his wife in early 1881, and left him with 8 children. Then along came her sister, and by the 1891 census, she was down as his wife. However, when he died in early 1900's, he was buried with his 'first' wife. But, neither I, nor her grandaughter from the the 'second' marriage to the sister, can find a marriage. So, we are assuming they never married.
I did read somewhere, that some ministers were lenient with the law, and did marry people in this situation.
Julia in Derbyshire

Aunty, that is very interesting... I have a gt gt gt grandmother who died in 1847. Her sister married her widower (my gt gt gt grandfather) in 1847... 6 months after the death of his first wife, marriage was recorded in parish records pre 1839.... so that means the second marriage was bigamous!!!

Oh er, lolol

Love

Daff xxxxx

The marriage would only have been bigamous if the first wife was still alive at the time of the second marriage.

After 1835 but before 1907 a marriage to a deceased wife's sister would have in been void and any children considered illegitimate. Prior to 1835 it was not considered to be absolutely void, but voidable at the suit of any interested party.

Sorry.... brain not working.... but incestuous, lolol and therefore illegal..... in the eyes of the laws at the time. Strange mind, considering it was so common for the sisters of the dead women to move in to look after the children, and society would have sniffed, then as now, at such an arrangement.... lol!!

Love

Daff xxxx

It would be interesting to know just how many of these "incestuous" marriages there were. It seems that ministers often turned a blind eye even after 1835 Perhaps they though that it was best to allow it to go ahead, especially if there were young children involved, as you say plain and simple common sense.

IGP, I imagine there were loads. This couple married in London, but then moved back to their home village in Devon within a year... their son was born a year after the marriage.

The stepmother/aunt must have been well loved. The 10 year old girl was fond enough of her to name her eldest daughter after her. An unusual name, too.

Love

Daff xxxx

Thank you everyone, this is so interesting.

I also have in my family a widow and her daughter marrying two brothers

How complicated this must have been.

I have a widower and his son marrying sisters too.

I have cousins marrying in my OHs tree. Well that's what it looks like. It does tend to mess up the flow of the tree a bit. I don't think any of these ancient rellies had a single idea of how much their actions would impact on family history research a couple of hundred years down the track.

I have a sister marrying her widowed brother in law. It looks as if she had moved in to look after the children, including a new born, when her sister (his wife) died in childbirth.

What an interesting thread...I didn't realise that such a marriage was illegal.

I have an ancestor who died in 1889 leaving 7 children...her husband then married her youngest (by 21 years) sister in the same year who was actually living with them at the time. As it happens there were no children born from this marriage. I will have to order the second marriage cert as I am now intrigued.

As for bigamous marriages...I have the 2nd marriage cert of my 3x gt grandmother where she stated that she was a widow. I spent an age (without success) looking for the death of my 3x gt grandfather thinking how sad that he had died at such a young age and leaving a young child as well. By chance I found him on the other side of the country with a new wife and son! On this marriage cert he stated that he was a widower.

I relished having bigamous marriages in my tree until I found a newspaper article dated in 1862 where it gave in graphic detail how he beat up my 3x gt grandmother and was sent down for one month. I have somewhat disowned him.

Linda