Notes

[M+M008]
Mary Ann was married in the surname of BELL (her mother's earlier husband) but her birth certificate shows that her father was William Eperage.

[M+M020]
Witnessed by Eliza Middleton and John Middleton

[M+M033]
Extracts from book (MX/R 15) at the Society of Genealogists

"this chapel was built about the year 1730, and was one of those for the performance of the Marriage ceremony without obtaining a licence, or publication of banns or consent of parents. These marriages were called clandestine marriages and, although irregular, were at that time perfectly valid and binding.

The chapel was "thro' Picadilly, by the end of St. James Street, and down Clarges Street, and turn on the left-hand".

Extracts from "London in the 18th Century" by Sir Walter Besant:-

"In Mayfair Chapel the Rev. Alexander Keith married for some years an average of 6000 couples (or persons?) every year. His advertisement in the Daily Post of July 1744 is given by Burn in his history of Fleet weddings:- "To prevent mistakes, the little new chapel in Mayfair, near Hyde Park Corner, is in the corner house opposite to the City side of the great chapel, and within ten yards of it, and the minister and the clerk live in the same corner house where the little chapel is, and the licence on a crown stamp, minister and clerk's fees, together with the certificate, amount to one guinea as heretofore, at any hour till four in the afternoon. And that it may be better known, there is a porch at the door like a country church porch" (Sydney, vol.ii.p.399).

The marriages at Mayfair were stopped by the passing of Lord Hardwick's Marriage Act on 25th March 1754.

"As for Alexander Keith, he wrote against the Bill - but in vain, for it passed:- " 'Happy is the wooing that is not long a-doing ' is an old proverb and a very true one, but we shall have no occasion for it after the 25th day of March, when we are commanded to read it backwards, and from that period (fatal indeed to Old England!) we must date the declension of the numbers of the inhabitants of England." In conversation he said, "Damn the bishops! So they will hinder my marrying! Well - let 'em! I'll be revenged. I'll buy two or three acres of ground and I'll underbury them all." On the last day of the old order Keith married nearly a hundred."

[M+M046]
Henrietta Dorothy was married in the name of Dorothy Ellen !

[M+M440]
There is a sad story from family records that James McKain became estranged from his 2nd daughter, Marianne, over her marriage to Job Meek, the son of a farmer. Job Meek met Marianne when he was a tutor at the school run by James. Much to James' displeasure, a romance developed and the couple eloped. Apparently, her father disowned Marianne, being of the opinion she had married beneath her. He removed her name from all family records. It is said that Marianne went to visit her father on his death bed but he refused to see her, saying "I have no daughter, Marianne". Strangely, there appears to be no record of Marianne's baptism at Holy Trinity, Bungay, where all her siblings were baptised. With thanks to Leslie Meek (my 4th cousin twice removed) for this information. Reg Mayhew.

[M+M496]
By Banns. Widower and Widow. Both of this parish. Witnessed by Thomas and Mary Sherlock. Thomas signed, Mary made mark.

[M+M500]
1925 Letter Extract source^S461 by Selina Sorby (nee Limpus) (1852-1932)

John MORLAND ^P1696, Sarah Ann RAGLESS ^P1648, Jane RAGLESS ^P1665, Margaret ^P1705, John MORLAND ^P1702

"Aunt S?? told me that my grandma (Sarah Ragless, born at Angmering but adopted by an Aunt at Waltham Green (Walham Green, Fulham, Middlesex)) went to do sewing at the house of Mrs Morland & heard her and her two daughters talking about the expected return of the only son, after many years absence. Within 6 weeks of his return, he had married the little dressmaker - she 34 and he 40 years old. Her aunt disowned her & adopted her younger sister who married with her consent and inherited her few houses etc. etc. (my Great Aunt Mrs Bohne who lived to be 95). His mother would have nothing more to do with him & at her death left all her property to her two daughters. (She kept her carriage etc..) with the exception of £20 a year to her son for his life, which he refused to accept. I fancy they must have been very poor, but in my estimation he was lucky to get such a wife. She was a dear little woman, very clever in all household accomplishments, could cook, knit & sew, taught her daughters (illegible). I have a silver tablespoon with her initials & another with those of an older sister, that were always spoken of as 'christening presents' & I remember her three brothers coming to see father when I was 16 - the year after grandma died (1866) and inviting James and I to Angmering. But we never went. When my uncle John was born the Morland family undertook to educate and provide for him & trustees were appointed. He was to have gone to Eton - but after he was drowned at 9yrs of age - nothing was ever done for my Aunt or my mother".

[M+M657]
adopted:John SUMMERHAYS ^P2354

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