From: ce11son@yahoo.ca   
      
   On Mon, 28 Jan 2019 18:53:51 +0000, Jenny M Benson   
    wrote:   
      
   >Can anyone explain the meaning of the phrase "Single and Unmarried" in   
   >the "Condition" column of a Marriage Register entry.  I am presuming   
   >there has been some actual act of "un-marrying".  Having never come   
   >across this before, I have now found it twice under the following   
   >circumstances.   
   >   
   >William Joseph John Hawkins and Radigen Selina Rains Randall were   
   >married on 08 May 1856 at Holy Trinity Church in Hoxton.  They were   
   >Bachelor and Spinster and she was stated to be 18 but might have been   
   >only 17.  The Banns were called twice, but they married by Licence a few   
   >days before the third calling would have taken place.   
   >   
   >On 17 September 1857 William married Amelia Saunders after Banns at St   
   >Marylebone and he was stated to be a Bachelor.   
   >   
   >On 11 December 1867 Radigen married Alfred Algernon Hartley in West   
   >Lulworth, Dorset.  She was then described as "Single & Unmarried."   
   >   
   >On 24 May 1868, at St Stephen's Paddington, William and Amelia were   
   >married again.  This time he was described as "Single and unmarried" and   
   >Amelia as "Spinster."   
   >   
   >Assuming the first marriages were dissolved in some way, is it likely   
   >there would be any records to be found now?   
   >   
   It was possibly just a belt and braces description to match the   
   legislative qualifications. OTOH "single" might also imply not living   
   in sin[TM]. Like the varying descriptions of unmarried mothers and   
   their children in baptism records, it was probably of no more   
   practical significance than the local clergy's style of recording.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)