An Act to render valid certain Marriages. [7th March 1823.]

 

Whereas by an Act passed in the Third Year of the Reign of His present Majesty King George the Fourth, intituled An Act to amend certain Provisions of the Twenty sixth of George the Second, for the better preventing of clandestine Marriages, it is amongst other Things enacted, that no Person shall, from and after the passing of this Act, be deemed authorized by Law to grant any Licence for the Solemnization of any Marriage, except the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, according to the Rights now vested in them, and except the several other Bishops within their respective Dioceses, for the Marriage of Persons, One of whom shall be resident at the Time within the Diocese of the Bishop in whose Name such Licence shall be granted : And Whereas, notwithstanding such Enactment, divers Licences for Marriage have, through Error, been granted since the passing of the said Act by or in the Name of Bodies Corporate or Persons, their Officers or Surrogates, other than the said Archbishops and Bishops, which Bodies Corporate or Persons, their Officers or Surrogates,  before the passing of the said Act, were or were deemed to be authorized by Law to grant such Licences ; and divers Persons have been married by virtue or in consequence of Licences so granted, the Validity of which Marriages is affected by the Enactment aforesaid : And Whereas it is expedient to remedy the same :’ Be it enacted by the King’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, That all and every Marriages and Marriage solemnized by virtue or in consequence of a Licence granted after the passing of the said Act of the Third Year of His present Majesty, and before the passing of this Act, by or in the Name of a Body Corporate or Person, his or their Officer or Surrogate, other than the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, according to the Rights vested in them respectively, or the several other Bishops within their respective Dioceses, which Body Corporate or Person, his or their Officers and Surrogates, before the passing of the said Act, were or were deemed to be authorized by Law to grant such Licences, shall be as good and valid Marriages to all Intents and Purposes whatsoever, as the same would have been if the said Enactment restraining the Power and Authority of granting such Licences had not been made.

II. And be it further enacted, That such Bodies Corporate and Persons as aforesaid, their Officers and Surrogates, who have granted such Licences as aforesaid since the passing of the said Act, and their Officers and others concerned therein, and such Ministers as have acted under the Authority of the same, shall not be or be held to be liable to any Pains or Penalties, or Censures respectively, for or on account of the granting or acting under the same.

 

 

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First published in 2005.

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