The Lacunae of History – trying to fill in some of history's gaps!

Ash Early Marriage Records ~ 1548 to 1650

Written by

Sheila Kleiman

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Script

Marriages had taken place in Ash Parish Church for hundreds of years, but the first one to be recorded in a Parish Register at Ash was when Thomas Courtnesse and Rose Gunner were married 30 November 1549. Notice that Thomas’s first name was given special prominence:

After Thomas and Rose, we have the following records ~ note that ‘married’ was spelled with one ‘r’ (which looks like a ‘w’):

  • George Washford and Isabell There were married 27 January 1550
  • John Munger and Ales Hedger were married the last (day) of Maye 1550

>> After 1592, records copied from an earlier book ended, and the Parish Register was used to record events as they took place. Note that the handwriting in the above image is considerably harder to read than that of the scribe who copied the earlier records as shown in the first image.

  • John Bayly and Magadalen Grove were married 10 February 1606/07
  • Antony Fulvent and Alice Sythe (?) were married 5 May 1608
  • Gap in records
  • Thomas Munger and Elizabeth Moone were married 14 March April 1611/12
  • George Boylet and Elizabeth Ede were married 27 December 1611
  • Geilbert Draper and Jonne Porce were married 15 June 1612
  • John Mansill and Elizabeth Page were married 26 October 1612

Some Sample Ash Parish Marriages:

  • Gilbard Burt alias (allias) Goring and Dorothie Goreing Widow (widdow) were married 1 November 1627 ‘Alias’ implied ‘formerly’ and was used to show a person who may have taken another last name ~ perhaps following an inheritance; it was also used to show a woman’s maiden name.

The fact that a person was widowed was not always indicated in the Parish Register:

  • Nicholas Hayward and Constance Innes were married 9 May 1583
  • We know that Constance was a widow as a record in the Cleygate Manorial Rolls refers to “Alice Ticknor Daughter of William Innes and Constance his then wife now the wife of Nicholas Hayward“
  • Ric(hard) Bishop and Marie Deane were married 21 October 1638 – being licensed. Licences were quite unusual as most couples got married following the publication of banns
  • 1639: 0 signifying that no marriages took place in Ash that year
  • George Cobet and Joane Dare were married the last day of June 1644
  • Robert Dare and Joane Cobet were married 26 September 1645
  • This is the marriage of George Cobbett, Ash Parish Clerk; a year later, George’s sister Joan married the brother of George’s wife

Last Marriages Recorded in Ash Parish Register Volume I

  • 1650 – no marriages
  • George Robinson and Sara Drapyer were married 27 May 1651
  • John West and Marie Monger were married 4 June 1651
  • John Michyner and Marie (name not given) were married 6 December 1652
  • John Farmer and Mary Miles were married 25 September 1653

What Happened After September 1653?

Religious marriages were banned by Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate Government and marriages were performed by a Justice of the Peace. Ash Parish Register Volume I was retired to the church chest. Following the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II, those non-church marriages were simply declared legal and things returned to the way they had always been.

Select Sources:

  • Surrey History Centre; Woking, Surrey, England; Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Reference: AS/1/1
  • Normandy Historians