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From: "lancaster.jim" <>
Subject: Re: [CATHOLIC] Limehouse marriage mystery
Date: Sat, 8 Jul 2006 21:37:47 +0100
References: <000b01c6a2b6$ca096a00$6401a8c0@jan>


Hi, Jan,

You have an entry for a marriage in Pallot's Marriage Index, but say that
the marriage cannot be found in St Anne, Limehouse, registers.

First, what exactly is Pallot's Marriage Index? Answer -

Pallot's Index to Marriages covers more than 1.5 million marriage
registrations, mainly from London and Middlesex, from 1780-1837. It also
includes entries from 2,500 parishes in 38 counties outside of London, many
not available in other sources. The original paper slips of the Pallot's
Index are owned and held at The Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical
Studies. Pallot's Marriage Index is also available for a fee on Ancestry,
and
to purchase on CD from an English genealogical supply company.

This explanation does not provide the answer to Terence's question of what
was Pallot's information source. You say you have a Faculty Office Marriage
Licence, so it is possible that Pallot used a list of these as a list of
marriages, without having found any evidence that the marriages occurred.
Another possible explanation is that Thomas' surname was not written as you
wrote it, but as the minister heard it. In the middle of the 1800s I have
seen this name written in many forms, DAGNAN, DAGNON, DEGNAN, DEIGNAN,
DIEGNAN, DIGNAN, DIGNUM, and others where the middle N was missing.

> but the researcher found no entries for any of them [in St Anne,
> Limehouse] and suggested that as Catholics they would have married in a
> Catholic Church.

From 1754 Harwicke's Act required that for a marriage to be recognised under
English law, it had to be performed in a licensed Anglican church before an
authorised Anglican minister. This situation continued until the
introduction of civil registration in July 1837. All non-Anglicans were
subject to this law, except the Quakers and members of the Jewish community.
Catholics sometimes also had a religious ceremony performed by the priest of
the mission. He may or may not have kept records for two reasons. First, in
the early part of the period there was still a fear of reactivation of the
penal laws and so to have a detailed list of Catholics was not a very
sensible idea. Second, the Catholic marriage service had no standing in
English law, only in Catholic law, and it was the written record in the
Anglican register that was the only evidence that a English court would
accept. The early Anglican registers were hand-written in free text by the
minister and it was only after Rose's Act (1812) that printed registers were
required by law in the Anglican church.

That really brings us back to Terence's question - What was Pallot's source?
It is possible that the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies that
has the original index may be able to provide an answer. Then, have you seen
an exact copy of the entries in Pallot's Index (e.g. a photocopy) or have
you been given someone's transcription? Pallot may have recorded
'Limehouse', rather than 'St Anne, Limehouse'. My knowledge of London
geography is probably worse than yours, but the best list of British
Catholic registers is a series of book, of which the one covering London
is - "Catholic Missions and Registers 1700 - 1880, Volume 1, London & The
Home Counties" compiled and published by M. Gandy, 1993 (ISBN 0 9520535 1
9). The information is about 15 years old and so some of the details may
have changed. My reading of this is that the Catholic mission serving the
area at the time of interest would have been SS Mary and Joseph, Canton
Street (1816) / Wade Street / Pekin Street. Its marriage register start in
1818 and have 158 entries before the start of civil registration. In the
early 1990s these were still with the Parish Priest. There was another
Catholic mission in Virginia Street, Radcliffe Highway, from 1789 to 1856,
but there do not seem to be any Marriage Registers from this mission.

I would suggest that it may be worth seeing if you can get an exact copy of
Pallot's Marriage Index for the marriage of interest, and possibly for the
other four - you may already have done this. If Pallot specifies St Anne,
Limehouse, then it MAY be worth contacting the Institute of Heraldic and
Genealogical Studies to see if they can offer any explanation of the entries
in the Index but none in the Registers. Finally, there is the Catholic
Family History Society. This is a relatively small society, but a note to
the Secretary may get you some better advice about Catholic registers in
London though the Society is probably unable to do look-ups. The Secretary's
address is -
Mrs M. BOWERY
9 Snows Green Road
Shotley Bridge,
CONSETT
Co. Durham DH8 0HD


Hope this helps

Jim Lancaster (Bury, Lancs.)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jan Petty" <>
To: <>
Sent: Saturday, July 08, 2006 6:48 PM
Subject: [CATHOLIC] Limehouse marriage mystery


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