Gretna Green
welcomed couples planning to wed. Lydia Bennet, in Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice, writes of going to Gretna
Green with Wickham, the man she loves.
Almost 250-years have passed
since lovers—denied permission to wed—eloped to Gretna Green
a village flanking England
in the south of Scotland.
An aura of romance and adventure still attracts couples—the village hosts over
4,000 weddings a year.
Marriage, until the middle of the 16th
century, involved little ceremony. A man went to a woman’s house, took her home
and they were wed. The church believed marriage to be a personal agreement; no
formalities, no clergy, prior notice or witnesses needed. Unconventional, yes,
but recognized under common law.
Runaway marriages began in 1753 when an
act of Parliament passed in England
stated both parties to a marriage must be at least 21 years of age or receive parental
consent. The act did not apply to Scotland’s
lenient marriage laws where couples as young as sixteen could wed without
permission.
Hotly pursued by family members or a protector,
the couple’s vows were hastily taken in a short ceremony often presided over by
the village blacksmith; a most important man. who made horseshoes, fixed
carriages and farm equipment and forged hot metal over his anvil. Becoming an anvil priest he forged lovers together. Two
neighbors witnessed, the priest whacked the anvil and the pair was wed. If the
couple received word that an angry father approached and might disrupt the ceremony;
the couple quickly slipped into bed. Father would find his beloved daughter
under the covers with her mate.
Many runaways faced danger on their way to
Gretna Green; in 1771, John Edgar and Jean Scott fearing
her father would waylay them by the crossroads, headed for the coast and
Burgh-by-Sands in England.
Despite a windstorm the couple persuaded a group of bold seamen to help them
reach Scotland—they
were tracked and followed by Jean’s father and his crew. His boat overturned
with a life lost and the hunt was abandoned. Reaching shore safely, the lovers were
married by the infamous Joseph Paisley, a former smuggler.
The Earl of Westmoreland knew Robert Child,
director of Child’s Bank, would never consent to the marriage of his daughter,
Sarah Anne, with a penniless aristocrat. They eloped to Gretna Green
in May of 1782. Child caught up with the couple between Carlisle
and Penrith where he shot Westmoreland’s lead carriage horse. While
Westmorland’s men sabotaged Child’s carriage forcing him to call off the chase,
the couple proceeded with three horses. Child purged the couple from his will—the
inheritance passed to their eldest
daughter. The couple prospered but history repeated itself; sixty-years later,
Sarah Anne’s granddaughter, Adele, unable to handle her mother’s meddling in
her romantic affairs eloped to Gretna Green with a young
officer.
Gretna Green scandalized
the nation in 1826 when Ellen Turner, a lovely, romantic, teen-ager, the
daughter of a prosperous mill-owner, was abducted by a scoundrel named Edward
Gibbon Wakefield. Wakefield forged a
letter stating Ellen must return home from Misses
Daulby’s Seminary for the Daughters of Gentlefolk as her mother was ill. Her
carriage stopped at a Manchester Inn to change horses where Wakefield,
a fine-looking, older man introduced himself as her father’s friend and
instructed her to travel to Kendal to meet him. On arrival, Wakefield
told Ellen a fictitious tale about her father’s insolvent bank causing his mill
to fail. Ellen would be given half the business but, as she was underage, must marry
and give the mill to her husband in order to return it to her father. He then
offered his hand, Ellen accepted and they continued to Gretna Green.
After the ceremony they left for France
where Ellen’s uncles found the pair and informed Ellen of Wakefield’s falsehoods.
On the 23 of March 1827, the rogue stood trial; found guilty of abduction and
unlawful marriage, he received a sentence of three years imprisonment at
Newgate. A special act of Parliament annulled the marriage.
Today, couples need to give 14 days
written notice of their weddings and Clergymen now conduct the anvil weddings. Since 1902, registrars
have performed civil weddings in approved venues outside the registration
offices.
Bests and congratulations to all newlyweds,
Elise
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