Teesside, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1939

General collection information

This collection includes Church of England parish registers of marriages and banns between 1754 and 1939 from the historical county of Teesside, England.

Parish records—primarily baptisms, marriages, and burials—were the first sets of vital records kept. Before civil registration began in 1837, key events in a person’s life were typically recorded by the church, rather than the government. Dating back to the 16th century, parish records have become some of the longest running records available.

Using this collection

This collection may include the following details:

Parish records are some of the best resources you can use in tracing your family roots. These records were taken by church officials to mark important milestones in people’s lives. They often include information about other family members such as parents, making it easy to jump back an additional generation in your family tree with a single record.

Banns were church announcements of a couple’s intention to get married. This gave time for the parish to submit objections. Banns may also list whether a person had been previously married.

Collection in context

The marriage and banns records in this collection were created by officials working in Church of England parishes in the Teesside area. The collection includes vital records from Middlesbrough, Redcar, and Cleveland in North Yorkshire. The original documents are primary historical sources that are housed at the Teesside Archives in Middlesbrough.

When Henry VIII established the Church of England, he mandated parishes to keep handwritten records of baptisms, marriages, and burials. Beginning in 1598, clergy were required to send copies of their parish registers to the bishop of their diocese. These copies are known as Bishop's Transcripts and are useful in cases where original records are unreadable or no longer exist.

The Lord Hardwicke Marriage Act of 1753 established a separate register for marriages and required that marriages be performed only in Anglican churches.

In 1812, George Rose's Act called for pre-printed registers to be used for separate baptism, marriage, and burial registers as a way of standardising records.

The records in this collection date back to the era when the Church of England was divided into four districts. The area that eventually became the Diocese of Middlesbrough was in the Northern District and remained there until 1840. That year, the number of districts expanded to eight, and the Teesside area was now part of the Yorkshire District. Ten years later, England and Wales were divided into 12 dioceses, and Teesside became part of the Diocese of Beverley. In 1878, the Diocese of Beverley was divided, creating the Diocese of Leeds and the Diocese of Middlesbrough.

The average age to marry in England between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries fell between 24 and 26 for men and between 22 and 25 for women. Prior to 1823, the legal age to marry was 21, that year the legal age was lowered, men could marry as young as 14 and women as young as 12 with parental consent. In 1929 the legal age to marry with parental consent was raised to 16.

Bibliography

Diocese of Middlesbrough. "Some History of the Diocese." Accessed 11 July 2024. https://middlesbrough-diocese.org.uk/some-history/.

Middlesbrough Council. "Church of England Parish Registers at Teesside Archives and Middlesbrough Reference Library." Accessed 25 June 2024. https://www.middlesbrough.gov.uk/media/azvhbhxh/archives-coe-parish-registers.pdf.

Outhwaite, R. B. "Age at Marriage in England from the Late Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Century." Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 23 (1973): 55–70. https://doi.org/10.2307/3678872.

---. "Teesside Archives." Accessed 25 June 2024. https://www.middlesbrough.gov.uk/leisure-culture-and-parks/teesside-archives/.

"Research Guides: Researching your ancestors from Great Britain and Ireland: Parish registers." State Library Victoria. Last Modified 30 April, 2024. Research Guides. https://guides.slv.vic.gov.au/britishislesancestors/parish.

Vatuna, Molly. "Marriage in the Victorian Era." COVE. Last Modified 5 October 2020. https://editions.covecollective.org/chronologies/marriage-victorian-era.