Marriages pro certain de CHAPTER 87. OF MARRIAGE, AND ITS SOLEMNIZATION. SECT. 1,2. Marriages prohibited, within cer- SECT. 20. Penalty, for false certificate of tain degrees. 3. Certain marriages void. 4. Bigamy not allowed. 5. Marriage in another state, in eva- 6. Publication of intentions of mar- 7. Consent of parent or guardian of a 8. Manner of publishing, where there 9. Procedings, when banns are for- 10. Form of marriage among quakers, 15. Punishment, if unauthorized per- 16. Record of marriages, and return 17. Copies of such records, to be le- 18. What marriages shall be valid. ments. publishment. 21. Town clerk to make annual re turns of marriages. 22. Mode of authorizing a wife to contract, when deserted by her husband. 23. Sale of her real estate in such case. 24. She may be a party to suits. 25. Payments due to her, in her own right. 26. Mode of proceeding, in such ca ses. 27. Her contracts to bind her husband. 28. Husband may join in suits commenced by her. 29. Wife of a person, sentenced to state prison, may be authorized to contract. 30. Notice to husband. Duration of 31. Manner of securing to a married 33. Effect, if her husband afterwards SECTION 1. No man shall marry his mother, grandmother, hibited, within daughter, grand daughter, stepmother, grandfather's wife, son's wife, grandson's wife, wife's mother, wife's daughter, wife's grand daughter, sister, brother's daughter, sister's daughter, father's sister, or mother's sister. grees. Same subject. 1821, 70, ÿ 1. SECT. 2. No woman shall marry her father, grandfather, son, grandson, stepfather, grandmother's husband, daughter's husband, grand daughter's husband, husband's father, husband's grandfather, hnsband's son, husband's grandson, brother, brother's son, sister's son, father's brother, or mother's brother. ges void. 1821, 70, § 2. another state, ions, void. SECT. 3. No white person shall intermarry with any negro, CHAP. 87. indian or mulatto; and no insane person or idiot shall be capable of Certain marriacontracting marriage. SECT. 4. All marriages contracted, while either of the parties Bigamy forbidhas a former wife or husband living, shall be void, unless the former den. 1834, 116, § 3. marriage shall have been dissolved, by a decree of divorce. SECT. 5. When any persons, resident in this state, shall under- Marriages in take to contract a marriage, contrary to the preceding provisions of in evasion of this chapter, and shall, in order to evade those provisions, and with these provisan intention of returning to reside in this state, go into another 1821, 70, § 1. state or country, and there have their marriage solemnized, and 16 Mass. 157. shall afterwards return and reside here, such marriage shall be deemed and held void, in this state. SECT. 6. All persons resident in this state, intending to be Publication of joined in marriage, shall have their intentions published at three intentions of public religious meetings, on different days at three days' distance, 1821, 70, § 5. exclusively, at least, from each other, in the city, town or plantation, where they respectively dwell; or have such intentions posted up by the clerk of such town or plantation fourteen days, in some public and conspicuous place therein, and shall deliver a certificate of such publishment, under the hand of the town or plantation clerk, to the minister or justice of the peace, solemnizing the marriage. SECT. 7. When a male under twenty one years, or a female under eighteen years of age, is to be married, the consent of the parent, guardian, or other person, having the care and government of such party, if within the state, shall be first obtained. 8 Pick. 433. marriage. Consent of parent or guardian der age. of a person un 1821, 70, § 5. there is no town 1821, 70, § 5. when banns are SECT. 8. If the parties or either of them, live in a town or Manner of pubplace, where there is no clerk, publishment shall be made, as above lishing, where directed, in the adjoining town or plantation, and a certificate of clerk. such clerk shall be obtained before marriage. SECT. 9. When the banns of matrimony between any persons Proceedings, are forbidden, and the reasons assigned in writing, by the person forbidden. forbidding, and left with the town or plantation clerk, he shall issue 1821, 70, § 6. no certificate as aforesaid, until a decision shall be made by two justices of the peace of the same county, approving the marriage, after due notice to, and a hearing of, all concerned; provided the person, forbidding the banns, shall, within seven days after filing his reasons, procure the decision of such justices, unless they shall certify that further time is necessary for the purpose, in which case a certificate shall be withheld, until the expiration of the certified time; and by the decision of such justices, he shall govern himself; and, if the decision be against the person forbidding, he shall pay all costs to the persons, whose marriage was forbidden, and the justices shall enter judgment therefor, and issue execution accordingly. quakers, and SECT. 10. All marriages, solemnized among the people called, Form of marquakers or friends, in the form heretofore practised, and in use in riage among their meeting, shall be good and valid, and shall not be construed, certificate as affected by any of the foregoing provisions in this chapter; and 1821, 70, § 9. the clerk of the meeting, or the keeper of the records of the meeting, in which such marriages shall be solemnized, shall, once every thereof. CHAP. 87. Justices may solemnize marriages. 1821, 70, § 3. 1 Mass. 240. 7 Mass. 48. Also commissioned ministers. 1821, 70, § 3. Tenure of office, of such ministers. 1821, 70, § 4. Penalty, for marrying persons, contrary to the forego ing provisions. 1821, 70, § 7. Punishment, if persons under take to solem year, deliver a list of all such marriages to the clerk of the town, in which such clerk resides, on penalty of forfeiting fifty dollars; one half to the use of the county, and the residue to the use of the prosecutor. SECT. 11. Every justice of the peace, appointed for any particular county, and in which he resides, may solemnize marriages in such county, where either of the parties reside; and every justice of the peace, appointed for each and every county in the state, may solemnize marriages in any county where either of the parties resides. SECT. 12. Every ordained minister of the gospel, duly appointed and commissioned for that purpose, by the governor and council, shall have power to solemnize marriages within the county, for which he was appointed, and in which he resides; and in any other counties, when such power is given and expressed in his commission, between parties, either of whom resides in the county where the marriage is solemnized. SECT. 13. Such ordained minister shall hold his office, during the pleasure of the executive; and the commission shall be conclusive evidence, that he is an ordained minister; and when the commission shall be revoked, a copy of such revocation shall be filed in the clerk's office of said county. SECT. 14. If any justice of the peace, or minister commissioned as aforesaid, shall, knowingly and wilfully, join any persons in marriage, contrary to the provisions of this chapter, he shall forfeit and pay the sum of one hundred dollars; two third parts thereof to the use of the county, in which the offence was committed, and the residue to the prosecutor; to be sued for and recovered by the county treasurer, or by the parent, guardian or other person, under whose immediate care and government either of the parties was, at - the time of such marriage: and every justice or minister, against whom such recovery shall be had, is forbidden from joining any persons in marriage afterwards. SECT. 15. If any person, thus forbidden, or any minister or unauthorized other who is not authorized to solemnize marriages, shall person, join any persons in marriage, on conviction thereof upon indictment, he shall be punished by confinement to hard labor in the state prison for a term, not exceeding five years, or by fine, not exceeding one thousand dollars. nize marriages. 1821, 70, § 7. Records of marriages, and return thereof. SECT. 16. Each justice and minister shall keep a record of all marriages solemnized before him, and in the month of April, annu1821, 70, § 8. ally, shall make a return to the clerk of the town or plantation, in which the marriage is solemnized, certifying the names of the parties so married by him, and the place of their residence, and the date of the marriage; and for his neglect to comply with this requisition, he shall forfeit and pay the sum of fifty dollars; one half to the use of the county, and the other half to the person suing for Copies of such legal evidence. the same. SECT. 17. An attested or sworn copy of the record of a marrecords, to be riage, made and kept, as before mentioned, by a justice of the peace, or commissioned minister, or by the clerk of any town or plantation, shall be received in all courts, as evidence of the fact of mar riage; but where such cannot be produced, other presumptive evi- CHAP. 87. dence may be admitted. ges shall be SECT. 18. No marriage solemnized before any known inhabit- What marriaant of this state, professing to be a justice of the peace or an valid." ordained minister of the gospel, duly appointed and commissioned 6 Greenl. 148. to solemnize marriages, shall be deemed void, nor shall the validity thereof be in any manner affected, on account of any want of jurisdiction or authority in such supposed justice or commissioned minister, or on account of any omission or informality in entering the intention of marriage or publication of the banns; provided, the marriage be in other respects lawful, and consummated with a full belief on the part of the persons married, or either of them, that they have been lawfully joined in marriage. SECT. 19. Whoever shall pull down any written posted publishment, before the end of said fourteen days, shall forfeit and pay ten dollars for the use of the town or plantation. SECT. 20. If any city, town, or plantation clerk shall make out and deliver, to any person, a false certificate of the publication of the banns of matrimony between two persons, knowing the same to be false in any particular, and be thereof convicted, he shall be fined one hundred dollars, or be imprisoned for the term of six months in the common jail of the county, where the offence is committed. Penalty for tak- of publishment. make annual re SECT. 21. The clerk of every city, town or plantation shall Town clerk, to return, to the clerk of the judicial courts for his county, a transcript turns of marof all records of marriages made upon his books, during the year riages. for which he is clerk; and it shall be the duty of the clerk of said courts to record the same in a book, to be kept for that purpose; he shall be allowed, from the county treasury, for recording, at the rate of twelve cents a page. CERTAIN PROVISIONS RESPECTING HUSBAND AND WIFE. and thorizing a wife SECT. 22. The supreme judicial court, on application of any Mode of aumarried woman, whose husband has absented himself from the state, to contract, abandoning her, and not making sufficient provision for her main- when deserted tenance, may empower her, during his absence, and till his return, 1821, 57, § 9. in her own name, to make and execute any contract under seal or otherwise. by her husband. case. SECT. 23. She may also be so authorized to make sale of any Sale of her real estate, real or personal, of which she is seized or possessed in her estate, in such own right; and duly execute all legal instruments, necessary for 1821, 57, § 9. that purpose. SECT. 24. She may also commence, prosecute and defend any She may be a action, in law or equity, to final judgment and execution, in like manner as if she were unmarried. SECT. 25. The court may also, on her petition, authorize any person holding money or other personal property, to which the husband is entitled in her right, to pay and deliver the same to the wife; and authorize her to give a discharge for the same, which shall be valid; and to use and dispose of such property, during the absence of the husband, as her own property. party to suits. 1821, 57, § 9. Payments due to her, in her own right. SECT. 26. The application, for any of the purposes before Mode of pro CHAP. 87. mentioned, may be presented and heard in any county; but the ceeding, in such court, before granting any of the powers before mentioned, shall order notice to be given, in like manner as is prescribed, in case of libel for divorce filed by a wife, when the party complained of is without the state. cases. 1821, 57, § 11. Her contracts to bind her husband. Husband may join in suits, SECT. 27. All contracts, lawfully made by any married woman, by virtue of any power given her as aforesaid, shall be binding on 1821, 57, § 10. her and her husband, in like manner as if their marriage had taken place after such contracts; and, during his absence, she shall be liable to be sued thereon, as if she were unmarried; and for all other acts done by her, while the power granted to her is continued. SECT. 28. No suit pending, where the wife shall be a party, commenced by pursuant to power granted her as before mentioned, shall abate by his return into the state; but, on his application, he may be admitted to prosecute or defend jointly with her, as if their intermarriage had taken place after the commencement of such suit; but, if he shall not be admitted as a party, judgment shall be rendered, and execution issued and enforced by, or against her, in the same manner, as if judgment had been rendered [by or] against her before their intermarriage. her. 10. Wife of a perSECT. 29. When any married man shall be sentenced to conson, sentenced to state prison, finement in the state prison, and confined under such sentence, the may be author wife, on her petition, may be authorized to make contracts and conized to contract. veyances, and perform all such acts, as are above mentioned, in case of abandonment by the husband. Notice to hus of authority. SECT. 30. When application therefor shall be made, notice band. Duration shall be given to the husband, prior to the grant of such powers to his wife; and her contracts shall have the same binding effect, as those made by her, as before mentioned, in case of absence of the husband. The authority of the wife so given shall continue, till the discharge of the husband from the state prison. Manner of secaring, to a married woman, her real estate, uses. SECT. 31. When the real estate of a married woman is taken for any rail road, turnpike, way, or public use, or shall be damaged the avails of by the laying out of such way, or any other public work, the damtaken for public ages, awarded therefor, shall be so invested and disposed of, as to secure to her the same benefits of the sum awarded and the income of it, as she would have had, of, and in, the real estate and its income; and, on her application to the supreme judicial court, they may hear and decide the case according to the course of chancery proceedings, and make such decrees, as may enforce and secure her rights. Married wo into this state, SECT. 32. When a married woman shall come into this state man, removing from any other state or country, without her husband, he having never lived with her in this state, she may make contracts and commence and defend suits, and dispose of property in her own name, as if she were unmarried; and shall be liable to be sued on her contracts, made before his arrival in this state. without her husband, may contract as a feme sole. Effect, if her wards come into the state. SECT. 33. If the husband of such woman shall afterwards come husband after into this state, and claim his marital rights, his arrival shall have the same effect, as to contracts made by her, or suits pending, in which she is a party, as if they had been first married at the time of his arrival here, and shall have no other. |