Number of witnesses at marriage
 

The Lost Cousins Newsletter has a paragraph about the number of witnesses on a marriage entry in the PRs in 1803. There were 13.

This got me thinking about my great-grandparents' marriage certificate in 1891 in Portsmouth.

I have noted them:

Louisa Hubbert Quintrell (bride's sister)
John Quintrell (bride's father)
Fanny E Quintrell (bride's sister)
Mary D Quintrell (bride's sister)
Bessie White (groom's mother)
W E White (groom's father)
T B Quintrell (Tom Bromley bride's brother)
Frank Quintrell (bride's brother)
S. Tye ?
Charles Knott (a doctor who married Fanny Quintrell)
M R-?
Stennet Sandall
Maude Cooper

So I have 13 on the marriage certificate.

https://search.findmypast.co.uk/reco...2F00186059%2F2

Frank Quintrell and Louisa Quintrell also married at Portsmouth but didn't have quite as many witnesses as their sister.

I can't see your link because my sub to FMP has expired (!) but assuming it's the parish record entry, I wonder what you would receive if you ordered a copy of the GRO version?

Do you have any Quaker marriage records with everyone present as a witness?

I only have these for pre-1837, as the Quakers on my direct line all married in non-Quaker ceremonies after that date, except one couple - My great-grandparents married in the Quaker Meeting House in Adderbury, Oxfordshire, but I've never purchased a copy of the GRO certificate because I have this hanging on our dining room wall:

https://dngvkg.db.files.1drv.com/y4m...&cropmode=none

It's not a great photo because of the reflections! My g-grandfather, Henry Clark was an artist as well as a teacher, and was good at calligraphy!

There are 12 witness signatures at the bottom. I doubt that was everyone at the wedding - more likely the only people Henry managed to have sign this version, given he probably created it after the event and he and his wife lived about 80 miles away from Adderbury. There could be further signatures on the reverse - I've never seen it out of the frame.

Of course because I've always had easy access to the above version of the certificate, I've never really looked at it properly :o Today I'm going to investogate who those witnesses were, which will get my out of doing HW :D

I think I have the physical certificate somewhere, Merry. I'll got and have a look after I've finished my coffee.

Yes, lots of witnesses at Quaker weddings - usually the whole congregation.

This is the Quaker marriage of my 8xg-grandparents, Jonah Cator and Sarah Browne, 23 May 1686, at Ross on Wye:

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageview...012?pId=342801

18 witnesses' names.

As for marriage certificates, I'm sure I have one with about 6 witnesses on it, but nowhere near 13.

I have a church marriage entry with 11 witnesses, one of whom was so excited she signed it twice, lol. It was a double wedding.

Merry - what a beautiful thing to have.

OC

The GRO certificate has all the witnesses too, which I thought it did.

This is the marriage of my 4x-great-grandparents (Quakers) Joseph Jeffcoat and Mary Eaton:

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageview...3e89&pId=98645

There seem to be 38 witnesses!

Thanks OC.

Interesting. I wonder if they still did when there were too many to squeeze on?!

I have quite a few with between 20 and 30 signatures. This one:

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageview...55f&pId=289740

has 40, but isn't the original. John Tyler and Mary Tayler are my 5xg-grandparents.

Are the originals of pre-1837 Quaker marriage certs available anywhere? I have a marriage in Coventry that I'm really interested in, because the original signatures might help me solve a mystery, but the signatures on the Ancestry image all look suspiciously similar.