Instructions concerning the registration of births, marriages and deaths in Massachusetts : designed for town clerks and physicians / by Oliver Warner.

Oliver Warner

Date:: 1873

Credit: Instructions concerning the registration of births, marriages and deaths in Massachusetts : designed for town clerks and physicians / by Oliver Warner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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$Sections 1, 2 and 3. [Marriage between certain relatives pro- hibited.] Section 4. [Pol^-gamy forbidden.] Section 5. [Marriage contracted hj insane persons or idiots, void.] Section 6. [Marriage of persons marrying out of thie state in order to evade, &c., void.] Section 7. Persons intending to be joined in marriage shall, before their marriage cause notice thereof to be entered in the office of the clerk, or registrar of the city or town in which they respectively dwell, if within the State. If there is no such clerk or registrar in the place of their residence, the entry shall be made in an adjoining city or town. Section 8. The clerk or registrar shall deliver to the parties a cer- tificate under his hand, specifying the time when notice of the inten- tion of marriage was entered with him, together with all facts in relation to the marriage required by law to be ascertained and re- corded, except those respecting the person by whom the marriage is to be solemnized. Such certificate shall be delivered to the minister or magistrate in whose presence the marriage is to be contracted, before he proceeds to solemnize the same. Section 9. If a clerk or registrar issue such certificate to a male under the age of twentj^-one years, or a female under the age of eight- een years, having reasonable cause to suppose the person to be under such age, except upon the application or consent in writing of the parent, master, or guardian of such person, he shall forfeit a sum not exceeding one hundred dollars ; but if there is no parent, master, or guardian, in this State, competent to act, a certificate may be issued without such application or consent. Section 10. The clerk or registrar may require of any person applying for such certificate, an aflSdavit sworn to before a justice of the peace for the county where the application is made, setting forth the age of the parties ; which affidavit shall be sufficient proof of age to authorize the issuing of the certificate. Section 11. Whoever applying for such certificate wilfully makes a false statement in relation to the age or residence, parent, master, or guardian, of either of the parties intending marriage, shall forfeit a sum not exceeding two hundred dollars. Section 12. When a marriage is solemnized in another State between parties living in this State, and they return to dwell here, they shall within seven days after their return, file with the clerk or regis- trar of the city or town where either of them lived at the time, a cer- tificate or declaration of their marriage, including the facts concerning marriages required by law, and for e\Qvy neglect they shall forfeit ten dollars. Section 13. No magistrate or minister shall solemnize a marriage, having reasonable cause to suppose either of the parties to be under the age mentioned in section nine, without the consent of the parent or guardian having the custody of the minor, if there is any in the State competent to act. Section 14. Marriages may be solemnized by a justice of the peace in the county for which he is appointed, when either of the par- ties resides in the same county ; and throughout the State by any minister of the gospel ordained according to the usage of his denom-$