Minimum Age for Marriage

Although the minimum age for marriage was set at 16 years for males and females in 1933 it is not clear what, if any, legal minimum age existed before that time. It is likely that the general custom accepted 14 years as the minimum. However, a court case in 1639 shows that marriage of younger persons was not unknown. The case is in the Archdeacon's Registry and may be found on LDS film 0106196.

Joney Fargher, who was at least 21 at the time, married John Quirke circa 1628 at Andreas. According to the deposition of his parents, John was between eleven and twelve years of age at the time. The couple lived together for six years before Joney took off for Ireland. There she had an illegitimate child by an unnamed Scottish gentleman before bigamously marrying William Cayne, by whom she had a second child.