Dead Wife’s Sister Act

Thou Shalt Not Marry….

While researching for the previous post about cousins marrying I came across a list of people it was illegal to marry in the UK. The list was originally drawn up by the Church of England in 16th century.  The list is long and can be found here.  A brief summary is that you cannot marry someone with the following relationship to you.
sibling;  parent / child;  grandchild;  aunt / uncle (blood relative or by marriage);  nephew / niece (blood relative or by marriage);  child of a former spouse;  former spouse of a parent or grandparent;  grandchildren of a former spouse.

Dead Wife’s Sister (Sister-In-Law)

While most forbidden marriages were logical, on the nineteenth century version of the list there was one inclusion that caught my eye “You cannot marry your dead wife’s sister”. This had been added to the list of forbidden marriages by a law passed in 1835. This law was  based on the fact that according to the Bible those who were related by marriage were regarded as being related to each other in a way which made marriage between them improper.

The reason I found this strange was that I knew marriages to a sister-in-law did happen in nineteenth century England and was not that rare. In the nineteeth century, it was not unusual for a woman to die in childbirth. The husband could be left with several small children to look after. The poor could not afford to pay someone to help look after the children, so often an unmarried sister or sister-in-law would move in to the home to assist in looking after her nieces and nephews. In this situation it was not uncommon for a relationship to develop between the widower and his sister-in-law and marriage occurred.

Technically this marriage between a man and his dead wife’s sister was illegal and a vicar was supposed to refuse to marry them. To get around the law the rich would travel out of the country to get married. The poor just ignored the law. Sometimes people would get married in a neighbouring parish, so the vicar wouldn’t know they were marrying illegally. In some cases a vicar may have turned a blind eye to the relationship to avoid the couple having to “live in sin”.

1907 Dead Wife’s Sister Act

The marriage between a man and his dead wife’s sister was made illegal by an act of 1835. The supporters of the law argued it was a slippery slope to incest. Their arguments based on the Bible where in Genesis it states that husband and wife "became one flesh," therefore the logic was that your wife's sister was really your own sister.

In 1842 some Members of Parliament tried to repeal the law, but they were met with fierce opposition. During the next 65 years there were several attempts to repeal the law, but the arguments continued, and it was 1907 when the law was finally changed. These marriages were finally legalised by a 1907 Act of Parliament “The Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act” allowing marriage between a widow and his dead wife’s sister. By 1907 the prohibition had long been lifted in most of Europe, the United States and the colonies.

A similar situation existed in reverse for women and it was illegal for a widow to marry her dead husband’s brother, however, this type of marriage was not legalised for another five years with the passing of “The Deceased Brother's Widow's Marriage Act 1921”.

Our Family

In our family trees I have come across two incidences of marriages between a man and his dead wife’s sister.

Titheridge Family

Ernest George Titheridge born in Droxford in 1886 married Winifred Violet Jones in 1913 at Winchester. Winifred died in 1949. In 1957 Ernest went on to marry Winfred’s sister Irene Jones in Winchester. This was a perfectly legal marriage as it is after the 1907 Act.

Titheradge Family 

James Fabian Titheradge also married sisters. James was born in Portsmouth in 1816. On 9 June 1842 he married Henrietta Ann Jamison in Portsea St Mary. James and Henrietta had 1 child James Walter Titheradge born in 1843. Henrietta died in 1846 leaving James with a three-year-old child to look after. On 24 March 1853 James married Henrietta’s sister, Dianah Frances Jamison. Between 1854 and 1861 James and Dianah had five children, three boys and two girls. James and Dianah continued to live in Portsmouth with James dying in 1877 and Dianah dying a few years later in 1884.