England, Norfolk Marriage Bonds - FamilySearch Historical Records

Record description
Couples could decide to pay for a licence if they wanted to marry in a hurry, thus bypassing the public calling of banns on three consecutive Sundays in their home parishes, or if they preferred to get married elsewhere. Other reasons are explained in Marriage Allegations, Bonds and Licences in England and Wales.

For a marriage by licence, three types of document were created: an allegation, a bond (until 1823) and a licence. A marriage allegation was an affidavit (a sworn statement) made typically by the groom, attesting that the couple could legally marry. A marriage bond was a contract entered into by a relative (often the father of the bride or groom) or friend and usually the groom himself. They promised to pay a large fine to the church officials in the event of any legal impediment to the marriage, such as consanguinity or affinity (close kinship by blood or marriage) or an existing pre-contract (betrothal to another partner). In 1823 the requirement for bonds was abolished, while allegations continued to be sworn. Licences themselves were not normally retained for long after being handed to the officiating minister, but a few survive with parish records and a series from the Norwich Consistory Court (1903-1988) is described in Norfolk Record Office Information Leaflet 48: Marriage Licence Bonds.

The marriage licence allegations and bonds in this collection are in broadly chronological order under four ecclesiastical courts:


 * Norwich Consistory Court 1557-1902
 * Norfolk Archdeaconry Court 1670-1886 (no images online before 1715)
 * Norwich Archdeaconry Court1660-1915 (no images online after 1854)
 * Dean and Chapter of Norwich Peculiar Court 1725-1847

Although most bonds and allegations have survived, some are in poor condition and difficult to read, especially when the microfilmed images are badly focused.

Until 1733, marriage bonds were written partly in Latin but the wording was standardized and is easier to decipher in the printed forms that were in use by the 1690s.

Many of the pages are not arranged in date order, so researchers should browse through the records if they do not find what they are seeking in the expected place.

The existence of a marriage bond or allegation does not prove that the couple actually married as planned. The wedding may have been called off, or the licence may have been accepted at a different church from the one(s) specified.

If there is a second bondsman named John Doe with no stated occupation or address, he is likely to be fictitious (as also in certain types of court case, where a hypothetical plaintiff would be named John Doe and the respondent Richard Roe). Church officials who used this legal fiction presumably had sufficient faith in the credentials of the single real bondsman.

Citation for this collection
The following citation refers to the original source of the information published in FamilySearch.org Historical Records collections. Sources include the author, custodian, publisher, and archive for the original records.

Digital images were created from the microfilm collection held at the Family History Library, as listed here:


 * , 1725-1847, 2 microfilm reels, Norfolk Record Office no.: PDC/4/1-10
 * , 1557-1902, 61 microfilm reels, Norfolk Record Office no.: MLB/1-205
 * , 1660-1915, 20 microfilm reels, Norfolk Record Office no.: ANW/24/1-144
 * , 1670-1886, 16 microfilm reels, Norfolk Record Office no.: ANF/12/1-113

Suggested citation format for a record in this collection.

Record content
The key genealogical facts found in these records may include the following information:


 * Names of bride and groom
 * Ages of bride and groom (often only whether or not they were over 21)
 * Residences of bride and groom
 * Marital status of bride and groom
 * Parish church in which they planned to marry
 * Occupations of groom and bondsman
 * Names of parents or guardians of minors

How to use this record
To search the collection, select "Browse through images" on the initial collection page ⇒ Select the County ⇒ Select the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction ⇒ Select the Year which takes you to the images.

Look at the images one by one comparing the information with what you already know about your ancestors to determine which one is your ancestor. You may need to compare the information about more than one person to make this determination.

Courts' jurisdictions
Marriage licences could be granted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, bishops or archdeacons and their deputies or surrogates (designated local clergymen) within their respective jurisdictions. Rural surrogates often kept bonds and allegations for some time (usually less than three years but possibly up to ten) before submitting them to the court's registry, where they were customarily filed in bundles by year of receipt, not by date of creation. It may therefore be necessary to look in several later bundles to find relevant documents.

The Norwich Consistory Court (NCC) was the diocesan court, headed by the Bishop of Norwich and managed by his Chancellor. It had jurisdiction over almost the entire counties of Norfolk and (until the 19th century) Suffolk, plus a small number of parishes in Cambridgeshire. The other three courts in this collection covered various parts of Norfolk. For more information about these courts and their jurisdictions, see the Norfolk Record Office's leaflet and GenUKI's Church Administration Areas Directory for Norfolk. Alternatively, select a parish at England Jurisdictions 1851 and then click on the "Jurisdictions" tab in the white box, where the name of the "Probate Court" will be the same as the lowest court for marriage licensing.

In practice, jurisdiction rules were not always followed. Couples living within a single archdeaconry had no need to obtain a licence from a higher court like the NCC, but they often did so (perhaps because they lived close to a surrogate). Officially, couples living in separate dioceses came under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury (see Marriage Allegations, Bonds and Licences in England and Wales), particularly if one partner was in the Province of York. But they too can sometimes be found in the records of the NCC and even the archdeaconry courts in the Diocese of Norwich.

Indexes and hints
For a 1986 listing of marriage bonds and indexes, see Jeremy Gibson’s "" available at the Family History Library.

The Family History Library also has indexes to some of these marriage bonds:


 * "" Held at the Family History Library
 * "" Held at the Family History Library
 * "" Held at the Family History Library

Additional unpublished indexes are held at the Norfolk Record Office, as described in its leaflet.

The Society of Genealogists has an extensive collection of indexed abstracts from "Norfolk and Suffolk Marriage Licences" relating to bonds and allegations of the Norwich Consistory Court as well as several East Anglian archdeaconry courts and perhaps others (1549-1799). This may be the most comprehensive index of its kind but it is not available online. Originally compiled by Arthur Bertram Campling (1871-1947), it was typed in 1975 and can now be seen on microfilm at the Society's premises in London.

Many marriage licence bonds and allegations are indexed at FamilySearch.org. Regrettably, the results do not show the online image numbers or the bundles in which they can be found, and the name of the issuing court is seldom clear. Without checking the film number (see below), it may not even be apparent that the source is a marriage licence record, unless the user is aware of clues such as these:


 * Birth Date or Age: If ages are shown before 1837, they are almost certainly from a marriage licence allegation or bond, as earlier marriage registers did not normally record them. (Most brides and grooms were 21 years "and upwards" so their calculated birth dates are not necessarily accurate.)


 * Marriage Date: If this is a little earlier than the date in the parish register, it is probably the date of the licence documents. (These dates are more likely to be the same if the minister who performed the wedding ceremony was the person who had supplied the licence.)


 * Marriage Place: Sometimes the full name of the court is stated here (such as "Norwich Consistory Court, Norfolk, England"). Occasionally an authorized parish church (or more than one) is given. If no parish is specified, then:
 * "Norwich, Norfolk, England" can indicate the Norwich Consistory Court
 * "Norfolk, England" can indicate the Norwich Consistory Court or the Norfolk Archdeaconry Court


 * Indexing Project (Batch) Number: This begins with the letter "I" for marriage licence records but also for many bishop's or archdeacon's transcripts and other records; check the film number (see below) to differentiate between them. (The standard prefix for marriages extracted from parish registers is "M".)


 * Source Film Number: This is usually the best indicator of the relevant court. Make a "Film Numbers" search in the Family History Library Catalog or refer to these ranges:
 * Films 1526941 and 1526942: Dean and Chapter of Norwich Peculiar Court
 * Films 1595585 to 1595993 (with many gaps) and 1596037: Norwich Consistory Court
 * Films 1596234 to 1596348: Norwich Archdeaconry Court
 * Films 1596460 to 1596599 (with several gaps) and 1596653: Norfolk Archdeaconry Court


 * Reference Number: This can be very useful if it gives the folio number of the bond or allegation, which is sometimes written at the top of the page and may be indicated in an alpha-numerical list of grooms (surnames arranged alphabetically by initial letter only, notably at the beginning of most NCC bundles between 1695 and 1751). An item number (for example "item 4, p78") can help to identify one of several bundles on the same film. Less usefully, the Reference Number field often displays nothing, or just a year (such as "1825" or "1826" for NCC documents dated 1825 in the 1820-1826 bundle).

Indexing at FamilySearch.org is not complete. Some bundles have not been indexed at all. In at least one of the NCC bundles (1783-1784), half of the images are indexed but the other half (484 to 956) are not.

Related websites

 * Norfolk Record Office
 * Norfolk Record Office Information Leaflet 48: Marriage Licence Bonds
 * Norfolk Record Office online catalogue

Related wiki articles

 * England
 * England Church Records
 * Marriage Allegations, Bonds and Licences in England and Wales
 * Norfolk
 * Quick Research Links - England
 * Suffolk Church Records

Citing FamilySearch historical collections
When you copy information from a record, you should list where you found the information. This will help you or others to find the record again. It is also good to keep track of records where you did not find information, including the names of the people you looked for in the records.

A suggested format for keeping track of records that you have searched is found in the wiki article Help:How to Cite FamilySearch Collections.

Citation Example for a Record Found in This Collection
"England, Norfolk Marriage Bonds, 1557-1915," digital images FamilySearch ([https://familysearch.org/ accessed 18 March 2011), Norfolk &gt; Archdeaconry of Norfolk Court &gt; 1886 &gt; image 11 of 11, William Frederick Cook and Anna Maria Bunn, 24 December 1886; citing England, Norfolk, Marriage Bonds, Norfolk Record Office, Norwich, England.