40-588: The Clandestine Marriages Act 1753 , also called the Marriage Act 1753 , long title "An Act for the Better Preventing of Clandestine Marriage", popularly known as Lord Hardwicke 's Marriage Act ( 26 Geo. 2 . c. 33), was the first statutory legislation in England and Wales to require a formal ceremony of marriage . It came into force on 25 March 1754. The Act contributed to a dispute about
80-581: A Jacobite raised Yorke's reputation as a forensic orator; and in 1723, having already become attorney-general, he passed through the House of Commons the bill of pains and penalties against Francis Atterbury . He was excused, on the ground of his personal friendship, from acting for the crown in the impeachment of the Earl of Macclesfield in 1725; he soon found a new patron in the Duke of Newcastle . Lord Hardwicke
120-445: A living for soldiers returning from The Great War . However, the land was not suited to crops, the holdings were too small for anything other than subsistence living, and today the original holdings are generally merged with others to make larger farms. Some modern house-building activity has taken place over the past decade along the original A1 (now bypassed). There is no town or village, as such, just scattered housing, with views over
160-515: A new kind of realist marriage plot in England and help to produce political radicalism as we know it. The Act tightened the existing ecclesiastical rules regarding marriage, providing that for a marriage to be valid it had to be performed in a church and after the publication of banns or the obtaining of a licence. Those under the age of 21 had to have parental consent if they married by licence; marriages by banns, by contrast, were valid as long as
200-694: A simple exchange of consent would suffice is based on later conflations between the theological position that consent made a marriage and the actual practice of the church courts . Prior to the passage of the 1753 Act such an exchange only created a binding contract to marry rather than a legal marriage. As clandestine weddings and the unruly culture that surrounded them began to threaten power and property, questions about where and how to marry became urgent matters of public debate. In 1753, in an unprecedented and controversial use of state power, Lord Chancellor Hardwicke mandated Anglican church weddings as marriage's only legal form. Resistance to his Marriage Act would fuel
240-633: Is also remembered as one of the two authors of the Yorke–Talbot slavery opinion whilst he was a crown law officer in 1729. The opinion was sought to determinate the legality of slavery and Hardwicke (then Philip Yorke) and Charles Talbot opined that it was legal. The opinion was disseminated and relied upon widely. Lord Hardwicke would subsequently endorse the views in the opinion in a judicial capacity in Pearne v Lisle (1749) Amb 75, 27 ER 47. He rendered valuable service to Walpole's government by his support of
280-535: Is why doubts were expressed in 2005 about the ability of then- Charles, Prince of Wales to marry Camilla Parker-Bowles in a civil ceremony, civil marriage being the creation of statute law. It was also provided that the 1753 Act had no application to marriages solemnized overseas or in Scotland . The Act was highly successful in its stated aim of putting a stop to clandestine marriages, i.e., valid marriages performed by an Anglican clergyman but not in accordance with
320-725: The Duke of Newcastle Yorke entered parliament in 1719 as member for Lewes , and was appointed solicitor-general, with a knighthood , in 1720, although he was then a barrister of only four years standing. Although in his youth he contributed to The Spectator over the signature Philip Homebred, he seems early to have abandoned all care for literature, and he has been reproached by Lord Campbell and others with his neglect of art and letters. On 16 May 1719 he married Margaret, daughter of Charles Cocks (by his wife Mary Cocks, sister of Lord Chancellor Somers ) and widow of William Lygon (who died without issue in 1716), by whom he had five sons and two daughters: In 1739, he purchased Wimpole Hall ,
360-676: The Isle of Man also sprang up, and in 1757 the legislature of the island passed An Act to prevent Clandestine Marriages in very similar terms to the English Act of 1753. But the Manx Act differed in one significant respect from the latter, in requiring clergy from abroad, who were convicted of conducting marriages in breach of the Act's requirements, to be pilloried and have their ears cropped , before being imprisoned, fined and deported. The Act
400-687: The North Sea . The regional authority today is the Scottish Borders Council , based some 40 miles (65 km) to the west at Newtown St. Boswells , Roxburghshire . Lamberton also returns three elected councillors to the Foulden Mordington & Lamberton Community Council , similar to an English parish council . Meetings between April 2020 and April 2021 were held on-line due to the COVID-19 pandemic. From May 2021,
440-536: The eventual succession of James VI and I to the throne of England. On 17 April 1573, during the Marian civil war , Lord Ruthven finalised terms with the English commander William Drury , Marshall of Berwick , at Lamberton Kirk, to bring an English army and artillery to capture Edinburgh Castle , which was held by William Kirkcaldy of Grange for Mary, Queen of Scots . Susanna Montgomerie (died 27 July 1754)
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#1732791207047480-514: The woolsack . After the accession of George III Hardwicke opposed the ministry of Lord Bute on the peace with France in 1762, and on the cider tax in the following year. In the Wilkes case Hardwicke condemned general warrants , and also the doctrine that seditious libels published by members of parliament were protected by parliamentary privilege . He died in London on 6 March 1764. In 1736
520-580: The A1). Adam de Lamberton gave a charter of a third part of his land of Lamberton to his grandson, Galfrido de Hasswell between 1190 and 1200. In the National Archives of Scotland (RH1/2/59) there is a charter of Sir Peter de Mordington, knt., son of the deceased Sir William de Mordington, as superior, in favour of Simon de Baddeby of certain lands in Lamberton, dated 1270. A William de Lamberton
560-509: The King's Bench, under his presidency, delivered the seminal judgment in Middleton v. Crofts 2 Atk 650, which held that canons made in the provincial clergy convocations could not, by themselves, bind the lay faithful. He held the office of Lord Chancellor longer than any of his predecessors, with a single exception. His decisions fixed limits and established principles of Equity . His influence
600-585: The ancient foresters of Coldingham Priory . "Robert de Renton, Lord of Lamberton" was in possession in 1407. In 1632 David Renton of Billie held "the forty husbandlands (1040 acres) of Lambertoun within the lordship of Coldingham". By the 18th century the Rentons had passed their ancient estate of Billie to the Homes, but retained Lamberton. The Rentons of Lamberton were in the early 19th century represented by Alexander Renton of Lamberton (d. before March 1831), who
640-458: The bill for prohibiting loans to foreign powers (1730), of the increase of the army (1732) and of the Excise Bill (1733). In 1733 Yorke was appointed lord chief justice of the king's bench, with the title of Lord Hardwicke, and was sworn of the privy council; and in 1737 he succeeded Lord Talbot as Lord Chancellor, thus becoming a member of Walpole's cabinet. One of his first official acts
680-536: The border in Scotland, was famous for its irregular marriages. From 1798 to 1858 keepers of the Toll, as well as questionable men-of-the-cloth used to marry couples in the same fashion as at the more familiar Gretna Green . The site of the house is marked by a plaque. Lamberton today consists largely of smallholdings compulsorily purchased, under an Act of Parliament, from the last Campbell-Renton laird , to provide
720-695: The canons. Thus the notorious practice of clandestine Fleet Marriages associated with London 's Fleet Prison was ended, although there were various short-lived and abortive attempts to claim exemption for the Savoy Chapel in the Strand and the parish of Temple in Cornwall . The early death of the Savoy's minister on board ship while waiting to be transported for his flouting of the Act may have discouraged others from making similar claims, even if his demise
760-542: The continent Hardwicke was left at the head of the council of regency; it thus fell to him to concert measures for dealing with the Jacobite rising in 1745. After Culloden he presided at the trial of the Scottish Jacobite peers, his conduct of which, though judicially impartial, was neither dignified nor generous; and he must be held partly responsible for the severity meted out to the rebels, and especially for
800-526: The death in 1948 of Robert Charles Campbell-Renton. Only ruins of the nave and chancel of Lamberton Kirk remain, as the burial-place of the Rentons of Lamberton. Lamberton Kirk was the church where, in July 1503, Margaret Tudor the daughter of King Henry VII of England, met the representatives of King James IV of Scotland. The meeting was celebrated with a tournament on Lamberton Moor featured English and Scottish knights from both England. The marriage led to
840-471: The executions on obsolete attainders of Charles Radclyffe and (in 1753) of Archibald Cameron of Locheil . He carried out a major reform in 1746 which swept away the feudal power surviving in Scotland in the form of private heritable jurisdictions in the hands of the landed gentry. On the other hand, his legislation in 1748 for disarming the Highlanders and prohibiting the use of the tartan in their dress
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#1732791207047880-418: The following year he established his reputation as an equity lawyer in a case in which Robert Walpole 's family was interested, by an argument displaying profound learning and research concerning the jurisdiction of the chancellor, on lines which he afterwards more fully developed in a celebrated letter to Lord Kames on the distinction between law and equity. Through the Earl of Macclesfield's influence with
920-764: The greatest country house in Cambridgeshire. He is buried, with many of his descendants, at the St. Andrew Churchyard at Wimpole. Hardwicke was succeeded in the earldom by his eldest son, Philip . His monument was sculpted by Peter Scheemakers . His cousin Sir William Yorke, 1st Baronet had a highly successful career as a judge in Ireland, becoming Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas . The prosecution of Christopher Layer for treason as
960-528: The life of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke are voluminous, in the memoirs of the period and in collections of correspondence. See, especially: See also: Lamberton, Borders, Scotland Lamberton is a hilly, former landed estate in Berwickshire , Scotland , its eastern boundary being the North Sea . It is 4 miles (6.4 km) north of Berwick-upon-Tweed , on the Great North Road (today
1000-440: The marriage should be celebrated in the parish where at least one of the parties was resident. However, these requirements were directory rather than mandatory and the absence of banns or a licence – or even the fact that the marriage was not celebrated in a church – did not render the marriage void. The only indispensable requirement was that the marriage be celebrated by an Anglican clergyman. The mistaken assumption that
1040-584: The parent of the minor did not actually forbid the banns. Jews and Quakers were exempted from its provisions, although the Act did not go so far as to declare such marriages valid and it was many years before their legal standing was assured. Nor did the Act apply to members of the British Royal Family . Indeed, members of the Royal Family have been consistently exempted from all general legislation relating to marriage since this date, which
1080-510: The post of prime minister , and for reward was created earl of Hardwicke and Viscount Royston; and when in November 1756 the weakness of the ministry and the threatening aspect of foreign affairs compelled Newcastle to resign, Hardwicke retired with him. He played a part in negotiating the coalition between Newcastle and Pitt in 1757, when he accepted a seat in Pitt's cabinet without returning to
1120-581: The proposal to indemnify witnesses against Walpole in one of his finest speeches in May 1742. He exercised a leading influence in the Wilmington Cabinet; and when Wilmington died in August 1743, it was Hardwicke who put forward Henry Pelham for the vacant office against the claims of Pulteney . For many years from this time he was the controlling power in the government. During the king's absences on
1160-417: The storm and declared war against Spain , Hardwicke advocated energetic measures for its conduct; and he tried to keep the peace between Newcastle and Walpole. There is no sufficient ground for Horace Walpole's charge that the fall of Sir Robert was brought about by Hardwicke's treachery. No one was more surprised than himself when he retained the chancellorship in the following administration, and he resisted
1200-463: The validity of a Scottish marriage , although pressure to address the problem of irregular marriages had been growing for some time. Before the Act, the legal requirements for a valid marriage in England and Wales had been governed by the canon law of the Church of England . This had stipulated that banns should be called or a marriage licence obtained before a marriage could take place and that
1240-422: Was called to the bar , where his progress was, says Lord Campbell , more rapid than that of any other debutant in the annals of our profession, his advancement being greatly furthered by the patronage of Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield , who became Lord Chancellor in 1718, when Yorke transferred his practice from the king's bench to the court of chancery, though he continued to go on the western circuit. In
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1280-591: Was connected with the family of Edward Gibbon the historian. He was educated at a school in Bethnal Green run by Samuel Morland , a nonconformist. At age 16, Yorke entered the attorney's office of Charles Salkeld in Holborn , London. He was entered at the Middle Temple in November 1708, and perhaps recommended by his employer to Lord Chief Justice Parker as law tutor to his sons. In 1715, Yorke
1320-466: Was due to gout rather than to the conditions of his imprisonment. However, some couples evaded the Act by travelling to Scotland. Various Scottish "border villages" ( Coldstream Bridge , Lamberton , Mordington and Paxton Toll) became known as places to marry. And in the 1770s the construction of a toll road passing through the hitherto obscure village of Graitney led to Gretna Green becoming synonymous with romantic elopements. A similar traffic to
1360-482: Was powerful in obliterating the traditions of the judicial bench under the Stuart monarchy, and in establishing the modern conception of the duties and demeanour of English judges. While still at the bar Lord Chesterfield praised his conduct of crown prosecutions as a contrast to the former bloodhounds of the crown; and he described Sir Philip Yorke as naturally humane, moderate and decent. The contemporary authorities for
1400-563: Was repealed in 1849. Lord Hardwicke Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke , PC (1 December 1690 – 6 March 1764) was an English lawyer and politician who served as Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain . He was a close confidant of the Duke of Newcastle , Prime Minister between 1754 and 1756 and 1757 until 1762. A son of Philip Yorke, an attorney , he was born at Dover . Through his mother, Elizabeth, daughter and co-heiress of Richard Gibbon of Rolvenden, Kent , he
1440-408: Was served his father's heir in the lands and mains of Lamberton in 1774, and whose only child, a daughter Susanna, married Robert Campbell, a Colonel in the 42nd (Royal Highland) Regiment of Foot . Their son, Charles Frederick (1819 - 1891), Colonel in the 87th Regiment of Foot , hyphenated his surname. The Campbell-Rentons of Lamberton, and, later, Mordington House, also failed in the male line with
1480-400: Was superior c. 1318. Some records give Lamberton as a feudal barony; others that it became part of the vast barony assigned to Coldingham Priory . (It may be partly both). A charter (RH1/2/98) dated November 21, 1325 of Agnes de Mordington, in favour of John de Raynton, thereafter designated as "of Lamberton", appears to herald the long possession of Lamberton by this family, descendants of
1520-506: Was the third daughter of Alexander Montgomerie, 9th Earl of Eglinton by his third wife, Susanna Kennedy , daughter of Sir Archibald Kennedy of Culzean . She married (before 1 August 1739) John Renton of Lamberton and had two daughters: Susan Renton who married Sir Robert Murray of Clermont and Hillhead, 6th Bart (died 1771); and Eleonora Renton who married (22 August 1770) Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe of Hoddom (1750–1813). The now demolished Old Toll House at Lamberton, situated just across
1560-519: Was to deprive the poet James Thomson of a small office conferred on him by Talbot. Hardwicke's political importance was greatly increased by his move to the House of Lords , where the incompetency of Newcastle threw on the chancellor the duty of defending the measures of the government. He resisted Carteret 's motion to reduce the army in 1738, and the resolutions hostile to Spain over the affair of Captain Jenkins 's ears. But when Walpole bent before
1600-404: Was vexatious without being effective. Hardwicke supported Chesterfield 's reform of the calendar in 1751; in 1753 his bill for legalizing the naturalization of Jews in England had to be dropped on account of the popular clamour it excited; but he successfully carried a Marriage Act which became the basis of subsequent legislation. On the death of Pelham in 1754 Hardwicke obtained for Newcastle
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