* Brides marrying young

[Gowermick]

I have come across two sisters, aged 15 & 16 marrying two brothers, approx 10 years older. I know girls could marry as young as 12 at some point, but have never come across a recent marriage (1800’s onwards) where the brides were so young.

I’d be interested to see if anyone has come across such young brides, and what is the lowest age found.

[Valkrider]

Mike

I have one where the girl was only 13, I have a few others up to 16.

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[LornaCraig]

The difficulty, or course, is that you can't always be sure of their age unless a birth date was included in their baptism record. I have a case where the bride might have been 14, but that's only if she was baptised within a few weeks of birth.

[Gowermick]

Yes, I’m fully aware, but as it was in 1844 & 1846, I do have the GRO registrations to back it up, furthermore, the marriage ages were the only anomalies, census ages matched their real age.
NB both were married by licence!

[AntonyM]

I have a couple of C19th marriages with brides shown as 15, and some who claimed to be 17/18 but were a couple of years younger.

But I do have a confirmed case of a 12yr old bride marrying in 1906.

[johnhanson]

The age at which boys and girls had to be 16 was only introduced into laws in 1929 with the "Age at marriage" act