SCOTTISH BORDER WEDDINGS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 24 January 1925, Page 15

SCOTTISH BORDER WEDDINGS.

Formerly there was a great difference between tlie .English aim fcjeottisii marriage laws, which led to the “Border. Marriages,” as they were called, says the .Newcastle \Y eerily Chronicle. Directiy you crossed, the border into Scotland marriages could be instantly effected without notice or publication or banns. No residence was required, no questions were asked, and the marriage could take place in a house, a church, an inn, or in the open. air. It was only T necessary for a witness to assert that he had 'heard the pair agree to be married and the deed was done. A man who called himself, the priest was present, and declared the couple husband and wife. One of these so-called priests was Patie Moody a shoemaker; another was John Armstrong, a n.iolecatcher; and another was William Dicksoil, a shoemaker in Coldstream, an intelligent and man. He is said to have carried on a roaring trade in marriages, charging oil an average ten and sixpence for liis fee, but much more when moneyed men required his services. Certificates, dr “marriage lines,” were given to the newly-married couple, and duplicates of these were filed on a wire hung from the ceiling. These Border marriages were valid by the law of Scotland. An old wirter on the subject says: “In the toll-house at the Scottish side of the river (Coldstream) dukes, lords, marquesses, colonels, right honourables, peers, nloughmen, and hinds have been tied for life. Many romantic incidents have occurred here. A celebrated statesman who had eloped with an heiress, on being nearly overtaken by her irate guardian at Corrib ill, shot oiie of the horses of-the pursuer’s conveyance, thus gaining time to dash over Coldstream Bridge and get married before the pursuer could arrive. Border marriages were put an end to bv an Act of Parliament brought in by Lord Brougham, and passed in 185.6. Strange to say, there is a persistent tradition that Lord Brougham himself was married at the Newcastle Arms, the principal inn at Coldstream, by the Lord Chancellor Eldon, that celebrated native of Newcastle, is also said to have been married by Patie Moody at the the principal inn at Coldstream • the were other two places on the Border noted for these marriages—Gretna Green on the West and Lamberton. Toll, north of Berwick —all three being situated on the main coach road from the south, but Coldstream was the nearest over the Border.