GRETNA GREEN “HUMBUG”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22654, 20 August 1935, Page 9

GRETNA GREEN “HUMBUG”

MARRIAGE CERTIFICATES LONDON, July 12. Strong criticism of Gretna Greep marriages was expressed by Lord Pitman in the Court of Session at Edinburgh when disposing of a defended action of declaration of marriage. “ There is no special virtue in a Gretna marriage,'” he said, “ and a so-called certificate of marriage issued by the socalled priest who, by the way, is not even a blacksmith but only a custodian of the smithy and employed by the owner, is just a piece of humbug. “ The practice is open to abuse and it is a matter for consideration whether it ought not be put a stop to or regulated.”

The action with which Lord Pitman was dealing with raised by Elsie May Palmer, or Smith, or M’Aleer, against Thomas M'Aleer, both of Glasgow. M’Aleer admitted that he went through a ceremony of holding hands over the anvil at the blacksmith’s shop at Gretna and that he signed various documents relative to a marriage, but denied that he ever truly consented to become the woman’s husband.

That they should shake hands over the anvil was, he said, first suggested as a joke when they were being shown round the smithy. Lord Pitman held it proved that the parties genuinely accepted each other as man and wife, and that M’Aleer knew perfectly well what he was doing.