GRETNA GREEN

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 52, Issue 3756, 15 May 1936, Page 9

GRETNA GREEN

•IRREGULAR MARRIAGES. “ The system of Gretna Green marriages is fraught with many great evils, and constitutes a reproach to Scotland.” This statement is made in a memorandum submitted by the church and nation committee of the Church of Scotland to the Government committee of inquiry which has been investigating, in Edinburgh, Scottish marriage law. “ People from England,” adds the memorandum, “ came to Scotland, and not only at Gretna Green—where the original ‘ priest ’ was not a smith, but a tobacconist—but also at any other place where there was a road coming from England to Scotland, exchanged matrimonial consent, and so became validly married.” Lord Morison, chairman of the committee, said that irregular marriages in Scotland had increased from less than 1 per cent in 1868 to 12 per cent in 1933.

In evidence, the Rev. Dr J. Hutcheson Cockburn, formerly ednvener of the church and nation committee, asked by Lord Morison why people contracted irregular marriages, said: “ A certain shyness to get married in church. They think it means a certain amount of ceremonial. It is sometimes possible to marry people quietly in church or manse,” Dr Cockburn added, “but the public have a nose for a marriage like a vulture for carrion, and, as soon as they see a car drive up to the door, they begin to gather round.”