MARRIED IN A SHEET.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIII, Issue XXIII, 2 December 1899, Page 1016

MARRIED IN A SHEET.

It is an old idea that a husband whose wife at her marriage was clothed only in a sheet, or in the mostelementary linen garment, was not in any way liable for the debts previously contracted by her. says the “Lore and Legends of the English Church.” Ancient parish registers and local traditions give ample illustration of this quaint idea. At Chiltern All Saint’s, Wiltshire, is the following entry: — “John Bridemore and Ann Seiwood were married October 17, 1714; the aforesaid Ann Seiwood was married in her smock, without any clothes or headgear on.” Similar cases occurred at Gorton Green in 1735, and at Otley in 1808. Avis’ “Birmingham Gazette” for 1797 vouches for an extraordinary story, according to which a bride disrobed in the vestry, and appeared at the altar without even the amount of clothing worn by the ladies in the above eases.

The latest example of which the present writer knows comes from Lincolnshire. The register of Gedney has this commonplace entry:—“December 2, 1842, David Wilkinson, full age; bachelor, labourer, of Gedney,” to “Susan Faran, full age. widow, of Gedney.” Local tradition supplements this brief account by relating that the bride was dressed in a sheet stitched about her, with holes cut for the passage of her bare arms.