In England in 1877 and 1885 what sort of information did you have to submit in order to get married?

Question

I ask as my relative in 1885 gave his name as William Alfred but in his first marriage in 1877 he was just Alfred so would he have to show a birth certificate ?

Answer 1

Birth certificates are not required to be produced for a marriage in England. Since 1215, If the marriage was/is in a church, marriage banns have to be called in the church that the couple were/are to be married in, on three sundays before the wedding, and since 1823, if one of the spouses was/is from a different parish, banns must also be called in the church of the other parish, you can sometimes find a slightly different name called at each church, so it might be worth a look at the banns registers.  If the marriage was by licence, banns did not have to be called and the couple could get married on the same day that the licence was issued. People with two, or more, first names often use only their second name, sometimes to prevent confusion if, for instance their father, or a cousin,  had the same first name, unfortunately they did not think of us when they chopped and changed their names around !

Answer 2

UK answer.

It was unlikely that they would have to produce a birth certificate at the the time of arranging the marriage. I have a gr/gr/gr gran who gave her age as *full age* when she was actually 16 years old. Her father was John Henry for his first  legal marriage, the other three were bigamous, he then became, John, and then the next time he was Henry and the third bigamous marriage he was Henry John. So no I don't think they needed to prove anything.

Hope this helps.