Why would a couple marry twice?

Question

My wife's ancestor married the same man twice. There would not have been a divorce. Different ages are given on both Marriage certifcates but the real ages would have allowed them to marry legally and as far as I can see there were no bars to the marriage..

Marriages Mar 1885 BANKS Bessy Bath Dover 0 2a 1102

Marriages Sep 1887 BANKS Bessie Bath Dover 0 2a 1489

Answer 1

perhaps the church wasn't registered correctly?

Answer 2

C'mon guys, you know, you fellas always notice whether the girls are pretty or not, even those of you who aren't so pretty yourself.   Are you sure your ancestor that married her was pretty?  He might not have been able to do any better.  Actually, he might have been lucky!

Answer 3

One reason could be that couples sometimes  "re-married" in a different church, the first time normally in the parish that the wife was born in, the second time, in the parish the couple were living in, often the husband's home parish, or vice versa, the registration district may well be the same in both instances, the place of marriage will be on the certificate. Children also were sometimes baptised twice in different parish churches for similar reasons.

Another reason might be that the first marriage was in a register office, and they confirmed the marriage in a Church at a later date.

There is no accounting for taste !!

Answer 4

To double up on the wedding pressies of course. Oldest trick in the book that one

Answer 5

The mists of time cloud many a fact. I think Tebs, just above me,  has the most reasonable answer. I was thinking that the man who performed the first ceremony was unmasked as a charltan and they had to get married again by a real minister.

Answer 6

I werent going to answer because I didnt really know the answer, but when I seen "(If you saw a picture of Bessie you would not marry her once!)" I couldnt stop laughing.

Star for you x

Answer 7

The first may have been a shotgun wedding with the groom led up the aisle by an irate father-in-law armed with a baseball bat and an eight month pregnant knocked-up daughter.  Maybe a couple of years later they decided to have a proper ceremony where the groom wasn't under threat of death!

They could also have switched religions.  Maybe one was a methodist ceremony, and one Church of England or something.    People did a lot of switching in the 19th century.

Any chance of posting a link to a picture of Bessie, I'm really curious! :-)

Answer 8

to re-ignite the flame in there love and start a new

Answer 9

Maybe they renewed there vows.Or maybe they lost the first marriage certificate & had to get a copy.