Love and Marriage - Sepia Saturday

I'd like to introduce you to Benjamin Gerrish Gray (Aged 85) and his wife Anne Eliza (nee Wiggins) posing outside their house at 4 Inverness Gardens, Kensington, London on the occasion of their Golden Wedding in 1912:

Benjamin was born in 1827 at St Johns, New Bruswick; according to one source he married Anne Eliza Wiggins in 1853. So how can 1912 be the year of their Golden Wedding? Apparently they left New Brunswick for England soon after they were married. Benjamin became a partner in the London fim of BCT Gray and Son in 1856 when he would have been 29 years old. The couple had a big family - eight children in all.

Before the Marriage Act of 1753 came into force there were many irregular or clandestine marriages performed in England especially those that took place in the London Fleet Street Prison and its environs during the 17th  and early 18th century.

 

Fleet Street Marriage from Robert Chambers Book of Days (1st Edition)

Of course there was a time when lovers eloped by chaise to Gretna Green as depicted in this set of postcards by Raphael Tuck:

 "Oilette" - By Morburre (CC A 2.0 generic license)

All's well that ends well at Gretna's Blacksmith's Shop:

By Niki Odolphie (CC A 2.0 generic license)

So if you're free and willing, you know you have to go to either the first village in Scotland if you are travelling north or the last village in Scotland if you journey south.

Of course you could check others opportunities at Sepia Saturday 73