ABSTRACT
Lord Hardwicke’s Marriage Act of 1753 specified that in order to be valid, a marriage had to be performed in a church or public chapel with banns or licence and parental permission for minors, in the presence of two or more credible witnesses besides the ordained minister of the Church of England, and had to be entered into a parish register signed by the couple and the minister. 1 The 1753 Marriage Act has generally been considered as a first step in the struggle of the rising middle classes in Britain to end the general contempt for marriage and impose their particular norm of marriage on the rest of society. The middle classes favoured a marriage that was legal, indissoluble, monogamous, co-resident, and based on affection and personal compatibility. They expected husbands and wives to occupy separate spheres and carry out distinct tasks. The husband had to spend his day outside the house earning money in order to provide for his wife and children and he also had to protect his dependants. In return for his financial support and protection, the wife had to run the household, take care of the children’s physical and spiritual development, and contribute to her husband’s moral welfare. 2 Although these gendered tasks were presented as reciprocal and complementary, they were firmly based on the assumption that the husband was the head of the household and that the wife had to obey her husband’s wishes. 3
