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REGISTRATION OF MARRIAGES (IRELAND) ACT 1863

REGISTRATION OF MARRIAGES (IRELAND) ACT 1863 - LONG TITLE

An Act to provide for the Registration of Marriages in Ireland.{1}
[28th July 1863]
Preamble, which refers to the expediency of a system of registration
of such marriages as are not within the provisions of the Marriages
(Ireland) Act 1844 (c.81), rep. by SLR 1893

REGISTRATION OF MARRIAGES (IRELAND) ACT 1863 - SECT 1
Short title.

1. This Act may be cited for all purposes as "The Registration of
Marriages (Ireland) Act, 1863."

S.2 rep. by SLR 1875

REGISTRATION OF MARRIAGES (IRELAND) ACT 1863 - SECT 3
Interpretation of terms.

3. The following words and expressions in this Act shall have the
meanings hereby assigned to them; that is to say,

Definition rep. by SLR 1893

"General search" shall mean a search during any number of successive
days, not exceeding six, without stating the object of search:

"Particular search" shall mean a search over any period not
exceeding five years for any given register of marriage.

REGISTRATION OF MARRIAGES (IRELAND) ACT 1863 - SECT 4
Extent of Act.

4. This Act shall extend to Ireland only.

S.5 rep. by SLR 1875

REGISTRATION OF MARRIAGES (IRELAND) ACT 1863 - SECT 6
Register books and forms to be provided.

6. The Registrar General shall cause to be provided such number of
register books and forms as shall be necessary to the execution of
this Act; and the said register books shall be durable materials,
and in them shall be printed on each side of every leaf the heads
of information herein required to be known and registered in respect
of marriages; and every page of each of such books shall be
numbered progressively from the beginning to the end of the book,
beginning with number one, and every place of entry shall be also
numbered progressively from the beginning to the end of the book,
beginning with number one, and every entry shall be divided from
the following entry by a printed line; and the Registrar General
shall furnish for the use of the registrars a sufficient number of
register books of marriages and such other forms as may from time
to time be required for the purposes of this Act.

Ss.710 rep. by 1956 c.5 (NI) s.19 sch.

REGISTRATION OF MARRIAGES (IRELAND) ACT 1863 - SECT 11
Provision for marriages not within provisions of 1844 c.81.

11. In all cases of marriages which may be legally solemnized in
Ireland, and which do not come within the provisions of the
Marriages (Ireland) Act, 1844, or any Act amending the same, the
parties about to contract any such marriage shall produce to the
clergyman celebrating the marriage a certificate according to the
form A in the schedule hereunto annexed, which certificate shall be
procured by the parties contracting the marriage, previous to its
solemnization, from the registrar of the district appointed under
this Act within which such marriage is intended to be solemnized,
who shall be bound, as far as possible, without fee or reward, to
fill up the said schedule, and it shall be signed by the parties
contracting the marriage and by the witnesses present thereat, not
being less than two, and also by the said clergyman; and the
parties contracting the marriage shall within three days thereafter
either deliver or send by post such certificate to the registrar of
marriages appointed under this Act for the district wherein the
marriage was solemnized; and the husband shall in case of failure
so to deliver or send such certificate, be liable in a penalty not
exceeding ten pounds, to be recovered as herein-after provided.

REGISTRATION OF MARRIAGES (IRELAND) ACT 1863 - SECT 12
Persons unable to write may sign by making a cross.

12. In case of the inability to write of any person whose
signature is required or necessary under this Act, it shall be
lawful for such person to make such signature by making a cross or
other mark, which shall be made in the presence of the clergyman
or two witnesses, who shall attest the same; and such mark shall
be in all respects as binding and effectual as the signature of
such person, if capable of writing, would have been.

REGISTRATION OF MARRIAGES (IRELAND) ACT 1863 - SECT 13
Particulars of certificates to be entered in register books.
Correction of erroneous entries.

13. Every registrar, on receipt of any such certificate, shall
forthwith enter the particulars thereof in the register book:
Provided always, that if any error shall be discovered to have been
committed in the entry of marriage in any register, the person
discovering the same shall forthwith give information thereof to the
justice or justices at the petty sessions of the district within
which such marriage shall have been solemnized...; and it shall be
lawful for the said justice or justices, and they are hereby
authorized and required, thereupon, or upon otherwise coming to the
knowledge of such erroneous entry, to summon before them the person
who made and any person concerned in making such erroneous entry or
having any knowledge regarding the same, and also any person
interested in the effect of such erroneous entry, and to examine
all such persons on oath; and if the said justice or justices
shall be satisfied that any error has been committed in any such
entry, such justice or justices shall, by authority in writing under
his or their hands, direct the registrar to correct the erroneous
entry; and it shall be lawful for the registrar and he is hereby
required, thereupon to correct the erroneous entry according to the
truth of the case by entry in the margin, without any alteration
of the original entry; and such marginal entry shall contain a
reference to the deposition upon which the said justice or justices
directed the correction to be made, and shall be dated on the day
on which it is made, and signed by the parties applying for the
correction and by the registrar; and in every case the registrar
shall make the like alteration in the certified copy of the
register book to be made by him as herein-after provided; provided,
that in case such certified copy shall have been already made, he
shall make and deliver in like manner a separate certified copy of
the original erroneous entry and of the marginal correction therein
made.

Certified copies of entries of marriages to be sent quarterly, and
the register books, when filled, to the Registrar General.

REGISTRATION OF MARRIAGES (IRELAND) ACT 1863 - SECT 14

14. In the months of April, July, October, and January, on such
days as shall from time to time be appointed by the Registrar
General, every registrar shall make and deliver to the [Registrar
General in such form as he may direct], a true copy, certified by
him under his hand, according to the form B in the schedule to
this Act annexed, of all the entries of marriages made during the
quarter of a year last preceding the first day of each of the
several months herein-before mentioned respectively in the register
books kept by him,...: If there shall have been no marriages
registered since the delivery of the last certificate, the registrar
shall certify the fact, and such certificate shall be delivered to
the [Registrar General as aforesaid]:....

S.15 rep. by 1973 NI8 art.9 sch.3

REGISTRATION OF MARRIAGES (IRELAND) ACT 1863 - SECT 16
Abstract of registers to be laid annually before Parliament.

16. The Registrar General shall once in every year transmit to the
Lord Lieutenant a general abstract of the numbers of marriages
registered during the foregoing year in such form and at such date
as the Lord Lieutenant shall from time to time prescribe; and every
such annual general abstract shall be laid before Parliament within
one month after receipt thereof, or, if Parliament shall not be
then sitting, within one month after the commencement of the next
session.

REGISTRATION OF MARRIAGES (IRELAND) ACT 1863 - SECT 17
Indexes to be kept at general register office. Searches to be
allowed, and certified copies to be given.

17. The Registrar General shall cause indexes of all the registers
herein mentioned to be made and kept in the general register
office; and every person shall be entitled to search the said
indexes between the hours of ten in the morning and four in the
afternoon of every day, except Sundays, Christmas Day, and Good
Friday, and to have a certified copy of any entry in the said
registers; [and for every general search, every particular search and
every certified copy under this section there shall be paid the
prescribed fee].

REGISTRATION OF MARRIAGES (IRELAND) ACT 1863 - SECT 18
Indexes to be made at every registrar's office, and persons to be
allowed to search them.

18. Every ... registrar shall cause indexes of the register books
in his office to be made and kept with the other records of his
office. Every person shall be entitled, on such days and at such
reasonable hours as shall be directed by the Registrar General, to
search the said indexes, and to have a certified copy of any entry
or entries in the said register books, under the hand... of the
... registrar [and for every general search, every particular search
and every certified copy under this section there shall be paid the
prescribed fee].

REGISTRATION OF MARRIAGES (IRELAND) ACT 1863 - SECT 19
Persons entitled to search register books.

19. Every person shall be entitled, on such days and at such
reasonable hours as shall be directed by the Registrar General, to
search [in any register book in the custody of a registrar], and
to have a certified copy of any such entry or entries, under the
hand... of the registrar, [and for every search and every certified
copy under this section there shall be paid the prescribed fee].

Ss.20, 21 rep. by 1978 NI8 art.9 sch.3. S.22 rep. by 1946 c.13
(NI) s.16(3) sch.

REGISTRATION OF MARRIAGES (IRELAND) ACT 1863 - SECT 23
1861 c.98 ss.36, 37, incorporated.

23. The 36th and 37th sections of the Forgery Act, 1861, shall be
incorporated with and form part of this Act.

REGISTRATION OF MARRIAGES (IRELAND) ACT 1863 - SECT 24
Penalty for neglect of registrar to register marriage, &c.

24. Every registrar who shall refuse or without reasonable cause
omit to fill up the certificate of marriage or register any
marriage of which he shall have received a certificate, and every
person having the custody of any register book or any part thereof
who shall carelessly lose or injure the same, or carelessly allow
the same to be injured whilst in his keeping, shall forfeit a sum
not exceeding ten pounds for every such offence.

S.25 rep. by 1973 NI8 art.9 sch.3

REGISTRATION OF MARRIAGES (IRELAND) ACT 1863 - SECT 26
Penalties how recoverable.

26. Any penalty recoverable under the provisions of this Act shall
be recoverable in a summary way, ... before a justice or justices
of the peace sitting in petty sessions, subject and according to
the provisions of the Petty Sessions (Ireland) Act, 1851, and any
Act amending the same.

REGISTRATION OF MARRIAGES (IRELAND) ACT 1863 - SECT 27
Saving of marriage law.

27. Nothing in this Act contained shall affect the law of marriage
in Ireland.

18.MARRIAGES solemnized at the Roman Catholic chapel of (), in the
registrar's district of (), in the union of (), in the county of
().

Married in the Roman Catholic chapel of (), according to the rites
and ceremonies of the Roman Catholic church,

I (), registrar of births, deaths, and marriages in the district of
(), in the union of (), in the county of (), do hereby certify,
that this is a true copy of the registrar's book of marriages
within the said district from the entry of the marriage of (), No.
(), to the entry of the marriage of (), No. ().) Registrar.[The
particulars in this schedule to be entered according to the fact.]