Hi,

A technical query. In the old days the Ecclesiastical courts had some fairly rigid rules on mariage prohibitions due to closeness of relationships. I believe that in the 1700s marriage with a deceased wife's sister was not regarded as the done thing, but I do not know if it was prohibited.

However the situation I am looking at concerns a POSSIBLE deceased wife's niece. Would marriage to a deceased wife's niece be acceptable or not c1720 ?

The actual case involves William Casement. In 1708, he married Jane Knipe at Malew. She died in 1718, and in 1719 Wm married Mary Thomasson, so ... what is the problem ?

Jane Knipe, the first wife, was Jane Wattleworth, and she had married John Kinpe in 1702, the guy passing away two years later. It is possible that jane was a daughter of Archdeacon Sam Wattleworth, but that is not certain.

What is certain is that Esther Wattleworth WAS a daughter of Archdeacon Sam, and she married an Irish rector, George Thomason, and their daughter, Mary Thomason, who was the ARchdeacon's grand daughter married Wm Casement in 1719.

If Jane Wattleworth was the daughter of the Archdeacon, then Mary Thomason was her niece. Given the close relationship of the two women, WOULD this be accepted at that time ?

That is part ONE of the question. Part Two is to see if we can definitely identify Jane's parents. We do not know when she was born, but she married John Knipe at Malew on 4-11-1702. After he died she married Wm Casement at Malew on 30-11-1708, and died at Lezayre on 6-11-1718. Allowing a marriage age of at least 20, she would have been born c1682 or before, so Archdeacon Sam Wattleworth who married Jane Barton c1673 is plausible.

However, it seems normal for couples to marry in their own parish or if from different parished, usually in the girl's parish. In 1702 Sam Wattleworth was in German, and by 1708 he was at Andreas. In 1702, the spinster Jane would have been living with her parents. so if she was the archdeacon's child she would be in German, so German is the likely place for a marriage, and Sam is the guy who would probably conduct the service. Instead, this Jane marries at Malew.

I therefore wonder if she was Sam's daughter, or if she was from another Wattlewoeth family, and at this time there was at least one other Wattleworth family in Malew, maybe two.

SO would it be a prohibited union if they were both descended from Sam, and
Can anyone provide a firm "provenance" for Jane Wattleworth/Knipe/Casement

The colour of her eyes would also help !!!

thanks

Robert H