Did they accept common law marriage? I’d still like to read the part of the legislation where they defined marriage. Common law marriage is a pretty interesting topic, and it would be fun to read up on how it related to this act of the CC. It wasn’t allowed in Britain, but was in some colonies. You seem up to speed on this, so either provide a link or a cut and paste of the law.
I know that today only 9 states allow common law marriage, but that all 50 states recognize it if it complied with the laws of the state it was acquired in, as do the feds.
Colonial marriage law was largely English common law with variations.
The thing about the history of marriage that surprises some people, at least until they think about it for a moment, is that their was just about always a common authorized marriage definition in place.
People can remember reading about Greece, and Rome, and Indian tribes, and peoples from around the world, and recall that they all had marriage laws, that some form of shared authority decided on the validity of the relationship and the termination of it and disposition of wealth and property, even laws like “the first born son shall” etc.
The republican party was partly founded to fight marriage issues among the Mormons and Apache.
I don’t have a great answer for you, but can give some general impressions, while in some situations it was very difficult to formalize a marriage, it was very important to to so and every effort was made to do that, improper procedure could result in huge fines, and even marriages being forced to end, not to mention social issues.
Virginia for instance passed a law in 1748 requiring a license, but they had used formal proclamations before that.
Licenses or banns had been around for many centuries.
Marriage was serious business to the incredibly socially conservative, religious peoples who founded this nation, they were unimaginably conservative to the people of today.