Apr 3, 2017 Orange County Review
Again, let me recognize the work of Maher Washington in discovering what may be the first legally recorded marriage for a Black couple in Orange County. Should you require a refresher on the constructs of marriage between enslaved people of color and/or the mechanisms by which people of color may have achieved freedom prior to 1865, I refer you to the column published March 9.
The couple in question— Alexander Campbell, a “free man of colour” and Anna Mallory, a “free woman of colour”—were wed in Orange County November 7, 1822.
The back story, at least as we know it thus far, follows.
In the Orange County Bond Book #10, page 116 is the original document that would be called a marriage license in today’s vernacular. It is quite flowery and I will not bore you with all the details; however, some of the highlights are of interest.
It is called a bond, because a bond of money was required: $150 to be exact. This applied to anyone wishing to marry. An online inflation calculator computes the value of $150 in 1822 to the equivalent of $2,975.97 in 2017. The cost of a marriage license in Virginia today is on average $30 or the 1822 equivalent of $2. I know you must be as puzzled as I was when first learning of this. What gives? Why would such an exorbitant fee be imposed and who had that kind of money? I searched and read and searched again and this is what I discovered.
Prior to the War of Independence, there was the ruling church: The Church of England. After the establishment of the United States of America as an independent power many of the church traditions were difficult to shed. One of those was the process of publishing marriage bans.
Marriage bans were a declaration of the intent for two people to marry and the practice of publishing these bans was to assure the community at large an opportunity to object if there was cause.
As the country expanded and families were consistently moving from one place to another, it became clear that a couple may be completely unknown to the local community; thus the system of marriage bans proved to be ineffective.
But what if there were legitimate causes for two people not to wed? And there you have the genesis of the marriage bond. The money required up front was significant enough to dissuade those who knew there might be cause for objection to not proceed. It was a monetary assurance of good faith as to one’s character and honesty, similar to a workman’s bond today.
There were three primary reasons why a couple should not marry:
• One party may be underage and without permission from a guardian
• One of the parties may already be married.
• The couple may be too closely related.
The bond was submitted by the husband-to-be and held for up to a year after the marriage was performed. It has not yet been verified, but appears that after a year with no valid complaints the bond was released.
You are surely asking, “What if the fellow does not have the $150?” I have read more than once about a man wishing to marry but deferring to a time when he had saved a certain amount of funds. I always thought it was a question of proving his ability to support a wife and family, but perhaps, it was to pay the bond.
Where did Alexander Campbell secure the bond money? Stay tuned!
Until next week, be well.
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