Donaghadee marriages performed by Alexander Goudy .....

[jennyblain]

I have ancestors, Mary Maxwell and William Blain, married by Alexander Goudy in Donaghadee in 1812. The marriage was later ratified by the Kirk Session in Inch, Wigtownshire, where the couple were living.

I've found mentions of a couple of other marriages, with the couples having to be 'remarried' in Scotland, conducted by this Alexander Goudy and wondered if anybody knows about him?

Jenny

[Liz Turner]

Hi Jenny

Try the site below:-

http://www.ulsterbiography.co.uk/biogsG.htm

http://www.curiousfox.com/history_Ire/down.lasso - was this post made by you? If not, worth a look.

Try doing a google search - you'll find the lead to this:-
Alexander Goudy was ordained at Donaghadee, Ireland, March 14, 1780 Vol. I. Rev. Robert Goudy, son of the preceding... Vol. I. Rev. James Goudy was ordained ...

If he was ordained in the Presbyterian church, he'll probably appear somewhere in the Fasti. I'm sure when some of the others see this post, they'll chip in and tell us where you might find that.

Liz

[emanday]

Maybe they weren't allowed to have a child baptised unless they were "re-married"?

Scuse my igorans - Kirk Sessions WAS Church of Scotland

[Liz Turner]

Actually not too sure of that, because my own relatives were heavily involved in the Secession Churches in Fife in the 1800s and there are Kirk Session minutes for them, which I've seen. So I suspect that all the non-RC churches would have some kind of "kirk session" minutes.

Let's hope an "expert" comes along soon to keep us right!! I'm the first to admit I know a very little about a lot of things

I knew some one with great knowledge on this site had posted stuff about ministers - thank you David!

http://talkingscot.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4276

[DavidWW]

Aye weel, but, there's the rub, I have absolutely no knowledge or expertise in relation to the situation with respect to irregular marriages in Ireland, except to comment that the applicable law was most probably the same as in England and Wales, hence the fact that one of the centres for Scottish irregular marriages was the small port of Portpatrick on the Mull of Galloway, - a short sail across the North Channel from Northern Ireland .....

David

[jennyblain]

For some reason I wasn't earlier seeing the replies to my query...
Yes, the Kirk session in question was of the local Church of Scotland, (Inch parish) 'regularising' the situation. The first baptism record isn't until December 1814, whereas the Kirk Session record is december 1812.. seems as though the couple were hauled over the coals presumably for living together when not 'properly' married.

I think that they were fairly young - at least Mary Maxwell was possibly still in teens: she was still producing children in 1837 when her son William, my g-grandfather, was born.

There are a lot of similar Kirk Session records, 'regularising' similar marriages, all performed by this Goudy.

Thanks everybody. If anybody ever has sight of the book about the Goudies, I'd love to know what it says about Alexander!

Jenny

[jennyblain]

I should have added - yes there seems to have quite a 'trade' in 'irregular' marriages across the Sheuch. I've seen some of the register entries for Inch parish and there are repeated entries very like that for my g-g-g-grandparent - they come before the Kirk Session, they produce their marriage lines from Goudy, they are asked if they consider themselves married and say that they do, and the Session agrees that they are now married and the minister does a prayer.. These are all described in almost exactly the same words; obviously a form or word has been adopted for it.

At first I'd thought it might mean that one or other was from County Down, but having seen the numbers of people involved, all married by Goudy, I think it's most likely that they were both from Inch parish or around there, and possibly avoiding parental consent issues or some such.

Jenny