For better, for worse

Published on Saturday 18 November 2006 01:34

Q WHERE might I find a marriage contract for one of my ancestors in Scotland? H Killick (by e-mail)

A Until recently it was the practice for a marriage contract to be drawn up when members of propertied families got married. In the contract the families made financial provision for the couple, particularly for the future financial security of the wife and children. These contracts could be drawn up either before or after the marriage ceremony and you should expect to find the couple, their fathers and possibly other relatives all named in the contract. As these were private documents, there is no guarantee that the one you are seeking has survived, but there are a number of groups of records held by the National Archives of Scotland (NAS) and elsewhere, which you should consult in your search.

The first of these is the Register of Deeds (NAS refs: RD, SC, B). In the 16th century it became the practice for most courts of law to have a register of deeds, in which such documents were copied. The original document was also often kept by the court. Up to 1809, any court had the power to register deeds, however, after that date, only the Court of Session, sheriff courts and royal burgh courts had that power. If you are looking for a deed which you hope will have been copied into a register of deeds, you will need to look at both the register compiled in the Court of Session and the registers of any courts which had jurisdiction where your ancestor lived.

It is important to note the deeds are arranged in the registers by date of registration, not the date of the deed. One difficulty to bear in mind is that a marriage contract might be registered years after the date of the marriage itself, perhaps after the death of the husband. There was also no compulsion to register a marriage contract at all.

You could also try the Register of Sasines, also held by the NAS. Many marriage contracts included provision for a life rent income from land, and the subsequent instrument of sasine should be recorded in a Register of Sasine. The NAS also has a collection of around 306 miscellaneous marriage contracts (NAS ref: RH9/7). These are arranged and listed in two series, the first chronologically from 1591-1846 and the second haphazardly arranged, but dated from 1605-1811. You may also be lucky enough to find that the papers of the family in question have been deposited with an archive, either locally or in one of the national institutions and you may find marriage contracts among these records. One last point to bear in mind, however, is that occasionally a marriage contract was not followed by a marriage at all.

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