Manuscript petition (1 Ergebnisse)

4pp folio on blue paper, folded with neat repair to blank final page without loss. 'Gentlemen, The undersigned Electors. beg the favour of your support to the Bill of Sir Thomas Chambers, the second of which is fixed for the 4th of April - The Bill to Remove Doubts regarding certain Colonial Marriages.' Followed by 37 signatures on pages 1 & 3. Marriage to a deceased wife's sister was a subject for national debate between 1835 - when the Marriage Act declared it illegal - through to the passing of the Deceased Wife's Marriage Act of 1907. Campaigning against the barring of such unions started in 1842. Sir Thomas Chambers, 1814-1891, Liberal M.P. for Hertford 1852-1857 and for Marylebone 1865-1885, was a leading campaigner against the ban and in 1876 introduced a Bill in Parliament. He had become aware of an anomaly, in that various colonial laws had been passed allowing marriage with a deceased wife's sister, while it was illegal in Britain. Chambers failed in this attempt to regularise the law; the second reading of the Bill, originally scheduled for April 4th was several times delayed until withdrawn on July 5th. PLEASE NOTE: For customers within the UK this item is subject to VAT at 20%.…