A Christmas gift for you – nearly 800 marriages for Bildeston, Suffolk, from 1559-early 1754.
Christmas Day weddings were popular in the past – but why? Because Advent is like Lent in the Church calendar, a solemn time when Christians would reflect on a world without Christ in it. The church colour for Advent is purple, a colour of mourning, so you’ll see, for instance, purple altar cloths (even with Christmas decorations in the church). But Christmas Day was a day of celebration, and with it, celebrations of marriage.
Transcriptions of Bildeston’s marriages back to 1559 have been available for a long time, thanks to Boyd’s Marriages, but they don’t include abodes and marital statuses. Although the register doesn’t carry a great deal of extra information for the marriages, aside from names and dates, the amount of detail accompanying marriages from the Commonwealth period is significant. If you can’t find a marriage in the mid-1600s, then do check these marriages, as couples from villages and towns around Bildeston were married there as one of the Justices of the Peace for Suffolk was resident – it was JPs who performed marriages at that time, not vicars!
Anyway, I’ve waffled on for long enough! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!
