Marriage witness for a fee?

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murf
Posts: 365
Joined: Fri Mar 20, 2009 12:58 am
Location: Qld Australia

Marriage witness for a fee?

Post by murf » Sat Mar 05, 2016 1:47 am

My gg grandfather Thomas Fitzgerald(c1820-c1890) lived in the village of Milford, Co Cork. On his daughter Ellen's marriage certificate his occupation was stated as being a butcher.
Upon searching through the Milford(Freemount) parish marriage register I noticed that for a period during the 1860's a certain Thomas Fitzgerald was nominated as a witness to the marriage on a rather extraordinary number of occasions. His name was appearing 3, 4 or 5 times on each page of the register.
Could his butcher shop have been next door to the church and he was grabbed each time someone was short of a witness?
Might he have been a lay helper to the priest on wedding days?
Could he have been doing it for a fee?
I would be interested to know if any forum members have encountered this phenomenon before.

pj.culligan
Posts: 49
Joined: Thu Feb 25, 2010 2:43 pm

Re: Marriage witness for a fee?

Post by pj.culligan » Sat Mar 05, 2016 9:23 pm

More than likely he was the local matchmaker, and so would appear as a witness at the wedding.

murf
Posts: 365
Joined: Fri Mar 20, 2009 12:58 am
Location: Qld Australia

Re: Marriage witness for a fee?

Post by murf » Sat Mar 05, 2016 10:34 pm

Yes PJ, you may have it there. It would be a very plausible explanation.
By coincidence only last week I saw a clip on TV about matchmaker Willie Daly at the Lisdoonvarna Festival.
http://matchmakerireland.com/history/
How widespread was this tradition. Did most villages and towns have a matchmaker?

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