During the reign of Henry VIII it was decided that a formal system to record locally the important events of a person's life should be introduced. In 1538 his Lord Chancellor, Thomas Cromwell, introduced a parochial system of registration based upon baptisms, marriages and burials. It was the duty of the Clergy in each Parish to keep a book recording all these events.
It was not until 1597 that annual returns of the information collected had to be sent to a diocesan registrar, and the same year each parish had to purchase special parchment registers in which to record the details.
In 1666 the "Wool Act" added to the task of recording burials. To secure income from the duty on wool the Law required that all corpses had to be buried in a "woollen shroud" and that an affidavit to this effect had to be completed after each burial.
In March 1754 a Marriage act, known as Lord Hardwicke's Act, came into force. It tightened up on the preliminaries needed before marriage. One area therefore controlled was the marriage of minors, for whom parental or guardian consent was now required. Gretna Green then became famous because runaway marriages illegal in England could still take place in Scotland, and the village was close to the border.
In 1833 a House of Commons Select Committee was set up to enquire into the whole system of parochial registration and to look at the need for a system of national civil registration. The General Registration Acts were passed in 1836, bringing into being the current system of registration.
July 1st 1837 saw the appointment of 2,193 Registrars of Births and Deaths and 619 Superintendent Registrars (for marriages) in England and Wales, under the first Registrar General (Thomas Lister), based at the General Register Office in London. However in the beginning, registration was not compulsory with the Registrar being responsible for attempting to secure a registration. Because many births and deaths were not being registered registration was made compulsory in 1874.
Before 1876, deaths were not required to be certified by a doctor, so the registrar had to rely on the informant to provide the cause of death.
In 1926, in an attempt to prevent the irregular disposal of bodies, the Births and Deaths Registration Act (1926) introduced the requirement for a registrar's certificate or coroner's order to be produced before burial or cremation could take place. It also required a notice of disposal to be sent to the registrar after the funeral had taken place. At the same time, registration of still-births was required.
From its introduction in 1837 to 1929 the Poor Law board of Guardians administered the local service. In 1929 that responsibility was transferred to local Government.
Since then small changes to the legislation have been made such as giving an informant the facility to register a birth or death by declaration, with the details then being sent on to the District where the birth or death occurred.
In 1995 the Marriage Act was amended to allow the County Council to licence other premises such as hotels, stately homes, sporting venues and other prestigious venues for civil marriage ceremonies.
The most recent change occurred in January 2001 with the introduction of the Immigration & Asylum Act which made it compulsory for both parties to a marriage to give a Notice of Marriage to their local Superintendent Registrar. |