Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act 1907

The Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act 1907 was a statute passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

Previously, it was forbidden for a man to marry the sister of his deceased wife. This prohibition derived from a doctrine of Canon Law whereby those who were connected by marriage were regarded as being related to each other in a way which made marriage between them improper. This doctrine was reflected in the Table of kindred and affinity in the British Book of Common Prayer. Prohibition of marriage between certain degrees of kindred outlawed what is known as incest; prohibition between degrees of relationship by marriage as opposed to blood (affinity) seems to have reflected an analagous taboo.

Under ecclesiastical law, a marriage within the prohibited degrees was not absolutely void but it was voidable at the suit of any interested party. For this reason, Charles, the younger brother of Jane Austen, was able to marry his deceased wife's sister in 1820 and to remain married to her until he died in 1852. The Marriage Act 1835, however, hardened the law into an absolute prohibition (whilst, however, authorising any such marriages which had already taken place), so that such marriages could no longer take place in Great Britain at all. Such marriages from that date had to take place abroad: see, for example, John Collier, the painter, who married the sister of his deceased wife in Norway in 1889. But this was only possible for those who could afford it.

The desire of widowed men to marry the sister of their deceased wife became the subject of particular agitation from the 1860s onwards and strong feelings were roused on both sides. However, it was to be nearly 50 years before the campaign for a change in the law was successful, despite the introduction of draft legislation in Parliament on many occasions.

The Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act 1907 removed the prohibition (although it allowed individual clergy, if they chose, to refuse to conduct marriages which would previously have been prohibited). But the Act did exactly what it said and no more. So, for example, it was not until 1921 that the Deceased Brother's Widow's Marriage Act was passed. The Marriage (Prohibited Degrees) Relationship Act 1931 extended the operation of the 1907 Act to allow the marriages of nieces and nephews by marriage as well.

The text of the 1907 Act may be read | here.

See also

• Marriage Act, 1753
• Marriage Act