James Fyfe & Margaret Horn - deciphering words

[unklee]

Hi everyone, I have another document I am having trouble deciphering, and since people here were so helpful (and skilful!) in deciphering some text previously for me, I thought I would ask for help again please.

The document is from Scotland's People, and it relates to the wedding of James Fyfe and Margaret Horn in 1696 in Rayne Aberdeenshire. The copy is not a good one, with some areas very dark and others very faint, so I have taken two copies, one where I've darkened up the graphic to try to show up the faint text at the bottom.



This is my best guess at the text I have been able to read:

Nov 29 1696
The said day James Fife in this parish brought a certificate (?) from the parish of Culsalmond declaring that he had contracted marriage to one Margaret Horn in the parish and also that they had laid down sufficient (?) pledges (?) for abstinence (??) and ---formance according to ---- (?) of the church and desiring us to go along to them in the mutuall (?) ----ination of those bonds matrimonial and ............. proclaimed and ............. certificate (?) from ............... of his marriage upon the 20th December 1696.

The bottom section is almost illegible it is so faint, but I'm hoping someone has seen enough of these old marriage records to know the pattern of words.

My main aim is to understand if this is a normal wedding, or if the words in the middle signify something unusual. Any help and ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Eric

[LesleyB]

Nov 29 1696
The said day James Ffife in this parish brought ane testificat from the parish of Culsalmond declaring that he had contracted marriage to one Margaret Horn in the said parish and also that they had laid down sufficient pledges for abstinence and performance according to order (?) of the church and desiring us to go along to them in the mutuall (?) proclamation of there [note that spelling is not correct for the usage these days] bonds matrimonial and ............. proclaimed and ............. testificat from ............... of his marriage upon the 20th December 1696.

I've come across testificats and pledges before, so pretty sure these are what it says and I think you are correct with "sufficient pledges for abstinence" ( my lot on the other hand seemed to suffer with fallen pledges!! )
Ane =Scots for "one" or "a"
The "said parish" is a phrase which is used often in OPRs

[unklee]

Thanks Lesley, that's very helpful. I just don't know enough about the language and likely wording of these things - not surprising when I realised today that not only do I live on the opposite side of the world, but this baptismal entry is about halfway in time between me and Chaucer!!

So from what you are saying, this is a fairly normal marriage announcement - I guess the "pledges for abstinence" were simply a commitment to remain "pure" so the ceremony before God would not be compromised?

[LesleyB]

Hi unklee

So from what you are saying, this is a fairly normal marriage announcement

Of the ones I have seen, this is quite a long entry...but I have seen the wording in other documents. Testificats tend to be what someone takes with them when they move parish, a bit like a reference to say that you were of good character, except in this case it seems the testificat is to confirm that the couple were not only of good character but were also contracted in marriage.

I've come across pledges in Kirk Session accounts where fines were mentioned as having been collected for "fallen pledges". So, although quite a bit of the pattern of the wording is familar to me, I've not seen it all together in the one marriage document. Interesting to note that even with the testificat stating that they were already contracted, it seems they have still had to wait the three or so weeks before actually being married, presumably so that the banns could be read in the new parish to ensure there were no objections etc.

It is a shame that the wording is so difficult to read towards the end, but not bad considering, as you say, that "this...entry is about halfway in time between me and Chaucer" You are also quite lucky to have quite such a "wordy" one!

Best wishes
Lesley

[unklee]

Thanks Lesley, I think that is all I really need to know. It would be nice to be able to read and properly understand all the text, but if this looks fairly normal to someone who has seen many of them, then that is really enough. Thanks again. Eric