Marriage certificate signatures.....

[James henderson]

David asks what records we actually hold at The World Famous old Blacksmith's Shop at Gretna Green. It may be helpful first to point out that we are just one of the local Marriage rooms in this part of the Borders. Some no longer exist, some are still active, and some are modern, leading to complete confusion in almost everyone who comes along here for whatever purpose. We host many (official) weddings in this building alone - over 1000 last year. We, since the the appointment of places like this as virtual extensions of the local Registry Office, have hosted many civil ceremonies. The current wave of Gretna Green weddings here started with the clarification of the position of Religious Marriage in Scots law. This was in 1987. We still have religious ceremonies here but the vast majority are now civil.

We do not however have"official" records of those later marriages - these are kept by the authorities. We do however have old records dating back to the 1880's of Irregular Marriages or "Marriage by Declaration". TThese end in 1940 of course. There are a number of other locations which hold old records, notably the old Toll House, now known as the First/Last House in Scotland, and the Gretna Hall Hotel, originally the site of a coaching inn and a popular marriage venue for the better off in its early days. Most of the records became dispersed as each "Anvil Priest" (incidentally few, if any, were blacksmith's and none were priests), died or retired and his estate became the possessor of his records. Those records we have here are available only because the present owner's' family have been in possession since 1881.

The records we have (until 1940) are open to the public on request at our reception and some are actually on display in the Exhibition.

A database is planned -they are currently simple lists and large old books - but this is taking time. If anyone is interested in these please call me.

James H

[James henderson]

I should have said in my earlier post that the the majority of records we have here at The Blacksmith's Shop were those formalised by Richard Rennison, a leatherworker from Hexham in Northumberland who arrived here in 1929 as a curator of what was by that time a very popular visitor attraction! He quickly realised he was in a position of advantage and with the blessing of his employer the late Mr Mackie, became an "anvil priest" (he never called himself that of course - that was a title given by others). His total of 5147 marriages (by Declaration) until 1940 is on record here. There were others immediately before him, and some who worked alongside him. Some of these included the names Nugent, Graham, and Glendinning. There were others but the names escape me.

Unlike the majority of those conducting the Marriage business, Rennison was a sober-minded teetotaller who took his unusual occupation very seriously. He was regularly in confrontation with the Established Church in particular and delighted in pointing out to their clergy that his name reversed spelt "no sinner"!

To my knowledge the records have never been formally placed in any central repository or archive where they could be researched in the normal way. Advice on this would be appreciated.