Love and Marriage in Colonial Australia

1830 Wedding Dress

I have previously blogged about love and marriage for convicts – now I am moving on the free settlers in colonial times.

If both partners intending to marry were free, couples were able to obtain a marriage licence and did not need permission to marry, but cohabitation instead of marriage was still frequent.  It was not until the end of the convict era and rise of free settlers in the mid 19^th century that marriage became more frequent.  It is also worth noting that many marriages outside the Church of England were not considered valid.  A series of reforms between 1834 and 1855 confirmed the validity of marriages conducted by ‘the Churches of Scotland and Rome’, and only later was this extended to Jews and Quakers.

To encourage marriage among the colony’s free settlers, Governor Darling (Governor 1825-1831) created a marriage portions scheme for ‘daughters of men of respectability of the Colony’.  Once they were engaged or promised in marriage a daughter of a man who lacked wealth for a dowry but whose family had standing in the community could apply for a marriage portion land grant.  This land would be granted upon her marriage and would be held by the woman herself, and upon her death would pass to her children, not her husband.

This scheme promoted marriage within the free settlers, as a man was more likely to enter into marriage with a woman who had property to bring with her into the union.  In 1830 and 1831, a total of 42 women were granted a marriage portion land grant, with properties ranging in size from 60 to 1280 acres.  The scheme was problematic, however, and administration of it slow, taking up to 6 years to finalise.  The scheme, which was introduced in 1828, was finalised late in 1831, and the idea that married women could own property separate to their husbands would take 50 years to reemerge.