Provided by Dr. Patrick Woodland

Patrick writes:

I thought the best thing was to get out the genealogical crib 
guides!  I found three entries and scanned them below as follows:
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1.  In David Hey, The Oxford Companion to Local and Family History (Oxford, 
1996), p. 33:

'Banns of marriage. The proclamation in church of an intended wedding, in 
order that those who know of any impediment may object. The banns are read on 
three successive Sundays in the parish churches of both the bride and the 
bridegroom. The procedure can be avoided by obtaining a marriage licence. 
Between 1653 and 1660, when marriages were civil contracts under the 
authority of a Justice of the Peace, banns were read either in church on 
three consecutive Sundays or in the market-place on three successive weekly 
market days. These banns were sometimes recorded in a separate book and 
sometimes in the parish register, with the letter M (for market) added. 

Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act (1753) regularized the keeping of registers of 
banns, but only a few books survive. The registering of banns was stopped in 
1812 by Rose's Act.

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2. In T.V.H. FitzHugh, The Dictionary of Genealogy (fifth edition revised by 
Susan Lumas for the Society of Genealogists, London, 1998), p. 41:

Banns of Marriage: A proclamation of intended marriage, repeated three times 
at weekly intervals in the parish churches of the bride and bridegroom, was 
order by the Lateran Council in 1215. To dispense with banns required the 
obtaining of a marriage licence.
 
In 1653, under Cromwell's Protectorate, marriage was made a civil contract 
performed by a justice of the Peace, and banns had to be published either on 
three consecutive Sundays after 'the Morning Exercise' or on three market 
days in three consecutive weeks in the market place. The Banns were then 
recorded, sometimes in a separate book and sometimes in the marriage 
register, either as a full entry or by adding the letter M (for Market) after 
the marriage entry. At the Restoration of the monarchy, marriage once more 
became a sacrament of the Church.
 
On 25 March 1754, Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act brought Banns Registers into 
regular keeping, sometimes in separate books and sometimes in the parish 
marriage registers. Separate Banns Books tended to be discarded after they 
were filled, so only a comparatively small number survive today. The 
requirement to register banns continued until 1812.
 
A typical wording is: 'Banns published between John Smith, bachelor of this 
parish, and Jane Brown, of the parish of Aldford, spinster. 7th June 1806, 
14th June, 21st June'.
 
Banns Registers may still be found in a few church vestries, but where 
marriage registers have been deposited at the county record office any 
surviving Banns Books have usually gone with them. They offer a substitute 
for a missing marriage register and provide a cross-reference from the parish 
of one party to that of the other. Where the corresponding marriage entry 
still exists, the banns entry may supply additional information. However, a 
banns record by itself is no guarantee that a marriage actually took place.  

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3. Mark D. Herber, Ancestral Trails, the Complete Guide to British Genealogy 
and Family History, (London and Stroud, 1997 - in association with the 
Society of Genealogists), pp. 219-220:

Banns are notices, proclaimed in church, of a couple's intention to marry. 
This publicity gives people the chance to declare any reason why that couple 
cannot marry. The church has required banns to be called since 1215 but they 
were rarely recorded until the 18th century. Banns are called in the church 
in which a couple are to marry on three Sundays before the wedding takes 
place. If one of the spouses was from another parish, banns should also have 
been called (since 1823) in the church of that other parish. This sometimes 
happened in earlier years. Marriage by licence was introduced in the 14th 
century. A marriage licence authorised a wedding without being proclaimed. 
Since there was no need to wait for the proclamations, a marriage could take 
place on the day on which the licence was obtained, or more usually the 
following day. Ecclesiastical and secular laws on marriage since medieval 
times were complex, but they are reviewed in detail by Chapman & Litton 
(311). [311 - Chapman C. R. and Litton, P. M., Marriage laws, rites, records 
and customs, Lochin publishing 1996]. 

Hardwicke's Marriage Act of 1753 confirmed ecclesiastical law by requiring 
that all marriages after March 1754 (except those of Quakers and Jews) had to 
follow banns or be authorised by a licence. Marriage entries in parish 
registers since 1754 (and marriage certificates since 1837) should state 
whether a marriage was by licence or banns. The act also required the calling 
of banns to be recorded in the parish register, although some incumbents had 
already been recording banns for some years. From 1837 marriages could also 
take place before civil registrars or in chapels licensed under the Civil 
Registration Acts. The law permitted the Superintendant Registrar to issue a 
certificate (similar to an Anglican licence) authorising marriages (without 
banns) in licensed places of worship. The written declarations of the couple 
were open to the public twenty-one days before any such marriage. 

THE BANNS REGISTER 

Banns may be recorded in the marriage register or in a separate banns 
register. The entries for banns might be recorded alone or on printed forms 
for dual entries, that is, also recording a marriage (usually the same 
couple's wedding, but sometimes that of another couple). Guildhall Library 
holds the banns register for the parish of Holy Trinity Minories in London. 
Illustration 28 is an extract, recording the calling of banns (on 15, 22 and 
29 August 1852) for the marriage on 19 September of Bernard Herber and Emily 
Clements.

Banns registers are useful since, like marriage registers, they may note the 
spouses' places of residence (and they sometimes record residences when the 
marriage register does not). A spouse who had recently arrived in a parish 
might be recorded as a sojourner or "of this parish in the marriage entry, 
but the entries for the banns (recorded a few weeks earlier) may state the 
place from which that spouse had migrated. A banns book may also assist if 
your ancestor did not marry in his home parish. Since banns should have been 
proclaimed in the home parishes of both spouses (from 1823, but sometimes 
earlier), the banns register for an ancestor's parish may include the banns 
his wedding taking place elsewhere. Although the place of marriage is rarely 
noted, the spouse's home parish should be specified (and is the first place 
to search). My ancestors Richard  Bater of Chawleigh and Ann Voisey of 
Sandford married in Sandford in 1793. Banns were called in both parishes and 
both banns registers noted the parish of the non-resident spouse. 
Illustration 29 shows the entry from the Sandford register. In illustration 
28 the first entry is for the banns marriage of Esau Collins and Honor 
Sheppard. The remark "not married in this church" is unhelpful as to where 
(or even whether) the couple married, but Honor Sheppard's abode was noted as 
Harrington in Somerset, so a researcher could search for the marriage in that 
parish. 

The parish churchwardens usually arranged the calling of banns. Hardwicke's 
Marriage Act required intending spouses to give the parish a written notice 
that banns should be published.  This requirement was often waived (since so 
many people were illiterate), but some notices survive in parish records. 
However, the Marriage Act 1822 required that, from 1 September 1822, an 
intending couple should submit an affidavit to the churchwardens that stated 
the couple's names, abodes (and for how long they had lived there) and 
whether they were occupiers 
or lodgers. The affidavit also had to state whether they were of full age and 
if not, had to provide the name of the parent or guardian who was consenting 
to the marriage. An article about affidavits, with examples from the parish 
records of Princes Risborough in Buckinghamshire appears in Genealogists' 
Magazine (September 1983). It is unfortunate for genealogists that this 
requirement for affidavits was repealed in March 1823. 

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Sorry I am unable to scan in the illustrations mentioned by Herber!

I was still left wondering about the etymology of 'banns': the Concise Oxford 
Dictionary indicates that it was the plural of 'ban' in the following sense, 
based on the Old French derived from the Late Latin 'bannum', a proclamation 
with penalties:

Ecclesiastical anathema, interdict; curse supposed to have supernatural 
power; angry execration; formal prohibition; sentence of outlawry, esp. Ban 
of the (Holy Roman) Empire; tacit prohibition by public opinion (under a ban).

Thus for 'banns' there are such expressions as ask, publish, put up or forbid 
the banns.

I would recommend all three of the books from which I have taken this 
information. Obviously, I appreciate that some members of BIG may not have 
access to them, so I don't mind doing a few look-ups on such topics.  But 
please bear with me and my cheap scanner (I suspect from my scanner's antics 
that it may be a sibling of Betty's PC!).

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Mary writes:

Just a simple explanation of "banns" -- they are the announcements of a 
couple's intention to marry.  They were mandatory and had to be made in 
church on three Sundays preceeding the actual marriage unless you obtained a 
special dispensation.  I think -- and this is not gospel -- that they were 
only "read" in the bride's church because in most cases, the couple had to 
marry in her parish church.  Before the days of "communications" I suspect 
that banns were done so that anyone having "information" about the couple 
(like the fact that the intended groom already had a wife two counties down) 
could become aware of the intended marriage and raise objections if they were 
warrented.  
Different religions may have approached banns in different manners but it 
seems to be pretty standard.  I've found them in Catholic, Lutheran, Dutch 
Reform etc. records.
Hope this helps and happy hunting,
Mary Ann Bonifas Little