In 1798, John Sledd gave permission for his son, Thomas Sledd to marry Sally Tinsley, daughter of John Tinsley, and directed his letter to the Amherst County official who oversaw marriages. The letter is strong evidence as to the names of the fathers of Thomas Sledd and Sally Tinsley. Based upon the writing it even appears that John Sledd wrote out the consent himself.
What I need to determine if that if the consent was required for males who were not of legal age to marry in 1798 as that would help me pinpoint down when Thomas was born.
2 Responses
What other reason would there be to write such a letter? My great grandfather had such a letter written. He was 20; he needed to be 21. Is there a matching letter for the wife? Was there a minimum age for her? Or was she “older” than one would expect and this was a question about her influence? Lots of questions.
There’s really no other reason-it certainly wasn’t to leave a better record for me to look at 200 years later. I need to confirm what the age was for a man to marry at that point in time. Having the consent wasn’t typical for others I looked at during the same time period which is also suggestive of the age consideration.