CHAPTER 244.
OF MARRIAGE.
AN ACT to amend Chapter 74 of the Revised Code of the State of Delaware as Published in 1893 entitled, "of Marriage."
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met:
That Chapter 74 of the Revised Code of the State of Delaware as published in 1893 be, and the same is hereby amended by striking out all of Sections 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 of said chapters and inserting in lieu thereof the following:
Section 1. A man shall not marry his mother, grandmother, sister, daughter, grand-daughter, father's sister,
mother's sister, brother's daughter or sister's daughter.
A woman shall not marry her father, grand-father, brother, son, grand-son, father's brother, mother's brother, brother's son or sister's son.
Marriage between a white person and a negro or *mulato, [*so enrolled] between paupers or between a person of sound mind and an insane or idiotic person shall be unlawful.
If a marriage prohibited by this section be solemnized, it shall be void and the parties thereto shall each be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be fined one hundred dollars, and in default of the payment of such fine shall be imprisoned not exceeding thirty days, and if any person authorized to issue a marriage license shall knowingly or willfully issue a license for such marriage, and if any person authorized to solemnize marriage shall knowingly or willfully solemnize such marriage, or if any person shall knowingly or willfully assist in the contracting or solemnizing of such marriage, he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be fined one hundred dollars and in default of the payment of such fine, shall be imprisoned not exceeding thirty days.
If a marriage prohibited by this section shall be contracted or solemnized outside of the State and the parties thereto shall afterwards live and cohabit as husband and wife within the State, they shall each be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished in the same manner as though the marriage had been contracted within this State.
Section 2. Marriages may be solemnized by any ordained minister of the gospel or by a minister in charge of a recognized church or by the mayor of the City of Wilmington. Marriage may also be solemnized or contracted according to the forms and usages of any religious society where either of the parties belongs to such religious society, but no marriage shall be solemnized or contracted without the production of a license regularly issued by the Clerk of the Peace of one of the Counties of this State, or a Justice of the Peace of this State, as hereinafter provided authorizing such marriage.
If any person not authorized by this section shall falsely solemnize a marriage, he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be fined one hundred dollars, and in default of the payment of such fine shall be imprisoned not exceeding thirty days, and such marriage shall be void unless it be in other respects lawful and be consummated with the full belief of either of the parties in its validity.
Section 3. No marriage license shall be issued if the male be under 21 years of age or if the female be under 18 years of age without the personal consent of the parent or guardian of the party under age, which consent shall be reduced to writing in the presence of the Clerk of the Peace or Justice of the Peace, and filed with the Clerk of the Peace of the County in which the license was issued as a part of the records of his office.
No license to marry shall be issued when either of the contracting parties at the time of making the application is under the influence of intoxicating liquor or a narcotic drug. Nor shall any such license be issued to any person who is or has been an inmate of any insane asylum unless it satisfactorily appears that such person has been discharged from such asylum.
Any Clerk of the Peace or Justice of the Peace who shall knowingly or willfully issue a license to marry to a minor without the personal consent of parent or guardian or to any person under the influence of intoxicating liquor or a narcotic drug or to any person who is or has been an inmate of any insane asylum, unless it satisfactorily appears that such person has been discharged from such asylum shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be fined $100,00 and in default of the payment of such fine shall be imprisoned not exceeding thirty days.
Section 4. Whenever application is made to any Clerk of the Peace or Justice of the Peace for the issuance of a marriage license, it shall be the duty of such Clerk or Justice of the Peace to examine the applicant in person, upon oath, to ascertain the full names of the parties desiring the license, their places of residence, the names of their parents and the parents' residences, their occupation, their age, their color, whether married or single, and their relationship, if any, which facts the said Clerk of the Peace shall set down in a Marriage Record Book or in the case of the Justice of the Peace, in a loose leaf duplicate of the Marriage Record Book, to be provided and kept for that purpose and the applicant for said license shall sign his or her name thereto.
If any person applying for license under this act shall knowingly or willfully make false answer to any of the inquiries asked by the Clerk of the Peace or Justice of the Peace, he or she shall be deemed guilty of perjury and shall upon conviction thereof be subject to the penalties for perjury by the laws of this State.
Section 5. If it shall appear by the answers given in relation to the matters inquired into, that the parties may be authorized by law to contract marriage, it shall be the duty of the Clerk of the Peace or Justice of the Peace, upon payment of the license fee to issue a license and to set down the date of the issuance thereof in the aforesaid Marriage Record Book, or loose leaf duplicate.
The Secretary of State shall furnish marriage licenses in blank to Justices of the Peace upon receipt of two dollars for each license so furnished. The fee to the Clerk of the Peace shall be two dollars and a half, and to the Justices of the Peace, three dollars. The Justice of the Peace shall return his loose-leaf duplicate to the Clerk of the Peace.
A loose leaf, a duplicate of the page of the Marriage Record Book, shall be furnished with each license furnished by the Clerk of the Peace to a Justice of the Peace and the answers to the examination shall be set down on this loose leaf and signed in the same manner as the Marriage Record Book; when the applicants apply to a Justice of the Peace for a license and the said loose leaf shall be returned to the Clerk of the Peace of the County, and by him copied into the Marriage Record Book and the loose leaf shall be numbered corresponding to the page of the Marriage Record Book and filed in the office of the Clerk of the Peace for reference.
The loose leaf shall be returned by the Justice of the Peace issuing the license to the Clerk of the Peace within ten days after such issuance, and if he shall fail to do so, he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be fined $25.00.
Section 6. Said marriage license shall be in the following form:
State of Delaware, S. S.
To any minister of the Gospel or other person authorized by laws of the State of Delaware to solemnize marriage,
you are hereby authorized to join in the holy bonds of matrimony, according to the laws of the State of Delaware:
____________ and _____________
Witness _____________ Esquire, Governor, of the said State, at Dover, the _______ day of ________, 19___
By the Governor.
_____________________
_____________________
Secretary of the State.
There shall be attached to said license two certificates, in the following form:
I hereby certify that on this _________ day of ___________, A D. 19___, at ____________ and _____________ were by me united in the holy bonds of matrimony in accordance with the Laws of the State of Delaware.
_________________________
_________________________
One of said certificates shall be given to the parties at the time of their marriage and the other shall within ten days be returned to the Clerk of the Peace of the County in which the license was issued by the person officiating at said marriage and the said Clerk of the Peace shall thereupon enter in the Marriage Record Book the date of said marriage and the name of the person performing said ceremony and the said Marriage Record Book so kept shall be open for inspection and shall be admitted as evidence of the facts therein contained in any court of record.
Provided however when marriages are performed in the City of Wilmington said certificate shall be returned as aforesaid to the Registrar of Vital Statistics of the City of Wilmington, and upon the failure of any person officiating at any marriage to return the certificate to the Registrar of Vital Statistics of the City of Wilmington within ten days, he shall be subject to the same penalty as provided in Section 7 of this Act. Where a marriage is contracted according to the forms and usages of any Religious Society, the wording of the certificates may be altered, in accordance with the facts of the case and the forms and usages of such Religious Society, - the one to be sent to the Clerk of the Peace to conform as nearly as possible to the form given above.
Section 7. If any person officiating at said marriage shall fail to return to the office of the Clerk of the Peace the certificate within ten days as hereinbefore provided, he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be fined $25.00.
If a certificate of marriage is found upon its return to the Clerk of the Peace to have been knowingly or willfully falsely filled out by the person who solemnized a marriage under it, the Clerk of the Peace shall have it corrected and said person shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be fined $25.00.
Section 8. It shall be unlawful for any person to advertise in a newspaper circulated in this State or by any other means, to perform or procure the performance of the marriage ceremony.
Whoever violates any portion of the foregoing prohibition shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be fined not less than ten nor more than twenty-five dollars.
Section 9. In the event that any section of this Act or part thereof shall be held to be unlawful by a court of competent jurisdiction, such adjudication shall not affect the other portions of this Act.
All acts and parts of acts inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed.
Approved April 10, A. D. 1911.