Elwyn,
Don't for one moment think Handfasting is obsolete. My Irish cousin (of
mature years) 'Handfasted' a few years ago in true Druid fashion to his
3rd wife. Although married in Oz they traveled to the UK to visit
Liverpool relatives (from Armagh) and for their Handfasting. I have the
video and it was a moving ceremony. Some of these Druid traditions still
persist. In this case I think the Handfasting came after the marriage. ;-)
Gordon
On 24/06/2020 4:45 am, elwyn soutter via CoTyroneList wrote:
Peter,
I have come across “buckle the beggar” but not buckleberry. It looks to be
a term that must have come to Ulster with the Scots, as many of our local
words did. I have never heard it used in Ulster but it seems as though it
was at one time because I can see a couple of references on the net.
In the Scottish National Dictionary it says: *buckle-beggar*,
*buckle-the-beggars*, “one who marries others in a clandestine and
disorderly manner” (Sc. 1808 Jam.)
It reminds me a little of another form of marriage known as “handfasting.”
This was particularly common in the Scottish Borders in the 1500s & early
1600s, where there were very few Priests or Ministers due to the whole
place being basically lawless. Such clerics as there were usually had to
have a peel tower (similar to a bawn in Ulster) to retreat to if attacked.
So it was hard to get a Priest or a Minister to marry you. Quoting from
Godfrey Watsons’ book ”The Border Reivers[1] <#_ftn1>” (publ 1974) p 180:
“..if a priest was perhaps available only once a year, a problem
inevitably arose for those who wished to get married out of season, as it
were. The answer was ‘handfasting.’ This was a custom whereby a couple
would live together till the book-a-bosom man could bless their union. The
arrangement was for a trial period of one year (unless the parson appeared
earlier), after which it became permanent. If, before then, one or other
wanted to bring the arrangement to an end, he or she must accept
responsibility for any children of the union, in which case they were still
regarded as legitimate. There is still in existence an old genealogy of the
Elliots of Lariston, which refers to “Simon of Benks who handfasted or took
for a trial a bastard daughter of the said Gibbie with the Golden Garters
on condition he should pay her a considerable tocher[2] <#_ftn2> in case he
was not pleased with her.” Normally handfasting required no dowry, and this
idea of making second hand goods more marriageable may well have been
restricted to the gentry, who appear to have handfasted in the same way as
anyone else. John, Lord Maxwell, for instance was contracted thus to a
sister of the Earl of Angus.
Nobody in the Borders seems to have worried very much about children being
born out of wedlock, and there are countless examples of natural[3] <#_ftn3>
children figuring openly in men’s wills.”
Isn’t “Gibbie with the Golden Garters” a wonderful name?
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