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Alexander's British statutes in force in Maryland. 2d ed., 1912
Volume 194, Page 581   View pdf image (33K)
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1 JAC. 1, CAP. 11, DE BIGAMIS. 581
Husband or Wife living, to the great Dishonour of God, and
utter Undoing of divers honest Mens Children, and others';
(3) Be it therefore enacted by the King's Majesty, with the
Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and of the Com-
mons, in this present Parliament assembled, That if any Per-
son or Persons within his Majesty's Dominions of England and
Wales, being married, or which hereafter shall marry, do at
any Time after the End of the Session of this present Parlia-
ment, marry any Person or Persons, the former Husband or
Wife being alive; That then every such Offence shall be Felony,
and the Person and Persons so offending shall suffer Death as
in Cases of Felony; (3) and the Party and Parties so offending
shall receive such and the like Proceeding, Trial and Execution
in such County where such Person or Persons shall be taken or
apprehended.
II. Provided always, That this Act, nor any Tiling therein
contained, shall extend to any Person or Persons whose Hus-
band or Wife shall be continually remaining beyond the Seas
by the Space of seven Years together, or whose Husband or
Wife shall absent him or herself the one from the other by the
Space of seven Years together, in any Parts within his Majes-
ty's Dominions, the one of them not knowing the other to be
living within that Time.
III. Provided also, and be it enacted by the Authority afore-
said, That this Act, nor any Thing herein contained, shall
extend to any Person or Persons that are or shall be at the
time of such Marriage divorced by any Sentence had or here-
after to be had in the Ecclesiastical Court; (2) or to any Per-
son or Persons where the former Marriage hath been or here-
after shall be by Sentence in the Ecclesiastical Court declared
to be void and of no Effect; nor to any Person or Persons for or
by Reason of any former Marriage had or made, or hereafter
to be had or made, within Age of Consent.
IV. Provided also, That no Attainder for this Offence made
Felony by this Act, shall make or work any Corruption of
Blood, Loss of Dower, or Disinherison of Heir or Heirs.
This Statute, making bigamy a felony, was omitted by Mr. Alexander;
but in Barber v. State, 50 Md. 161, the Court of Appeals held it be in
force, modified by the Act of 1809, ch. 138, (Code 1904, Art. 27, sec. 19),
as to the punishment of the offence but not as to the grade of the crime.
See Hochheimer's Criminal Law, sec. 272; dark's Criminal Law 309.
The Statute was repealed in England by 9 Geo. 4, c. 31.

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Alexander's British statutes in force in Maryland. 2d ed., 1912
Volume 194, Page 581   View pdf image (33K)
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