In force Jan.[January] 31, 1835.
AN ACT for the relief of Willard Twiss.
1Preamble.
Whereas Willard Twiss, clerk of the county commissioners’ court of the county of Bond, by issuing a marriage license to John Hopton, Jr., by the fraud and misrepresentation of the said John Hopton, Jr., as is alleged, has become liable to be sued for the penalty of three hundred dollars,
given by the fifth section of the act, entitled “An act concerning marriages,” approved,
February 14th, 1827:2 Therefore—
W. Twiss released from certain penalty.
Proviso.
Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That the said Willard Twiss be, and he is hereby released and entirely discharged from the penalty so aforesaid
granted by the fifth section of the act above recited, to which he may have become
liable by issuing a marriage license to the said John Hopton, Jr., as aforesaid: Provided, That if a suit shall have been commenced to recover said penalty, the said Willard Twiss shall pay all costs which may have accrued to the time of the passage of this act.
Approved, Jan. 31, 1835.
1On January 19, 1835, William Hunter of the House of Representatives presented the petition of Willard Twiss requesting relief. The House referred the petition to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Charles Dunn from the Committee on the Judiciary introduced HB 140 in the House on January 21. The House passed the bill on January 24. The Senate concurred on January 27. On January 31, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Journal of the House of Representatives of the Ninth General Assembly of the State
of Illinois, at their First Session, Begun and Held in the Town of Vandalia, December
1, 1834 (Vandalia, IL: J. Y. Sawyer, 1835), 324, 345, 355, 376, 411, 451, 459, 461; Journal of the Senate, of the Ninth General Assembly of the State of Illinois, at
their First Session, Begun and Held in the Town of Vandalia, December 1, 1834 (Vandalia, IL: J. W. Sawyer, 1835), 326, 350, 383, 390.
2The fifth section of the act of February 14, 1827 required men under the age of twenty-one
and women under the age of eighteen to get the consent of his or her father to get
a marriage license. Clerks issuing licenses to minors without such consent were subject
to a $300 fine. Hopton was under twenty one when Twiss issued the license.
“An Act concerning Marriages,” 14 February 1827, The Revised Code of Laws, of Illinois (Vandalia, IL: Robert Blackwell, 1827), 288-90.
Printed Document, 1 page(s), Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Ninth General Assembly, at their First Session (Vandalia, IL:
J. Y. Sawyer, 1835), 65, GA Session: 9-1