Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Marriage License of Henry Antle and Nancy Duncan, 13 January 18381

The People of the State of Illinois.
TO ANY MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL OR OTHER AUTHORISED PERSON:GREETING:
THESE are to License and permit you to join in the holy bands of matrimony Henry Antle and Nancy Duncan of the county of Sangamon and State of Illinois, and for so doing this shall be your sufficient warrant.2

GIVEN under my hand and seal of office, at Springfield, in said county, this 13^' day of Jany 1838
C R Matheny
Clerk.

<Page 2>

[ docketing ]
Henry Antle To Nancy Duncan
N^o 1919

[ endorsement ]
01/18/1838
Spain, Solomon D.

Executed the within on the 18^th day of January A.D. 1838–
Solomon D. Spain

1Abraham Lincoln wrote and signed the endorsement for Reverend Spain found on page two.

2Henry Antle and Nancy Duncan wed on January 18, 1838.
Illinois law allowed males over the age of seventeen and females over the age of fourteen to be joined in marriage. However, only men over the age of twenty-one and women over the age of seventeen could obtain marriage licenses without parental consent. Men between the ages of seventeen and twenty and women between the ages of fourteen and seventeen could only obtain marriage licenses with the consent of their respective fathers or, if one or both of the fathers were dead or incapacitated, their mothers or guardians. In addition, persons who had not published their intention to marry for two weeks previous to the marriage were required to get a license from the county commissioners’ court of their respective county.
Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Sangamon County, 18 January 1838, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; “An Act concerning Marriages,” 14 February 1827, Revised Laws of Illinois (1827), 288-90; Daniel W. Stowell, et al., eds., The Papers of Abraham Lincoln: Legal Documents and Cases (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008), 4:197-98.