Warwickshire at the time. 17th to 19th centuries After the beginning of the 17th century, gradual changes in English law meant the presence of an officiating priest or magistrate became necessary for a marriage to be lawful. Up until this point in England, clergy performed many clandestine marriages, such as so-called Fleet Marriage, which were held legally valid; and in Scotland, unsolemnised common-law marriage was still valid. The Marriage Duty Acts of 1694 and 1695 required that banns or marriage licences must be obtained. The 1753 Act also laid down rules for where marriages were allowed to take place, whom you were and were not allowed to marry, the requirement for at least two witnesses to be present at the marriage ceremony and set a minimum marriageable age. This led to the practice of couples who could not meet the conditions in England and Wales eloping to Scotland. Legal common-law marriage was, for practical purposes, abolished under the 1753 Marriage Act, also known as Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act. This was aimed at suppressing clandestine marriages by introducing more stringent conditions for validity, and thereafter only marriages conducted by the Church of England, Quakers, or under Jewish law, were recognised in England and Wales. This effectively ended earlier practices. Any other form of marriage was abolished; children born into unions which were not valid under the Act would not automatically inherit the property or titles of their parents. For historical reasons, the Act did not apply in Scotland. The Marriage Act 1836 re-introduced civil marriage, and also allowed ministers of other faiths (Nonconformists and Roman Catholics) to act as registrars. This act was contemptuously referred to as the "Broomstick Marriage Act" (a phrase which referred to a custom in supposed "sham marriages") by those who felt that a marriage outside the Anglican church did not deserve legal recognition. The bill also proscribed certain affinities, such as the marriage of a man to his deceased wife's sister. Until this point, affinities had been largely formalised by those laid out in the "Table of kindred and affinity" in the Anglican (Church of England) Book of Common Prayer. 20th century The list of proscribed affinities was reduced in the early twentieth century by the Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act 1907, and by subsequent amendments (the Deceased Brother's Widow's Marriage Act 1921 and the Marriage (Prohibited Degrees) Relationship Act 1931). The Age of Marriage Act