 Until the passing of the Marriage Act of 1753 , a formal ceremony of marriage before a clergyman was not a legal requirement in England , and marriages were unregistered . All that was required was for both parties to agree to the union , so long as each had reached the legal age of consent , which was 12 for girls and 14 for boys . Women were completely subordinated to their husbands after marriage , the husband and wife becoming one legal entity , a legal status known as coverture . As the eminent English judge Sir William Blackstone wrote in 1753 : " the very being , or legal existence of the woman , is suspended during the marriage , or at least is consolidated and incorporated into that of her husband : under whose wing , protection and cover , she performs everything " . Married women could not own property in their own right , and were indeed themselves the property of their husbands . But Blackstone went on to observe that " even the disabilities the wife lies under are , for the most part , intended for her protection and benefit . So great a favourite is the female sex of the laws of England " . 
