A Problematic Solution:
Responses to the Marriage Reform Act of 1753

Acknowledgments
For the very existence of this paper I am indebted, above all, to Tommaso Astarita, whose guidance over the past year has led me not only to a knowledge of English marriage law, but to a deeper understanding of the discipline of history. I also owe him thanks for assistance on countless small issues-from appropriate diction to translation of Ovid. My primary regret has been not having adequate time to fully realize his generous and well-placed suggestions. I must also express my sincere thanks to Alvaro Ribeiro, SJ, for his inspiration and assistance with the Literary Reactions chapter. This paper couldn’t have gotten underway without the motivational assistance and sundry recommendations of Liz Benning. Thanks, too, has been earned by all those non-historians whom I have no doubt bored for hours on end by bouncing my ideas about mid-eighteenth century English history off of them. In particular, I would like to thank my younger sister Amanda-whose input over countless breakfasts this year assisted in the progression of my research-along with Rob Anderson and Aaron Van Reenen.

Editorial Method
To the greatest extent possible, I have carefully guarded the integrity of my sources. There are a few things that should be noted, however. The second half of the eighteenth century was marked by standardization of both the calendar and the language. In 1752, 3 September was replaced by 14 September, shifting the calendar ahead eleven days. Meanwhile, the first day of the year was changed from 25 March to 1 January. The bulk of my sources postdate this shift. As a general rule, however, the dates contained in the text reflect those recorded in the sources. Spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and emphasis have been retained as closely as possible. Until the late eighteenth century, standard written English included the capitalization of all nouns along with many other words not capitalized in modern English. The transition to modern capitalization patterns was uneven, as is represented in the text. Italics have been used only when found in a source. The exclusive use of capital letters in a source has been here by the use of bold typeface (e.g. HARDWICKE becomes Hardwicke), and the long s has been dropped entirely.