VPRS 18651 Register of Clergy

Full description

This series comprises the register of clergy legally permitted to officiate marriages in Victoria. Registers record the registration number, name, designation and denomination of clergyman, usual place of residence, locality and designation of their place of worship, name head of their denomination or other certifying minister, date of registration, signature of Registrar General / Government Statist / Registrar of Marriage Celebrants, and details of registration cancellation including authorisation (signature of person authorising or section of the relevant Act), assigned cause, new registration number if moving to a new state / territory and date of cancellation.

The requirement for marriage celebrants to be registered was first legislated in section III of An Act to amend and consolidate the Laws affecting the Solemnization of Marriage 1859 (No. LXX). Under this Act, for a marriage to be legal, it was required to be celebrated by a registered minister of religion. To be registered, ministers were required to be registered with their assigned place of worship. If they were not currently assigned to a place of worship, they could still be registered if they were the head of their denomination, supplied a certificate from the head of their denomination confirming they were authorised ministers, or if there was no recognised head of their denomination, they needed to be verified by at least two other ministers of their denomination that were already authorised ministers with registered places of worship.

The register was required to be kept by registrar general for births, deaths and marriages and all registrations were required to be published in the Government Gazette.

If a registered minister were to die, leave the colony, or cease to be a minister, the head of their denomination, trustees of their church / place of worship, or authorising ministers were required to inform the registrar within ninety days so that they could be removed from the register.

The registration and administration of marriage celebrants was the responsibility of the Office of the Registrar General until 1893, when responsibility was transferred to the Government Statist. In 1961 the Commonwealth Marriage Act 1961 established a national register of marriage celebrants.

According to s. 27, the State-appointed registrar at the time of the commencement of the Act would continue as the Registrar of Ministers of Religion for that State or territory, however any further appointments would be made by the Commonwealth Attorney-General.

S. 28 stipulated that each State and Territory register of marriage celebrants at the time of the commencement of the Act would form the new Commonwealth register and that the Governor-General could make arrangements with the Governor of a State for the transfer any register of marriage celebrants. It appears, however, that no such arrangement was made and this register continued to be administered by the Government Statist (and from 1986, the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages [BDM]) until 1995.

It is likely copies of the register were sent to the Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department for publishing to the Commonwealth Gazette, while local authorities continued to maintain the original register to ensure only registered celebrants were officiating marriages. These arrangements were likely superseded by a centralised database in 1995. Further research is required to confirm the administrative arrangements between state/territory and national authorities post 1961.