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Betrothal and Wedding Rings: Book

Rings were formerly placed on the missal book, with money at marriages ; thus in the 'Wardrobe Book,' roll 18, of Edward the First, there is an entry of 'money given to place upon the missal book, along with the ring with which she was married, 40s.' A similar entry occurs on the marriage of Margaret, fourth daughter of the same monarch, when the King gave sixty shillings to be placed on the missal with the spousal ring.

The 'heathenish origin,' as it was termed, of the weddingring, led during the Commonwealth to the abolition of its use during weddings, and is thus referred to in Butler's 'Hudibras: '- Others were for abolishing That tool of matrimony, a ring, With which the unsanctified bridegroom Is marry'd only to a thumb ¹ (As wise as ringing of a pig, That's used to break up ground and dig), The bride to nothing but her will That nulls the after-marriage still.

This 'heathenish' origin may have been derived from the supposition that the ring was regarded as a kind of phylactery, or charm, and to have been introduced in imitation of the ring worn by bishops. 'Though the Puritans,' remarks Mr. Jeaffreson, in his 'Brides and Bridals,' 'prohibited and preached against the ring, to the injury of goldsmiths, and the wrath of ringwearing matrons, they did not succeed in abolishing the tool, or even in putting it so much out of fashion as some people imagined. Even Stephen Marshall, the Presbyterian minister of Finchingfield, Essex, when his party was most prosperous, married one of his lightly-trained daughters with the Book of Common Prayer and a ring; and gave this for a reason, English ladies at one time wore the wedding-ring on the thumb. At Stanford Court, Worcestershire, may be seen the portraits of five ladies of the Salway family, in the days of Queen Elizabeth, all of whom have their wedding-rings on their thumbs. According to the 'British Apollo,' the brides of George the First's time used to remove the ring from its proper abiding-place to the thumb as soon as the ceremony was over.