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Betrothal and Wedding Rings: Martin's-le-Grand

Another equivocal pretence for engagement was the ring of St. Martin,¹ so named from the extensive franchises and immunities granted to the inhabitants of the precincts of the Collegiate Church of St. Martin's-le-Grand. In a rare tract, entitled 'The Compter's Commonwealth' (1617), is an allusion to these rings, which shows their import: 'This kindnesse is but like alchimie, or Saint Martin's rings, that are faire to the eye and have a rich outside, but if a man should break them asunder and looke into them, they are nothing but brasse and copper.' In 'Whimsies, or a New Cast of Character' (1631), mention is made of St. Martin's rings and counterfeit bracelets as 'commodities of infinite consequence. They will 1 The gilding and silvering of locks, rings (firmalx anelx), and other articles of a similar nature made of copper or latten (faitz de cupre ou laton) having been prohibited by the statute 5th Henry IV. c. 13, under what was then a heavy penalty, the 'disloyal artificers,' against whom this enactment was made, appear to have taken refuge in the sanctuary of St. Martin's-le-Grand, where they were able to labour in their vocation unmolested by the marshal or the sheriff. This may be inferred from 3 Edw. IV. c. 4, by which it was declared unlawful to import various articles of foreign manufacture, including rings of gilded copper or laten, but with an express declaration that the Act was not to extend to or be prejudicial or hurtful to Robert Styllington, clerk, dean of the King's Free Chapel of St. Martin's le Graunt, de Londres,' nor to his successors. passe for current at a May-pole, and purchase a favour from their May-Marian.' So also in 'Plaine Percevall, the Peace-maker of England': 'I doubt whether all be gold that glistereth, sith St. Martin's rings be but copper within, though they be gilt without, sayes the goldsmith.' The materials of which wedding-rings have been made are numerous; besides the various metals, we have an instance of a leather ring made on the spur of the moment out of a piece of kid cut from the bride's glove. As a substitute for the usual ring, the church key has been put into requisition. Horace Walpole, in a letter to Mr. (afterwards Sir Robert) Mann, dated July 27, 1752, alludes to the use of a curtain-ring for this purpose: 'The event which has made most noise since my last is the extensive wedding of the youngest of the two Gunnings,' and he then describes an assembly at Lord Chesterfield's, when the Duke of Hamilton made love to Miss Gunning, and two nights after sent for a parson to perform the marriage ceremony. The Doctor refused to act without a licence and a ring. 'The Duke swore he would send for the Archbishop; at last they were married with a ring of the bed-curtain, at half-an-hour past twelve at night, at May Fair Chapel.' In 'Notes and Queries' (2nd series, vol. x.) we find an editorial note on this subject. A parish clerk recollected an instance of a party that came to the church, and requested to be married with the church key. It was what is called a 'parish wedding,' and the parochial authorities, though willing to pay the church fees, because they were glad to get rid of the girl,' had not felt disposed to furnish the wedding-ring. The clerk stated, however, that, feeling some hesitation as to the substitution of the church key in his own church, he stepped into the great house hard by, and there borrowed an old curtain-ring, with which the marriage was solemnised.

Sir John Suckling, in his ballad on a 'Wedding,' has this conceit on a ring :- Her fingers were so small, the ring Would not stay on which they did bring, It was too wide a peck :

And to say truth, for out it must, It look'd like the great collar, just About our young colt's neck.