Clandestine marriage clue

Q

I am trying to research my Middleton line and I found the following marriage for my ancestors as follows: England, Clandestine Marriages, June 13, 1725: ‘Tho: Middleton souldier 1 Regmt (Mott) Rebecca Barefoott St. Mary Magdalen. BSJ.’

What I am wondering about is ‘(Mott)’?

Looking back over the two pages there are a lot of ‘Motts’ and they are not all soldiers. Other words in brackets include Evans (3 of them), Floud (1 of them), and Starke (3 of them).

Can you help me with determining what the words/names in brackets mean/are for, please? Judy Venables

A

Most couples were married at the family church, but a significant portion of the population, for various reasons, chose to skirt these regulations and married outside the church. Clergy and witnesses were not necessary, though they were often present to provide proof that the marriage had taken place. These marriages are commonly referred to as ‘hedge’, ‘irregular’ or ‘clandestine’.

Prisons like the Fleet and the King’s Bench Prison in London became popular destinations for couples interested in quick, no-questions-asked nuptials because of the number of clerics imprisoned for debt who had nothing to lose and welcomed the income. Many of them lived in the ‘Rules’ or ‘Liberties’, which were areas around the prison where prisoners could pay for the privilege of living outside the gates. Although attempts were made to stop such marriages, they weren’t effectively outlawed until Hardwick’s Act of 1753, which made only marriages performed in churches (and synagogues or Quaker meeting houses) legal.

There are two copies of the record of Thomas Middleton and Rebecca Barefoot, because one was recorded in the register of the Fleet Prison, where the marriage took place, and the other in the notebook of Mottram, the priest who conducted the marriage. Who Mottram was is not known, but the Church of England Clergy Database indicates that there was a John Mottram, a clergyman in Virginia in 1714. Perhaps Dr Mottram fell into debt either in North America or on his return to London and was reduced to plying his trade around the Fleet Prison, where he may well have been a prisoner. SF