Henry, I dug into this a while back when I was research Mr Jefferson's Women - but it was one of those things that ended up on the cutting-room floor. Marryng a sibling of one's deceased spouse WAS a pretty common event in colonial Virginia - . . . anyone who's done much research in colonial Virginia families -- I dare say in colonial American families - has stumbled across plenty of examples, though of course its hard to put your hands on them when a question like this arises. The VA-HIST archive may even have some queries and responses back in 04 or 05. I had some very helpful email exchanges with Lorri Glover - who treated some of this in her book _All our relations : blood ties and emotional bonds among the early South Carolina gentry (Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000). The upshot of it, as I recall, is that after the Reformation the Church of England retained the Catholic provisions of canon law that regarded remarriage to the sibling of a spouse as incest, but that those provisions were loosened in 18th-c Virginia - which would make the 19th law like the one you describe in effect a _reinstatement_ of mainstream Anglican/Catholic doctrine. All best, Jon -- Jon Kukla www.JonKukla.com On Fri, Sep 18, 2009 at 3:04 PM, Henry Wiencek <[log in to unmask]>wrote: > I was surprised to read in Annette Gordon-Reed's book on the Hemingses that > in the early 19th century Virginia outlawed marriage between a man and his > deceased wife's sister, on the grounds that marrying a sister-in-law was > incest by affinity (not by blood). I don't know the text of the law, but > presumably the reverse was also true: a widow could not marry her > brother-in-law. It's my impression that in the earlier days such marriages > were relatively common in Virginia. My question for the lawyers on the list > is: does anyone know when Virginia repealed this ban – or is it still on > the > books? Would Virginia have recognized such a marriage if it had been > solemnized in another state or country? > > Henry Wiencek > > ______________________________________ > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at > http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html > ______________________________________ To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html