_Fleet Marriages._--_The General Evening Post_, June 27-29, 1745, contains
the following singular Note of a Fleet Marriage:--
"Yesterday came on a cause at Doctors' Commons, wherein the plaintiff
brought his action against the defendant for pretending to be his wife.
She in her justification pleaded a marriage at the Fleet the 6th of
February, 1737, and produced a Fleet certificate, which was not allowed
as evidence: she likewise offered to produce the minister she pretended
married them, but he being excommunicate for clandestine marriages,
could not be received as a witness. The court thereupon pronounced
against the marriage, and condemned her in 28l., the costs of the
suit."