¹ See pp. 10–35 above; see also [1969] J.A.L. 64, 158.

² The Gambia still possesses a Christian Marriage Ordinance of an even earlier date—1862. It also has a Civil Marriage Ordinance of 1938.

^{page 39 note 1} Public Record Office, C.O. 520/2/16730.

^{page 39 note 2} C.O. 520/13/14473.

^{page 39 note 3} Hugh Bertram Cox (1861–1930), Legal Assistant Under-Secretary in Colonial Office 1897–1911.

^{page 40 note 1} See pp. 21–6, above.

^{page 40 note 2} Sir John Pickersgill Rogers (1851–1910), K.C.M.G. (1904). Resident, Pahang, Selangar, Perak, 1888–1903. Governor Gold Coast 1903–1910.

^{page 40 note 3} Dispatch of 2 Nov., 1906, C.O. 96/446/43069.

^{page 40 note 4} Cox to Antrobus, 27 Dec, 1906. Reginald Laurence Antrobus (1853–1942), K.C.M.G. (1911), Assistant Under-Secretary of State 1898–1909, Grown Agent for the Colonies 1909–1918.

^{page 41 note 1} It was not permitted in England until the Legitimacy Act of 1926.

^{page 41 note 2} In fairness to Cox, it must be pointed out that here he was evidently quoting from the report of the Commission.

^{page 41 note 3} Dispatch of 6 Feb., 1907.

^{page 41 note 4} Dispatch of 9 May, 1907, C.O. 96/457/19408.

^{page 41 note 5} Sir William Brandford Griffith, (1858–1939), Kt. Bach. (1898) District Commissioner, acting judge and Queen's Advocate Gold Coast, 1884–88, Resident Magistrate Jamaica, 1888, Chief Justice Gold Coast, 1895–1911.

^{page 41 note 6} Dispatch of 7 Sep., 1907.

^{page 42 note 1} Dispatch of 2 May, 1908, C.O. 96/468/18815.

^{page 42 note 2} Algernon Willoughby Osborne, Attorney-General, Gold Coast, 1903; Chief Justice, Southern Nigeria, 1908.

^{page 43 note 1} Should read “can”.

^{page 44 note 1} John Shuckburgh Risley (1867–1957), K.C.M.G. (1922), Legal Assistant 1901 1911 and Legal Adviser to the Secretary of State for the Colonies 1911–1931.

^{page 44 note 2} Dispatch of 21 July, 1908.

^{page 44 note 3} Dispatch of 18 Aug., 1898, F.O. 2/674. In a dispatch of 20 Dec, 1899 the Commissioner added that there were “thousands of Goanese Catholics besides numerous Greeks and Italians up country since the railway has reached Nairobi, who cannot contract civil marriages with one another”.

^{page 44 note 4} Morris, H. F. and Read, James S., Indirect Rule and the Search for Justice, Oxford, 1972, ch. 7.Google Scholar

^{page 45 note 1} Dispatch of 28 Jan., 1914, C.O. 618/6/6300.

^{page 46 note 1} As originally enacted the Ordinance did not include the provisions for dispensing with the formal preliminaries in the case of Africans marrying in church which were contained in the Uganda Native Marriage Ordinance, but these were added by an amendment later in the same year.

^{page 46 note 2} Dispatch of 18 Sep., 1922, C.O. 691/57/52949.

^{page 46 note 3} The section which rendered void a marriage by customary law entered into during the subsistence of a marriage under the Ordinance had not been repealed. Hence a change of religion would not appear to provide a defence to a charge of bigamy; see R. v. Princewell, 1963 N.N.L.R. 54. Morris and Read, op. cit., 232–3; see also pp. 18–9 above.

^{page 46 note 4} Dispatch of 10 Feb., 1902, C.O. 267/462/8054. Sir Charles Anthony King-Harman (1851–1939), grandson of 1st Viscount Lorton, Administrator of St. Lucia 1897–1900, Governor Sierra Leone 1900–1904, High Commissioner Cyprus 1904–1911.

^{page 46 note 5} C.O. 967/469/41582.

^{page 47 note 1} Dispatch of 29 Jan., 1904, C.O. 267/472/5126.

^{page 47 note 2} The Southern Nigerian model was tiie original Proclamation of 1900 before the amendment of this section.

^{page 48 note 1} Dispatch of 16 May, 1904, C.O. 267/472/19043.

^{page 48 note 2} Philip Crampton Smyly (1866–1953), Kt. Bach. (1905), Queen's Advocate (1895), Attorney-General (1896), Chief Justice (1901) Sierra Leone, Chief Justice Gold Coast 1911–1929.

^{page 48 note 3} Re Bethell (1888), 38 Ch.D. 220.

^{page 48 note 4} (1866), L.R. 1 P.& D., 130.

^{page 49 note 1} See p. 40, n. 4 above.

^{page 49 note 2} George Basil Haddon-Smith (1861–1931), K.C.M.G. (1915), Colonial Secretary Sierra Leone 1901–1912, Governor Bahamas 1912–1914, Governor Windward Islands 1914–1923.

^{page 49 note 3} C.O. 267/476/9436. Leslie Probyn (1862–1938), K.C.M.G. (1909), Secretary to Government of S. Nigeria 1901–1904, Governor Sierra Leone 1904–1910, Barbados 1910–1918, Jamaica 1918–1924.

^{page 50 note 1} C.O. 267/479/37838.

^{page 51 note 1} Should read “dissoluble”.

^{page 51 note 2} Montague Frederick Ommaney (1842–1925), K.C.M.G. (1900), K.G.B. (1901), G.C.M.G. (1904), Private Secretary to Earl of Carnarvon, Secretary of State for Colonies 1874–7, Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Colonies 1900–1907.

^{page 52 note 1} Dispatch of 4 May, 1906, C.O. 267/484/18516.

^{page 52 note 2} I.e. a marriage under the Ordinance when married to another by customary law and a marriage by customary law when married to another under the Ordinance.

^{page 53 note 1} Dispatch of 24 Dec, 1909, C.O. 267/518/987.

^{page 53 note 2} Ralph Molyneux Combe (1872–1946), Kt. Bach. (1920), Crown Advocate (1905), Attorney General (1912) East Africa Protectorate, Attorney-General (1913), Chief Justice (1918–1929) Nigeria.

^{page 54 note 1} C.O. 533/76/28567.

^{page 54 note 2} George Vandeleur Fiddes (1858–1936), K.C.M.G. (1912), Assistant Under-Secretary of State 1909–1916. Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies 1916–1921.

^{page 54 note 3} Minute of 11 Nov., 1910, C.O. 267/525/31704.

^{page 55 note 1} Dispatch of 20 June, 1904, C.O. 417/400/22040.

^{page 55 note 2} As amended a few months later.

^{page 55 note 3} The British South Africa Company was responsible for the administration of the territory under the overall control of the Colonial Office exercised through the High Commissioner for South Africa.

^{page 56 note 1} This suggestion was prompted by the proposal of the High Commissioner S. Nigeria which the Colonial Office had shortly before approved (as mentioned above) in respect of the S. Nigeria Proclamation of 1906.

^{page 56 note 2} Dispatch of 24 March, 1905, C.O. 417/404/4556.

^{page 56 note 3} Dispatch of 16 Nov., 1916, C.O. 417/579/1985.

^{page 56 note 4} Dispatch of 4 July, 1917, C.O. 417/589/38654.

^{page 57 note 1} See enclosure to dispatch of 26 Oct., 1922 from Governor Nyasaland, C.O. 525/102/57514

^{page 57 note 2} A proviso adds that the section does not apply if the husband or wife of the person marrying has been continuously absent for 7 years and has not been heard of by such person as being alive.

^{page 58 note 1} Dispatch of 20 May, 1912, C.O. 525/41/10385.

^{page 58 note 2} Edward St. John Jackson (1886–1961), K.C.M.G. (1943), Attorney-General Nyasaland 1918–1920, Puisne Judge Nyasaland 1920–1924, Attorney-General Tanganyika 1924–1929, Attorney-General Ceylon 1929–1936, Chief Justice Cyprus 1943–1951.

^{page 59 note 1} C.O. 525/58056.

^{page 60 note 1} C.O. 525/102/57514

^{page 61 note 1} C.O. 691/106/29591.

^{page 61 note 2} Dispatch of 23 Jan., 1937; C.O. 525/170/44178.

^{page 61 note 3} Sir Philip Euen Mitchell (1890–1964), C.M.G. (1933), K.C.M.G. (1937), G.C.M.G. (1947), M.C. Ass. Resident, Nyasaland, 1912, Service in Tanganyika (Provincial Commissioner, Secretary for Native Affairs, Chief Secretary) 1919–1934. Governor Uganda 1935–1940, Deputy Chairman of East African Governors’ Conference 1940–2, Governor Fiji, High Commissioner in the Western Pacific 1942–4, Governor, Kenya 1944–52.

^{page 62 note 1} See Morris and Read, op. cit., p.244

^{page 62 note 2} Martin Willoughby Parr (b. 1892), O.B.E. (1929), C.M.G. (1944). Joined Sudan Political Service 1919, Governor of Upper Nile 1934–1936 and of Equatoria 1936–42.

^{page 61 note 3} C.O. 823/89/46603.

^{page 62 note 4} C.O. 823/105/46603.

^{page 63 note 1} It may, however, be mentioned that after the war an investigation into marriage and family life in Africa was carried out, financed jointly by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Social Science Research Council of the Colonial Office, the outcome of which was the publication in 1953 of the Survey of African Marriage and Family Life edited by Arthur Phillips.

^{page 63 note 2} A step towards integration of the statutory and customary divorce law has since been taken by the Ghana Government in that the Matrimonial Causes Act, 1971, concerned primarily with monogamous marriages, provides that the Act may, on application by a party to a polygamous marriage, be applied to such a marriage. Where this occurs the court is to have regard to the peculiar incidents and nature of such a marriage.

^{page 63 note 3} Report of the Commission on Marriage, Divorce and the Status of Women, 1965; see also H. F. Morris, “Report of the Commission on Marriage, Divorce and the Status of Women”, [1966] J.A.L. 3.

^{page 64 note 1} Report of the Commission on the Law of Marriage and Divorce, 1968.

^{page 64 note 2} April, 1979.

^{page 64 note 3} See James S. Read, “A milestone in the integration of personal laws: the new law of marriage and divorce in Tanzania”, [1972] J.A.L. 19.