Fleet Marriages. Marylebone Lane, Brook Street, were infested with " plyers " — so called — compar able to those music hall " rooters " on Coney Island, who vociferously insist on immediate patronage. The Fleet plyers did not hesi tate to " press " the right sort of victim into a hasty marriage. The parson performed his rite in a barber's shop, a coffee-house or a chapel, according to the size of the fee. This sum was usually shared by the landlord of the marriage-house, — who was often the manager of a prosperous marriage syndicate, — by the parson, by the plyer, and by the witnesses, who were often pot-boys and barmaids. The marriage was registered in a large book and also in the parson's private memorandum — his daybook, as it were. When it was advisable for an entry to be ante-dated there was an extra charge, as there was for a handsomely engraved cer tificate. The ordinary fee was five shillings, but beaux and flush sailors were not miserly with their guineas. It was not always a genuine parson who put on bands and robe; but here is the half-repentant entry of a famous Fleet parson, dated 1736 : "Give to every man his due, and learn ye way of Truth. This advice cannot be taken by those that are concerned in ye Fleet Mar riages; not so much as ye Priest can do ye thing yt is just and right there, unless he designes to starve. For by lying, bullying and swearing, to extort money from the silly and unwary people, you advance your busi ness ahd gets ye pelf, which always wastes like snow in sun shiney day. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The marrying in the Fleet is the beginning of eternal woe. "If a clerk or plyer tells a lie, you must vouch it to be as true as ye Gospel; and if disputed, you must affirm with an oath to ye truth of a downright damnable falsehood — Virtus laudator alget."
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The writer, the Reverend Walter Wyatt, got " ye pelf " to the amount of £700 a year, equal to $12,500 nowadays. Fifty or sixty couples a week was a fair average for a Fleet parson, but many of the notable clerics read the service to one hun dred and fifty couples in the same time. There is a record of at least one parson who found it advisable to hire a curate to submarry for him. Sundays, Tuesdays and Saturdays were crowded days on the Fleet — and by days is meant any hour that the clock might strike. " The Clark Basset " con trolled a number of parsons and chapel-rooms, made £200 a year, and bribed the collector for the Queen's taxes. John Mottram, par son, kept nine registers at different houses. One of the registers contained twenty-two hundred entries. A lusty coal-heaver did a smashing business as plyer in front of the Lord Mayor's chapel. These rhymes appeared in 173 1 : "THE MORNING WALK." "Where PresentsThe lead her Fleet tatter'd my wand'ring sons infootsteps luxury's cause now? :
Her venerable Crape and scarlet Cheeks, With nose of purple hue, high eminent, And squinting, leering looks, now strike the B—sh—p eye. of Hell, once in the precincts Renown'd called, for making thoughtless Contracts, He reign'd herein bloated, reeling majesty, And pass'd in Sottishness and Smoke his time.
Here Cleric grave from Oxford ready stands Obsequious to conclude the Gordian knot, Entwin'd beyond all dissolution sure; A Reg'lar this from Cambridge; both alike
