“Domestic Life.” Samuel Johnson in Context. Editor, Jack Lynch. Cambridge University Press, 2012.
"A paradox faced by many eighteenth-century writers was the fact that marriage incapacitated a woman legally, yet it was often her sole path to respectability. This was especially true in the second part of the century, when, in accordance with Hardwicke's Marriage Act of 1753, weddings required a church ceremony, entry in a parish register, the readings of public banns, and the participation only of parties who were of age (or had parental consent). Streamlining marriage and rendering it ceremonially public, this law invalidated cohabitation, verbal contracts of partnership, and other informal arrangements that had long been common."