Page:Fourie v Minister of Home Affairs (SCA).djvu/58

Rh of what was now called the Kingdom of Holland in 1809 when the Code Napoleon, with adaptations, was given the force of law by King Louis Napoleon.

During the period between the two British occupations of the Cape, when the Cape was under the control of the Batavian Republic, Commissioner General De Mist introduced the secular marriage before landdrost and heemraden in the country districts and before the Court for Matrimonial and Civil Affairs in Cape Town. This change was, however, repealed at the beginning of the Second British Occupation by a proclamation issued on 26 April 1806 by Sir David Baird prohibiting civil marriages and providing that all marriages were ‘to be performed … by an ordained clergyman or minister of the Gospel, belonging to the settlement’.

The law relating to the solemnisation of marriages in the Cape was altered by Order in Council dated 7 September 1838. This order made detailed provision for the publication of banns, the issuing of special licences, the establishment of a marriage register and the appointment of civil marriage officers where there was ‘not a sufficient number of … ministers [of the Christian religion] to afford convenient facilities for marriage’. By the