At the previous meeting of the council, William W. Phelps was appointed a “committee of one” to examine the Illinois statute on marriage because of the repeal of the city charter. (Council of Fifty, “Record,” 11 Mar. 1845.)

Illinois law allowed couples to be married by “any regular minister of the gospel, authorized to marry, by the custom of the church or society to which he belongs, any justice of the supreme court, judge of any inferior court, or justice of the peace,” provided the couple first pay the clerk of the county commissioners’ court one dollar for a license. Couples were also required to return to the clerk with a certificate of marriage signed by the officiator and to pay an additional twelve and a half cents for the clerk to endorse the certificate and create a record of the marriage. Officiators who married a couple without a license or failed to create a certificate were to be fined one hundred dollars. (Marriages [3 Mar. 1845], Revised Statutes of the State of Illinois [1844–1845], pp. 353–354, secs. 4–6, 8; Fees and Salaries [3 Mar. 1845], Revised Statutes of the State of Illinois [1844–1845], p. 243, sec. 10.)

Revised Statutes of the State of Illinois, Adopted by the General Assembly of Said State, at Its Regular Session, Held in the Years, A. D., 1844–’5. Springfield, IL: William Walters, 1845.