Although Jews and Quakers were exempt from the 1753 legislation, other religions and Christian congregations had to be married in an Anglican ceremony. This restriction was increasingly opposed by Catholics and people of other denominations and religions who sought the same legal right to marry according to their traditions as Anglicans. The 1836 Marriage Act subsequently allowed other buildings, including those belonging to other religious groups, to be used for weddings if they were licensed by the Registrar General.
As well as providing the same legal status to non-Anglican marriages, the 1836 Marriage Act was also the catalyst for a huge amount of demographic data. From 1 January 1837, when the law came into force, records of all marriages conducted in England and Wales were to be kept by the newly-created General Register Office which had been established by the earlier Births and Deaths Registration Act. Nevertheless, centralised birth registrations began slightly later than marriages, and were only made compulsory in 1875."
