In March of 1840, William Henry Fowler was indicted for fraud. Apparently he had added a wedding in the vicar's marriage register between another Fowler, George, and a Hannah Bassett. But the forgery listed the marriage as taking place 114 years earlier. In 1726.
He pleaded guilty and judgment was respited.
Since judgment was lenient, I can't think the judge saw malicious intent in the case. William Fowler, age 42, in my romantic view, just wanted his grandparents or great grandparents to have been married, and perhaps he did it to show a relative that, yes, of course a marriage had taken place.
Another man had one too many marriages on record.
Thomas Phelps was charged with bigamy in 1848. But he seemed to hint that it could have been another Thomas Phelps who married the first time. The witness, who had also been present at the first wedding said that he remembered seeing the face of Phelps before, but it had been twenty years since he'd seen him, and it was hard to be certain it was the same man.
The second woman admitted she had married Phelps, but she'd thought him a man named John Tanner.
Phelps sealed his own fate when he admitted that he hadn't seen or heard from his first wife in six years and wasn't sure if she was alive or dead.
The sentence—guilty and nine months in jail. He would have been more convincing if he hadn't changed his name.