The Chapel of Holy Trinity, Minories, pleaded privilege, on the ground that it was a Crown living, and as much a _peculiar_ as Westminster Abbey, or the Deanery of Windsor; while the Chapels of the Tower and the Savoy sought exemption because they were Royal Chapels, and therefore the Bishop had no jurisdiction over them. Besides these, there were very many more chapels scattered over the Metropolis where irregular marriages were performed, a list of about ninety having been preserved. These Marriages so increased that it was found necessary to legislate about them, and, in 1689, an Act (6 and 7 Will. III. c. 6, s. 24) was passed making it compulsory, under a penalty of One Hundred pounds, for every parson to keep an accurate register of births, Marriages, and deaths. Another Act was passed in 1696 (17 and 18 Will. III. c. 35, s. 2-3) whereby a penalty of £100 was imposed on any Clergyman who married, or permitted another to marry, couples, otherwise than by banns or licence. This was enforced by another Act in 1711 (10 Anne c. 19, s. 176), which confirmed the penalty, and moreover, this section shows that irregular marriages were getting to be common in prisons, for it provides that "if any gaoler, or keeper of any prison, shall be privy to, or knowingly permit any marriage to be solemnized in his said prison, before publication of banns, or licence obtained, as aforesaid, he shall, for every such offence, forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds," &c. Of course, this did not stop the practice, although it prevented Marriages in the Fleet Chapel. Yet there were the _Rules_, and real and pretended clergymen for many years plied their illicit vocation with impunity. But there seems to have been some compunctions of conscience even among this graceless lot, for one of them, Walter Wyatt, has left behind him, in a pocket-book dated 1736, the following moral reflections. "Give to every man his due, and learn y^e way of Truth. This advice cannot be taken by those that are concerned in y^e Fleet Marriages; not so much as y^e Priest can do y^e thing y^t is just and right there, unless he designs to starve. For by lying, bullying, and swearing, to extort money from the silly and unwary people, you advance your business and gets y^e pelf, which always wastes like snow in sun shiney day." "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The Marrying in the Fleet is the beginning of eternal woe." "If a clark or plyer[154] tells a lye, you must vouch it to be as true as y^e Gospel; and if disputed, you must affirm with an oath to y^e truth of a downright damnable falsehood--Virtus laudatur et alget."