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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1956 (SND Vol. IV).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

GRETNA GREEN, n. A village in Dumfriesshire, the first to be entered after crossing the Border from England, noted for the marriages of runaway English couples celebrated from c.1750 by the blacksmith over his anvil according to the Sc. form of irregular marriage by declaration de praesenti. The practice was curbed by the Act of 1856 (see 1930 quot.), which made it necessary for one of the intending partners to reside in Scotland for twenty-one days before the marriage, and abolished by the Marriage (Scotland) Act of 1939 which declares such marriages by declaration invalid. See Stat. Acc.¹ IX. 531–2, and cf. half-merk marriage, s.v. Half. Used attrib. in quots.Ayr. 1823 Galt Entail lxxx.:
Whomsoever ye hear giving me the wyte o' any sic Gretna Green job.Sc. 1904 Daily Chron. (17 Feb.) 7:
The period of Gretna Green weddings . . . extended over almost exactly a century.Sc. 1930 Green's Encyclopedia IX. 410:
Lord Brougham's Act, [19 and 20 Vict. c.96] was passed to check the Border runaway marriages, which were usually entered into by declaration before some self-constituted official, such as the well-known Gretna Green blacksmith.