CHAPTER 263

AN ACT to amend and reenact § 20-49 of the Code of 1950, re-
lating to the circumstances under which consent is required
for a person to marry and how such consent ts ddd an 947

4

Approved April 3, 1950

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 20-49 of the Code of 1950 be amended and reenacted
as follows:

§ 20-49. When consent required and how given.—If any
person intending to marry be under twenty-one years of age,
and has not been previously married, the consent of the father
or mother or guardian * of such person, shall be given either per-
sonally to the clerk or judge, or in writing subscribed by a wit-
ness, who shall make oath before the clerk or judge that the
writing was signed or acknowledged in his presence by such
father, guardian, or mother, as the case may be, or the writing
shall be acknowledged before a notary public or some person
authorized to take acknowledgments to deeds under the laws
of this State, which acknowledgment shall be properly certified
by such officer. If there be no father, guardian, or mother, or
if such person be abandoned by his or her parents, the judge of
the circuit court of the county, or of the corporation court of
the city wherein the female resides, either in term or vacation,
or the clerk or deputy clerk of such court, may, on the applica-
tion of the person intending to marry, properly certified, au-
thorize a marriage license to be issued, or issue the same, as
the case may be. For the purpose of giving consent under the
provisions of this section, an insane father or an insane mother
shall be treated as if there were no father or mother, or father
and mother, as the case may be.

If any such person under twenty-one years of age be a
ward of the State by virtue of having been adjudicated a de-
linquent, dependent, or neglected child, the consent required by
this section shall be given by the judge or justice having Jjuris-
diction to control the custody of such person; or, if such person
so adjudicated shall have been committed to the Board of
Welfare and Institutions or to any society, association, or in-
stitution approved by it for this purpose, such consent shall be
given personally by the Commissioner of Public Welfare or by
some person thereto authorized by him, or by the principal ex-
ecutive officer of such society, association, or institution, as the
case may be, such authorization to be in writing, attested or
acknowledged as hereinabove provided.