Bigamy

crim. law, domestic relations. ‘The state of a man who has two wives, or of a woman who has two husbands living at the same time. When the man has more than two wives, or the woman more than two husbands living at the same time, then the party is said to have committed polygamy, but the name of bigamy is more frequently given to, this offence in legal proceedings.

1 Russ. on Cr. 187.

In England this offence is punished by the stat.

1 Jac. 1, c.

11, which makes the offence felony, but it exempts from punishment the party whose husband or wife shall continue to remain absent for seven years before the second marriage, without being heard from, and persons who shall have been legally divorced. The statutory provisions in the U. S. against bigamy or polygamy, are generally similar to, and copied from the statute of 1 Jac. 1, c. 11, excepting as to the punishment. The several exceptions in this statute are also nearly the same in the American statutes, but the punishment of the offence is different Justices, (S 5,); Merlin Répert. mot Bigamie. Code lib.

9, tit. 9, 1.

18; and lib.

5, tit. 5, ]. 2.