A knobstick wedding is the forced marriage of a pregnant single woman with the man known or believed to be the father.
[1][2][3][4] It derives its name from the staves of office carried by the church wardens whose presence was intended to ensure that the ceremony took place.
Local authorities therefore encouraged the woman to enter into a marriage with the person presumed to be the father in an attempt to reduce their spending and shift the responsibility to the identified man.
[8] In one case, recorded in the 6 October 1829 edition of The Times, a man was coerced into marrying the woman he was accused of making pregnant.
[4] The practice of forcing a man to marry a woman whom he had made pregnant is also known as a "shotgun wedding".