Court of Appeals of Texas July 1, 1880 (Hull v. State)

Clark, J.

A prosecution for unlawful marriage can be sustained only by allegation and proof of a prior valid marriage and a subsequent marriage, the legal husband or wife being still alive. Divorce, or absence for five years, the party marrying not knowing that the other was alive, would seem to be matters of defence. May v. The State, 4 Texas Ct. App. 424; Gorman v. The State, 23 Texas, 646.