A knobstick wedding is the forced marriage of a pregnant single woman with the man known or believed to be the father. 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. The practice and the term were most prevalent in the United Kingdom in the 18th century. The practice of forcing a man to marry a woman whom he had made pregnant is also known as a "shotgun wedding". Knobstick weddings, however, more usually refer to those arrangements forced by a local parish.