A-Z 2023 Challenge: Family Traits: B for. BIGAMOUS

My Theme for A-Z Challenge 2023  

Family Traits,  Quirks and Characteristics 

 B for BIGAMOUS 

My Husband’s GG Grandmother 

 

Researching the early life of my husband’s great grandmother Sarah Ann Cuthbert led to me finding her mother Charlotte,  who proved an elusive character, with all the  evidence pointing to the fact she had committed BIGAMY .

Charlotte’s life included a first marriage with a disparity in ages, the unknown whereabouts of Charlotte  for over 10 years, suspicions of a bigamous second marriage, and an assault by her daughter's future husband. 

 Charlotte Portress  was born 20th May 1846  in Pinchbeck, Lincolnshire, daughter of William Portress and Elizabeth Morris.   Her surname on her marriage announcement stated  Portress, but it was variously spelt across records and online transcriptions as Portos, Porteres, Portros, Portes and  Porters – adding to the research challenge.

The 1851 census revealed Charlotte was the fourth of six children, with siblings Joseph, Eliza, Ann, Mark and Sarah.  In 1861 , aged 17,  Charlotte  was working as a domestic servant to an elderly farmer William Booth, and his sister-in-law  at River Bank, Pinchbeck.  For a young girl, this must have been a lonely life as the only resident domestic help there. 

 A  year later on 15th May 1862, 19 year old Charlotte was marrying James Cuthbert, 12  years her senior, as reported in “The Stanford Mercury”.

So what could be  the reasons for Charlotte's marriage to James?   Did it offer security and respectability of a home?    For five months after their marriage, on 29th October 1862, Charlotte gave birth to a son,  Morris, named after her mother’s maiden name;   followed by John  James in 1863 and daughter Sarah Ann in 1868.  

PUZZLE NO.1  - In 1871, where was Charlotte, the mother of three young children, for neither she nor daughter Sarah Ann were listed with James and their two sons.   Was she visiting elsewhere, or had she deserted the Cuthbert household?  Efforts to trace her proved challenging.

Some public trees have a Charlotte Porter  listed in the 1871 census as a patient at the Leavesden Asylum in Hertfordshire, aged 26, but with her birthplace recorded as "not known"  - so not much help in identifying if our Charlotte has reverted to her maiden name in this instance. 

Why would she be admitted  to an asylum?  Was it a case of post natal depression, following Sarah Ann's birth in 1868?  In the 19th century it was not uncommon for women to be admitted on such a cause.   Would someone in Spalding be admitted to a place in Hertfordshire - some 77 miles apart?  And where was daughter Sarah Ann?  She has not been traced in the 1871 census.   Lots of questions that remain unanswered.

A google search of Leavesden Asylum noted that it opened in 1870 and its records, including admission registers,  are held at the National Archives.  The registers might identify if this was Charlotte from Spalding. 

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Charlotte was  next traced in 1880 in Sheffield, West Yorkshire,   marrying  Robert Lawson of Silkstone, near Barnsley - as listed in the GRO Civil Registration of Marriages Index. But Charlotte's  name was given, not under her married name of Cuthbert, but under her maiden name of Porter.

PUZZLE NO.2 What had taken Charlotte to Yorkshire?    Was this a BIGAMOUS  marriage?  It certainly seems so.   Her first husband James Cuthbert was still alive and  as an Ag. Lab. could not possibly have afforded the cost of a divorce in the late 19th century.   Moreover  he was living at the same address (Dozens Bank, Pinchbeck, Spalding)   in 1881, 1891, and  1901, along with a Sarah Ann Cliff, described as his housekeeper and a widow.   James was listed  as  married  in 1871, and 1881 but a widower in 1891 and 1901.

The  1880s proved an eventful year for the new Lawson family  

The 1881 census saw 32 year old Charlotte  at Ben Bank Cottage, Dodworth, near Barnsley with husband  Robert aged 34, a fireman in a coal pit, and Charlotte's 11 year old  daughter Sarah Ann Cuthbert.

But  there were indications that the  marriage was  soon faltering. For a notice in “The  Barnsley Chronicle” of 25th October 1884 stated that Robert would not be held responsible for his wife's debts. 

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The link with the  Armitage Family. 

In the  1880s decade, daughter Sarah (below)  became involved with the Armitage family, notably Aaron Armitage,  a miner.   Local newspapers  revealed that from the age of 13,  Aaron had made   regular appearances in court - had deserted the army, returned to Barnsley,  and over the years faced charges ranging  from stealing a canary to serious assault.

In 1884 local newspapers reported that  on July 5th   Aaron had been charged with assaulting Charlotte Lawson  and fined 10 shillings  plus costs.

1885 - A more serious charge was to follow when Aaron was accused of  violently assaulting Sarah Ann Cuthbert, and with  his brother John stealing a dress to pawn, the property of Sarah Ann Cuthbert - as reported in "The Leeds Times" of 6th June. The Barnsley Chronicle" gave a particularly graphic account of the case. Aaron was sent to Wakefield Prison.  

Yet two years later on the 16^th of May at All Saint,  South Kirkby ,  36 year old Aaron  married the same Sarah Ann Cuthbert, (at 21 years old, fifteen years his junior).  On 3rd of January 1888,   Aaron's daughter Alice was born, (my husband's grandmother),  but before she marked her third birthday, her father was dead.   

Aaron died 26th October 1889.  Interestingly the name of the informant on his death certificate was given as his mother-in-law C. Lawson. 

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Charlotte Lawson  was next traced in the 1891 census for Dodworth, Yorkshire,  though some transcription note her name as Catherine.  She was with her 22 year old daughter now named Sarah Ann Hibbert and son-in-law George Hibbert, and daughter Alice Lawson - Alice was in fact Alice Armitage - from Sarah's first marriage.  So Sarah, 7 months a widow, had married on 25th May 1890 George Hibbert, another  miner, at St. George's Church, Barnsley.

But where was Charlotte's husband Robert?

By 1901 the Hibbert family had moved cross country to the minefields of South Shields, Co. Durham at 19 Trinity Street, with George and Sarah  Ann,  13 year old Alice and her half- siblings - Robert aged 6  and Violet 4.  Alice and Violet  remained close all their lives.

Charlotte Lawson does not appear to have joined this move  - but now in the Hibbert household was Robert Lawson, described as father-in-law.  

No trace could be found for Charlotte after the 1891 census, so I turned to death records and found that a   Charlotte Lawson died in  Barnsley in 1900 aged 54.    Did she die a lonely death, after  a life dogged with questions? 

Postscript

• Robert Lawson, her second (bigamous) husband  died  in South Shields in 1907.
  
  
• James Cuthbert, Charlotte's first husband was listed  in the 1901 census aged 71 in Pinchbeck, Spalding, but to date I have been unable to trace a death certificate. 
  

• In 1899 George and Sarah Ann Hibbert had a son,  interestingly christened Maurice Cuthbert  - the name of Sarah's eldest brother born in 1862.  Did the brother and  sister ever meet after the young Sarah was taken away with her mother from the Cuthbert family home in Spalding?   We will never know.   Maurice Hibbert's life was short - dying in infancy.

 

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                                             Onto  C for  CRIMINAL

IN CASE YOU MISSED

A for Adventurous 

 

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