A Jilted Bridegroom in Court: 52 Ancestors - Week 23

"Weddings" is the theme of this week's "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" challenge. What to choose?  I have written about family weddings down the decades many times in nearly  ten years of blogging.   So I decided to feature something a bit different - not an ancestral tale, but an entertaining account from 1871 of a  court case involving a Jilted  Bridegroom, as reported in  many newspapers across the country. 

A Breach of Promise of Marriage with a difference - for the innocent party here, is the jilted bridegroom, not the bride.

I came across this item by chance  in "The Border Advertiser" 18th March 1871 and  it made fascinating reading.  So here is a summary of a lengthy article. 

"In the Court of Common Pleas an extra-ordinary action for breach of promise was heard.  The plaintiff in the case Lewis Currie sued his cousin Mary Margaret Davidson Currie  and in his declaration alleged that they had during the infancy of the defendant  agreed to marry one another, and that after she became of age they duly ratified  and endorsed the promise.  Yet the defendant had refused to marry him. 

With regard to the young lady, she was possessed of considerable personal attractiveness and,  beyond that,  a dowry of £6000.  There had been a considerable correspondence between the couple, with letters read out in court to much laughter.  The defendant addressing her fiance as "My dearest George", and signing herself "Ever yours, dearest George - Yours till Death" before winding up  most appropriately with a bit of poetry.  Other  letters declared "Since you left, I care for nothing. I live for you".   "Oh my own very darling George.  I have given you my heart and with it my first and only love.  With heaps of love and millions of kisses, I remain my darling George, yours ever" 

The defendant, however, related also that at a the house of a recently married friend, she had met a young Spaniard who expressed the wish "to be the happy fellow in her locket".  

 Wedding Dress - 1879
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In further correspondence with her fiance George, she talked of being married in white silk and the 19th of January was fixed on for the wedding.  On that day the defendant married  - but not to the plaintiff (more laughter in  court).

On the 3rd of January she wrote to the defendant breaking off the engagement on  the grounds that "we are not in any way suited to one another".  She refused to meet the plaintiff who, the court was told,  had spent  £400  in preparing a residence for his new bride.  

The defendant became the wife of Mr J. Fernandez Martini on 19th January 1871 with the certificate of marriage presented to the court.  It was noted that he was in business partnership with a man who had borrowed money from the plaintiff.

It was acknowledged that the defendant had wronged the plaintiff, but no action of this kind brought by a man should be encouraged.

The jury after deliberating the matter for an hour found in favour of the defendant with damages awarded of £250."

This case reminds me so much of the Gilbert & Sullivan's comic operetta "Trial by Jury".  What would they have made of this reversal in roles?

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A WW2 Family Tribute - 52 Ancestors Wk 19

The theme of week 19 of 52 Ancsgtors is "Service".  So, as we come to mark VE Day on May 8th and the end of ~World War Two in Europe, I pay this tribute to my family who  served, survived, but not always remained unscathed by this defining period in their lives - my father John Weston, his brother Charles and my mother's brothers and sister  - Harry,  Billy and Peggy Danson. 

PEGGY DANSON, my aunt  was christened Margaret Olwen, the youngest daughter of William and Alice Danson of Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire.  Born after the First World war, she was very much the baby of the family to her much older brothers and sisters. (Left - Peggy with her mother).

Peggy served in the WAAF (Women's Auxiliary Air Force) with  a note in the family photograph album that she served in the Barrage Balloon Squadron in Hull, on theeast coast of Yorkshire.

Balloon Barrages were a passive form of defence, designed to force enemy planes to fly higher and thus bomb much less accurately.  They were simply a bag of lighter-than-air gas attached to a steel cable anchored to the ground. The balloon could be raised or lowered to the desired altitude by a winch.  The work was not without its dangers, as the heavy steel cable could at tlmes snap, resulting in devastating injuries to the operator.  

In Hull Peggy met her husband Harry Constable,  known as Con.  After their marriage in 1949 they emigrated to Australia, settling near Melbourne, and two sons were born - my cousins. Peggy made her only return visit to Britain in 1980.  Sadly following her death in 1999, contact with the Austrlian branch of my family was lost. 



BILLY DANSON  was named after his father William. Apart from knowing that we shared the same birthday and he joined the navy during the war, I know little about his life.  He had moved for work to the English Midlands and made his home there with his wartime bride Louie of Italian background. They never had any family, and my parents kept in regular touch with them.

 

HARRY RAWCLIFFE DANSON was a joiner like his father.  He joined the army and in this photograph I think there is a look of Errol Flynn about him.  He was one of the many men rescued  in the evacuation off Dunkirk in 1941, arriving home in the uniform in which he had entered he water.  He never talked about his wartime experiences but seeing documentaries or commemorations on TV could bring tears to his eyes,  with memories of what he had witnessed.  

His wartime marriage was short lived and he never remarried.  But he lived a full life with his work and hobbies - a DIY man, a productive gardener, a keen photographer, he sailed a small boat off the Fleetwood coast and  went ballroom dancing into his 80's - this was Blackpool, the mecca of ballroom dancing - and he was never short of partners.  He died in 2001 still retaining his good looks. 


 CHARLES WESTON's story is  told in the poignant  words of my father.

"Uncle Charles was a POW on the Bridge of the River Kwai — at least it was a bridge when the hundreds of POWs had finished it. Conditions were dreadful, 100s died through lack of food, mostly slops, no solids. Charles had beri-beri, dysentery, ulcers and malaria.  After the atomic bomb fell on Japan the POWs on the bridge were taken to Singapore and stayed in Changhai jail until shipped home.

My Mum and Dad never expected to see him again. In 1942 they got a card through the Red Cross — from the War Minister which read “Regret to inform you that your son has been posted missing”. Dad packed up work and the news broke him — he was never the same again. It was at Christmas 1943 that Mum got a card from the Red Cross with a few words “I am safe and well” — “Safe” yes…..”Well” certainly Not.  I was so sorry for Charles, as he arrived in Liverpool with no-one able to meet him. I was in Burma and Mum could not leave my Dad."

My father JOHN WESTON   did  talk about his war experiences (a santitized version I am sure)  and I am afraid it did provoke the reaction at times of “Not the war again, Dad”. It was only later that we came to realise what a life-defining period it was, and I persuaded him to write an account for his granddaughter.    I was also  proud to add my father's accounts to the BBC World War Two People's Story online.

Dad served in the RAF Codes & Ciphers Branch  and was seconded to General Bradley’s US 12th Army Group HQ. He landed at Omaha beach after D-Day and advanced via St. Mere Eglise, Avranches, Versailles, Paris, Verdun and Luxembourg through to Wiesbaden in German where he marked V.E. Day.  

"The GIs went wild, but we British took it all very quietly, with coffee and doughnuts from the Red Cross post – very very nice!”

  Immediately after VE Day,  Dad was posted to Burma where he was for V.J.  Day. 

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Above - this year's poster encouraging communities to mark VE Day - all curtailed of course by the Corona Virus epidemic.  I do have reservations about it being described   as a "Celebration".  Surely "Commemoration" is a more appropriate term?  Yes, it was a huge relief that the war had ended, yet for many it was a reminder of family and friends who would not be returning home or those men and women who came back  came back wounded or  damaged in spirit.   What do you think?  

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A Lucky Link with an Unknown Cousin - 52 Ancestors Wk 11.

 LUCK is the theme for this week's prompt from Amy Johnson Crow's "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks", and lucan play  a big part in successful family history research.

My good luck came when an unknown third cousin, Stuart,  discovered my blog and made contact.  Even better he lived only 50 miles from me, so we could  easily meet and spent afternoons,  sharing research, old photographs and memorabilia.  As a result I was given  a wonderful boost to my blogging activities in terms of family stories and images, just when I felt I was coming to a halt with my own material. 

 

 Stuart's Grandfather  - Edward Stewart Ingram Smith & family, c.1916 

Our Common Background 

Stuart and I  shared the same great great grandfather Henry Danson (1806-1881) of Poulton-le-Fylde, near Blackpool, Lancashire.   Henry and his wife Elizabeth Calvert had nine children - their  eldest child Elizabeth (1831-1885) was Stuart''s great grandmother, whilst the youngest child James (1852-1906) was my great grandfather - both born at Trap Farm, Carleton.

So Elizabeth was 21 years older than her youngest brother.  She married Thomas Bailey, whose family lived on an adjacent farm with the picturesque name of Bready Butts.  Six children were born,  so cousins to my grandfather - the youngest Mary Jane in 1877, Stuart's grandmother.

 A modern photograph of Breedy Butts Farm, Carleton
where Thomas Bailey grew up 

The story, however, has sad overtones.  Elizabeth died in 1885, aged 54, followed a year later by her husband Thomas, leaving a family orphaned with her two young daughters  only 12 and 8 years old.  Margaret went to live with her eldest sister Elizabeth, with  Mary Jane joining  the household of her older brother Henry in Blackpool.  

At the age of 28, Mary Jane married John William Oldham in 1905 at St. John's Church, Blackpool, but she continued to face tragedy in her life, when her youngest daughter Hilda  died aged 6 in 1915.   

 

John and Mary Jane with baby Hilda and older daughter Elsie, c.1909.  

Seven years later, Mary Ellen was sadly hospitalised and remained there until her death in 1945.   

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The Oldham Connection

Mary Jane's husband John Oldham was the only son of a firm of well established carters and coal men in Blackpool,in a house with a large yard, hay loft, tack room. and stabling for seven  horses.

On the death in 1939 of John Oldham, his daughter Elsie (left) took the helm with her husband Arthur Stuart Smith. She also ran her hairdressing concern her  as "Elise" run from the family home, where she promised "Bobbing Shingling and Marcel Waves." This lovely evocative advertising blotter below is in the family memorabilia. 

Elsie Oldham, my thrd cousin's mother.

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 Family history can take us in all kinds of directions and Stuart's family connections, although not my direct ancestors,  added a new dimension to my blog posts.  There was: 

•  John Critchley Prince (1808-1866),  well-known in his time as a writer of poetry  in
  the Lancashire dialect.
  
  
  
• The Smith Family with their origins  on the island of Unst  off Shetland, the most northerly island of Britain.  Many of the family down the generations had the middle name of Ingram, after the local minister. A move to the mainland took place between 1861-71. John Ingram Smith became the catering manager  at the famous Winter Gardens entertainment complex in Blackpool.  John's  son Edward Stewart Ingram Smith as a young man had a sensitive and artistic air, but the impact of serving in the First World War at the age of 44 took its toll on him.
  
  Ruins  of a  Smith family croft of Heogland on Unst.
• The Dower Family  of Aberdeenshire,  with William Dower appointed by the London Missionary Society as a Wesleyan Missionary in South Africa,  setting  sail there in 1865 with his new wife Jesse. 
   
  

William and Jesse Dower  in 1913

• The Alan Blumlein Connection  - William and Jesse's daughter, married a German mining engineer Semmy Joseph Blumlein of Jewish descent. They settled in Britain and Semmy took out citizenship in 1903.  Their son Alan  Dower Blumlein (1902-1942)  has been described as "the greatest electronic engineer of the 20th century", notable for his many inventions in  telecommunications, sound recordings, television and radar.  He died at the young age of 38 during a secret trial of an airborne radar system.
  

You can stumble across some amazing stories when you start to delve into sidelines of your family history.  Stuart's contact with me was my lucky day  - and I haven't even mentioned the war-time tales, the wealth of wedding photographs down the decades or the charming children's photographs that have found their way into my blog posts. 

 My third cousin's father - Arthur Stuart Ingram Smith (1908-1979)

 

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A Tragic Family - 52 Ancestors Week: 9

"Disaster"  is the theme of this week's "52 Ancestors" prompt and I am looking at a personal tragedy that devastated members of my extended family.  

Here an admission -  in many ways I have come to regret my choice of title for my blog.  When I set this up, as a novice,  in August 2010,   I was keen to convey my enthusiasm and pleasure that I gain from my family history activities - hence "Family History Fun."  But  tragedies. abound in our research  from mothers dying in  childbirth, the early deaths of children succumbing to illness,  accidents at home and work,  and of course in warfare.  


So most of us will soon come across tragedies in our family history. Here is such a one from distant branch of my family, and  where my blog title  becomes inappropriate.

I was asked by my  cousin to find out more about the background of his  grandmother  Sarah Haydon Lounds who married my great uncle John Danson (left). He knew little about Sarah, other than her family came form the Nottinghamshire/Lincolnshire area.    It proved a sad tale.
Sarah's Parents

A search on www.ancestry.co.uk  quickly revealed  that the surname Lounds was very popular in Derbyshire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire. I soon traced an entry for a Sarah Haydon Lounds born Jan-March 1884 at Worksop, Nottinghamshire.   She was baptised at St. John's Church, Worksop, daughter of  George Haydon Lounds and Charlotte Ann Short, who had married in 1873. 

George Haydon Lounds was the eldest son of Haydon Lounds and Jane Beaver, born December 1853 at Bourne, Lincolnshire.  He and Charlotte had six children Haydon (1873),  Jane (1875),  Emma (1877),  Willie (1879), Sarah (1884)  and Harold (1889). 

Haydon Lounds: Coach Builder - Grandfather of "my" Sarah.

Given that coach builder Haydon was a local tradesman, I sought to find more about his own life and work and searched newspapers online (available on FindMyPast)  to discover a  wonderful source of entries on Haydon.  

Stamford  Mercury:27th January  1854

 But success was short lived as reported in 1855: 
 
The London Gazette:  22nd February 1855

"A petition for bankruptcy - hearing date 14th February 1855 has been filed against Haydon Lounds of Bourne in the county of Lincoln, coach builder and wheelwright......" 

Haydon could only have been about 23 years old at the  time of this bankruptcy and
had married only two years previously, with  eldest son George Haydon (Sarah's father) born the same year.    However Haydon continued working in his trade, as indicated in the census returns 1861-1891 where he was described as "employed". Three daughters and six sons were born over  the next twenty years. 

Newspaper reports gave an insight into  Haydon as a respected member of the community, with  frequent reference to Haydon being among a company of bell ringers, who performed in church and at various social occasions, plus an award made to him by a Friendly Society. 

The Stamford Mercury:  12th July 1870"

"The Managers of the Hearts of Oak  Friendly Society, of London, have this week presented a handsome silver medal, bearing a suitable inscription, to Mr. Haydon Lounds, workman in the employ of Mr. Anderson, coach builder, of this town, for valuable assistance he has rendered for some time in inducing persons to become members of that institution"....... 

 
The Friendly Society was set up in 1842 with the aim of giving its members protection against distress through sickness.   It grew rapidly and a major collection of its records is now held at the National Archives. 

 The Stamford Mercury:  9th December 1870

  "A company of hand-bell ringers, under the direction of Mr. Haydon Lounds, gave a very pleasing diversion"

The Grantham Journal:  27th November 1875  - an effusive  report  on a Saturday evening concert at the Temperance Hall noted among the entertainers were:  

"Mr. Haydon Lounds and his sons who gave immense satisfaction by their excellent manipulation at the hand bells; the various pieces played by them being received with enthusiastic manifestations of delight".

 However tragedy befell the family as reported below.  

Lincolnshire Chronicle Friday 27 March 1896:

GRANTHAM - SUICIDE.  Mr Aubrey H. Malin, coroner, held an inquest into  the death of Haydon Lounds aged 65, a coach-body maker, who died on the previous day.  Arthur..... Lounds, son of the deceased, identified the body. Deceased had been suffering from white-lead colic for six weeks but had not stayed off work until the previous Wednesday.  Deceased of late had appeared in a rather depressed state.  He seemed to trouble about the idea of having to live upon his children.   William Deed, engine driver,  said he had known the deceased for about 20 years.  On Saturday at lunchtime, the witness was called to the deceased house.  In his bedroom, he found the deceased lying on his side, with his throat cut and a razor in his hand.  He had noticed that the deceased had been rather absent minded.  Dr. Paterson, attributed death to shock and exhaustion, due to loss of blood.  Verdict - Suicide whilst in a state of unsound mind."

So work for  40 years as a coach-body builder, resulted in Haydon suffering from what was later believed to be work-related   lead poisoning.  Thus ended  the life of this family man and supportive member of his community.   He was buried at Grantham Parish Church, Lincolnshire. 

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Tragedy, though was to  follow Haydon's family. 
His granddaughter Sarah, who married my great uncle John Danson, died in 1907 of Tuberculosis at the young age of 21, leaving a one year daughter Annie Maria. Annie made her home with her paternal grandmother Maria Danson, and her aunt Jennie who was only 8 years here senior.   (Below)

But in 1917 Annie's father John, aged just 38,  died whilst  in army training.  There was a bit of a mystery about the  circumstances of his death, with my mother commenting "granny had to fight to get his name on the local war memorial". It was many years later I eventually ordered John's death certificate  to read the stark new "cut his throat whilst temporarily insane".



Postscript on  Sarah and John's orphaned daughter Annie.
Annie grew up with  her paternal grandmother's family   and on 4 October 1928 married Harry Ditchfield at St. Chad's Church, Poulton-le-Fylde Lancashire.

The local press report provided a colourful description of the wedding fashions of the day - with the headlline "Gowned in Delphinium Blue" .  The couple went onto have a son and daughter, and grandchildren.

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                      Adapted from an earlier blog post on the Lounds family. 

                                                           

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Favourite Discoveries - 52 Ancestors Week 7.

This week's "52 Ancestors" prompt asks us to write about "A Favourite Discovery".  I have opted for three examples that mean a lot to me - Finding a WWI Service Record; Discovering a Coincidental Birthday; and Finding my First Emigrant Ancestors.


Finding the  WW1 Service Record for a great uncle.  
My great uncle George Danson (1894-1916)  was the youngest of eight sons of James Danson  and Maria Rawcliffe, and as such was regarded as an older brother by my mother and aunt who had fond memories of him from their childhood and would comment "George was a lovely man".  I can see why from this photogaph of him.

George was called up to fight in the First World War in 1916, joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and became a stretcher bearer - in the thick of the war action.  He  was killed on September 16th of that year during the Battle of the Somme - a week after  his 22nd birthday. I was lucky enough to have memorabilia of his life from my great aunt  including photographs and letters written from the war front.  One letter written three weeks before his death said: 

"I had to assist the wounded at a dressing station and stuck to it for about 40 hours. It's blooming hard work being a stretcher bearer in the field."

Finding George's service record on Ancestry was a real bonus as many of WWI records were destroyed by enemy action in the Second World War - and his is the only such record I have traced of the five Danson brothers who were also serving.  


On his enlistment,  George's  medical report stated he was 5'3" tall,  weighed 109 lbs. (under 8 stone), with size  34 1/2 chest and he wore glasses - so such a slight figure to be a stretcher bearer of wounded and dead amidst  the turmoil of war.

Finding this record added to my impression  of George who remains on of my favourite figures in my family tree. 

 

A photograph, sent to his mother Maria, of George's grave.  It conveys in a stark way the reality of war amid the mud and blood that George must have experienced - and contrasts with the pristine white of the more lasting memorials that we recognise today. 

See my blog post  of October 2013:  A Stretcher Bearer in the Field 

Discovering a Coincidental Birthday  

At a very early stage of my family research,  I sent away for the birth certificate of my great grandmother, Maria Rawcliffe.  I eagerly opened the envelope when it came,  to find her birthday of 15th January was the same date as our daughter's birthday  114 years later.  

This coincidence delighted me so much   - one of the reasons  why family history is such an absorbing hobby - as Maria is at the heart of my family history and my favourite ancestor. 

With my daughter, Maria's great great great granddaughter.

See my blog post of January 2012  -  A Double Birthday Celebration

Finding I had American Ancestor.

For over 10 years I had puzzled about this striking mounted family photograph with no indication on who it was of, and nor any  photographer's stamp to identify  where it  was taken.   It came to me from my great aunt Jennie Danson's collection, with all her family very firmly based in the Fylde region of north west Lancashire.  It   must surely be of one of of my great grandmother's  (Maria) sisters - Anne, Jane, Alice, or Jennet?  The composition of the family and ages of the children ruled out Anne, Jane or Jennet. So was  this Alice Rawcliffe, her husband  and John  Mason and family?   This was my mystery.

So it  came as a complete surprise when  a very casual browsing of Rawcliffes on Family Search resulted in an  entry for Alice Mason née Rawcliffe (1853-1930) with the statement that she had died  in  Jamesburg, Middlesex County, New Jerse, USA - the first time I was aware of any potential American connection.  All the information fitted with "my Alice" - dates, names, places, and many of the children's names.   

I was keen  to find out more about my first known emigrant ancestors, so I boosted my Ancestry UK subscription for a short term, so I could access American records. The results:

Alice Rawcliffe married John Mason and they had in England  six children.   Then In 1886-87 t they  took the momentous decision to leave the fishing port of Fleetwood for the teeming tenements of Brooklyn, New York. where they had a further five children, with three dying in infancy.  The family took out US citizenship in 1895.  

Then 2010  I set up my blog  and posted about my mystery photograph.   A year  later came SUCCESS!!   

Bonny, my third cousin, and the granddaughter of Florence Mason (the young girl in the middle of  my  photograph) got in touch and she had the very same photograph  as mine,  but mounted with the name of a photographer in Brooklyn, New York.

We  exchanged e-mails, photographs and information of our ancestors down the generations and remained  in touch with one another until Bonny's sad recent death.

This discovery meant a lot to me, as Bonny's contribution added a new dimension to my family history and  gave a tremendous boost   to my blogging activity.  Her relations are still in touch through my Facebook page. 

My Rawcliffe/Mason Amercian ancestors -

 in a photogrpah taken,  I think,  around the late 1920's. 

So it is all thanks to the power of the Internet and of blogging, that my mystery photograph was eventually identified and I discovered the story of my first emigrant ancestors. It pays to be patient in family history research!    

See My Blog Post of July 2012:   My Mystery Photograph Identified   

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