Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 19
  1. #1
    Wilkes_ml
    Guest

    Default William RUFUS a bigamist?

    I wasn't sure where to put this, as it spans Shropshire, Lancashire and dips into France and Ireland and isn't really a brick wall!

    This was starting to drive me a bit mad, and am not sure if I am on the right track, or barking up the wrong tree, so would appreciate it if anyone has the time to look through and see if it makes sense!

    On 27th May 1843 at St. Michael, Madeley, Shropshire, William RUFUS (an Iron moulder of full age, bachelor and resident at Madeley ) son of Thomas RUFUS (Moulder) married Joanna/Johanna HIGGINS (of full age, spinster resident at Brosely) daughter of Thomas HIGGINS (Collier), by licence. Witnessed do not appear to be related.

    I traced the baptism of Joanna HIGGINS daughter of Thomas & Ann HIGGINS at All Saints, Broseley, Shropshire 16th July 1815. I was hoping to find the couple together in the census to get an age and birth place for William RUFUS to confirm that he was the William RUFUS, son of Thomas & Hannah RUFUS nee OWEN baptised at St. Michael, Madeley, Shropshire 28th September 1806.

    With a name like Joanna, I thought the search would be easy, however I could not find the couple together, or seperately and could not find a burial for either of them.

    So, searching for any RUFUS, born Broseley, I found a "Hannah" RUFUS, of the right age living in King Street, Broseley, Shropshire who consistently said she was married but no sign of a husband.

    1851 Census HO107 piece 1989 folio 392 pg 7: King Street, Broseley, Shropshire
    Hannah RUFUS, Head, married, age 30, Inn Keeper, born Broseley (b. 1820-1821)

    1861 census RG9 piece 1859 folio 56 pg 13: King Street, Broseley, Shropshire
    Hannah RUFUS, Head, married, age 44, Licenced victualler, born Broseley (b. 1816-1817)

    1871 Census RG10 piece 2757 Folio 57 pg 16: King Street, Broseley, Shropshire
    Hannah RUFUS, Head, married, age 56, Licensced victualler, born Broseley (b. 1814-1815)

    Hannah was also listed in the 1863 and 1870 Post Office Directory as Mrs. Hannah RUFUS of the Kings Head, King Street, Broseley.

    So I started to think that maybe her husband was in an institution somewhere, but thought it was unlikely he would be institutionalised for at least 30 years! And I could find no evidence of him anywhere in Shropshire.

    So, going back to 'Hannah'....I couldn't find her in 1881 census, so suspected she had died, but could not find a death registration for Hannah.....but there was a death Registration for Joanna RUFUS in September Quarter 1877 (Madeley Reg District) aged 62 (therefor born 1814-1815 which ties in with the Joanna who married William RUFUS).

    I also found that 'Hannah' RUFUS left a will, proved 10th December 1877 at Shrewsbury, and the index gives a date of death of 18th August 1877 which ties in with the death registration of Joanna!

    The probate calender states that Hannah RUFUS was a widow, late of King Street, Broseley. This pretty much confirmed that 'Hannah' and Joanna were the same person. And from this piece of information, I guessed that she (or the executors of her will?) must have been aware of her husband's death prior to 1877.

    Assuming that William RUFUS must have died 1871 to 1877, I searched further afield, and came up with William RUFUS who was buried at Manchester Cemetery, 2nd May 1872. The address given was 7 Brunswick street, Openshaw (which appears to be a suburb of Manchester). William RUFUS was aged 63 (born 1808-1809 which ties in with the William who was baptised at Madeley, son of Thomas RUFUS) and the grave owner was Mary RUFUS.

    Then a lightbulb went off in my head and I suddenly realised I had come across a William & Mary RUFUS before: William RUFUS, bachelor of Madeley, Shropshire had married Mary Ann LITTLEWOOD, spinster of Hope FLN at the British Embassy, Paris

    previously mentioned here

    Searching the Census again, I found

    1871 census RG10 piece 3982 folio 8 pg 10 259 Gorton Lane, Gorton, Lancashire
    William RUFUS, Head, Married, age 56, Unemployed iron Moulder, born Shropshire (b. 1814-1815)
    Mary RUFUS, wife, married, age 50, born Roscon or Roscow? near Chester (b. 1820-1821)
    Thomas RUFUS, son, unmarried, aged 26, born Louver {sic} France (b. 1844-1845)
    Gustavous{sic} RUFUS, son, unmarried, aged 24, born Louver {sic} France (b. 1846-1847)
    Louisa RUFUS, daughter, unmarried, aged 18, born Dundalk, Ireland (b. 1852-1853)
    William RUFUS, son, unmarried, age 15, born Dundalk, Ireland (b. 1855-1856)
    Alfred RUFUS, son, unmarried, age 12, born Dublin, Ireland (b. 1858-1859)

    This would explain why the family is missing from the 1851 & 1861 census.

    And in the 1881 census RG11 piece 3903 folio 123 pg 29 at 285 Gorton Lane, Gorton, Lancashire
    Mary RUFUS, Head, widow, age 60 born Hope in ????? {Flintshire? as per given in marriage entry in Paris} (b. 1820-1821)
    Louisa RUFUS, daughter, unmarried, age 26, born Dundalk, Ireland (b. 1854-1855)
    William RUFUS, son, unmarried, age 24, born Dundalk, Ireland (b. 1856-1857)
    Fred RUFUS {Alfred from 1871 census}, son, unmarried, born Dublin, Ireland (b. 1858-1859)
    (Gustavus has married and moved to 1 Spurgeons Cottages, Rose Hill Road, Ipswich by 1881 Census RG11 piece 1874 folio 102 pg 10)

    So this leaves the puzzle....is this enough circumstantial evidence to prove that the William RUFUS of Madeley who married Joanna HIGGINS 27th May 1843 is the same William RUFUS of Madeley who married Mary Ann LITTLEWOOD at the British Embassy in Paris 26th February 1844, just 8 months later!
    If this is the case, then this must be the best piece of detective work I've done so far!

    Incidentally, the grave plot where William RUFUS is buried (no. 1247) is also occupied by his wife Mary who died in 1882, son Gustavus (died 1907), daughter Louisa ( died 1933) and 3 grandchildren (William RUFUS who died 1874 aged 1 month, Thomas Charles Frederick RUFUS who died 1893 aged 10 and Stanley RUFUS who died 1895 aged 19 months).

    So, was William RUFUS a bigamist? Is that why he was out of the country for so long, and if he was still married to Joanna/Hannah, how did she know that he was still alive, or when he died?

    Thanks to anyone who waded through this!
    Last edited by Wilkes_ml; 13-12-2014 at 1:52 AM. Reason: spelling corrections

  2. #2

    Default

    One thing I'd do is make sure that there's no birth registered for Hannah R. Sometimes women with their own business claimed to be married or widowed to gain respectability. Maybe also check FReeBMD for any marriages between a Hannah and a Mr Rufus at possible times and places. It's not so easy to prove a negative, but it's comforting to know that one has looked.

    Hannah, Joanna and Anna can be (not always) interchangeable....

    Also, she might have been happy to be rid of him, and knew exactly where he was - remember that WDYTYA on Bruce Forsythe? His ancestor was visiting his first wife in England while living with his second one in America...

  3. #3
    janbooth
    Guest

    Default

    Michelle,

    According to the Manchester Cemetery records there was an Inquest into the death of William RUFUS who died in 1872. Don't know if there would be any inquest papers or newspaper articles surviving which might give some more information on this William RUFUS.

    Are the surnames RUFF & RUFUS likely to be interchangeable? Ancestry has the baptism at Madeley on 28 September 1806 for a William RUFF son of Thomas & Hannah RUFF so I just wondered if he were a likely candidate for the William who married Joanna.

    Janet

  4. #4
    Brick wall demolition expert!
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Lancashire
    Posts
    3,642

    Default

    I think that you are probably right about Hannah / Joanna. One thing that might be worth checking is where she was in 1841. The reason for that is that all the censuses show her as a business manager, which is quite a step from a collier's daughter in 1843.

    In terms of William, can you get a copy of his Paris marriage certificate to see what it says about his father's name and occupation?

  5. #5
    Wilkes_ml
    Guest

    Default

    Thanks all...I knew you would come up with some ideas...

    Leslie, I will double check, as I can't be certain have checked all those possibilities.

    Janet.. I forgot about the inquest, so will look into that. And yes, almost all branches of the Shropshire RUFUS' started out as RUFF, which I discussed here ( sorry, I forgot to link this in earlier, but didn't want to muddy the waters with earlier generations and cousins etc) and I have pretty much confirmed that each individual changed there name, rather than there being a RUFF and a RUFUS born at the same time in the same place.

    Basically "my" William RUFF/RUFUS (born 1896 Coalbrookdale, Madeley) who married Mary COOKSON , and his siblings Mary RUFUS (b. circa 1800) who married James COOKSON and Samual RUFUS (born circa 1810) were the children of William RUFUS (from William Jr.s 2nd marriage) and I believe "my" William's father to be the brother of Thomas RUFF/RUFUS, so I'm trying to work my way through all branches of the children of William & Elizabeth RUFF (Thomas' parents) to look for clues.

    Megan... maybe it is possible that Hannah was left some money in a will ...something I haven't yet looked into...But when she died, she was pretty wealthy when she died, with an estate of nearly the equivalent of £22,000 in todays money. That does seem a big step up for a collier's daughhter, but maybe she was just a hard working, determined lady with ambition!

    Also, I do already have the marriage entry for William's marriage in Paris to Mary Ann Littlewood, but unfortunately it was like a pre-1837 certificate with no father's name & occupation. In fact, it didn't even give William's occupation, though it did give their places of origin!

    An idea did come to me this morning when I finally made it to bed (I almost got back out again to check!) and that was ....I have the marriage entry image of William & Mary Ann Littlewood, and the marriage entry image of William to Joanna Higgins....hopefully he signed both documents, and hopefully the images are copies of the original signatures so I can compare the two signatures.

  6. #6
    Wilkes_ml
    Guest

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Megan Roberts View Post
    One thing that might be worth checking is where she was in 1841.
    In 1841 Census (Ref HO107 piece 928 book 3 folio 54 pg 7) , Hannah HIGGINS (aged 24) is living with her mother Ann HIGGINS (aged 64) Inn keeper, and a Maria HIGGINS (age 13) who I assumed to be a sister, but could not find a baptism for Maria.

    edit: It just occured to me that the pub/inn may have been in Ann's family prior to her marriage to Thomas HIGGINS.

  7. #7
    Wilkes_ml
    Guest

    Default

    Not sure how well these images will come out, as the second one was copied from a pdf document, and I'm not sure how to expand the image...however, you can click on images below which should take you to photo bucket where you should be able to zoom in

    first is the signature from the 1843 marriage of William RUFUS to Joanna HIGGINS at Madeley:



    and the signature of William RUFUS who married Mary Ann LITTLEWOOD in 1844:



    To me they look very similar......

    edited to add zoomed in copy of the signature above


  8. #8
    Wilkes_ml
    Guest

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Lesley Robertson View Post
    One thing I'd do is make sure that there's no birth registered for Hannah R.
    Hannah RUFUS would have been born 1816-1817 (from 1841 census), 1820-1821 (from 1851 census), 1816-1817 (from 1861 census), 1814-1815 (from 1871 census) so ignoring the obvious discrepancy in the 1851 census, she should have been born at Broseley about 1815-1816.

    There were no RUFF/RUFUS baptisms at all at Broseley 1815 +/- 20 years and the only Hannah RUFF/RUFUS born 1815 +/- 20 years in Shropshire was Hannah RUFF born 14th July 1806 bapt. 30th December 1806, daughter of George & Sarah RUFF ( George was Thomas' brother and he also changed his name from RUFF to RUFUS) and this Hannah RUFF married Joseph WALE in 1830 using the surname RUFUS.

  9. #9
    Wilkes_ml
    Guest

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by janbooth View Post
    Michelle,

    According to the Manchester Cemetery records there was an Inquest into the death of William RUFUS who died in 1872. Don't know if there would be any inquest papers or newspaper articles surviving which might give some more information on this William RUFUS.
    Manchester City Council quote "Unfortunately, coroners' records frequently have been destroyed. This is certainly the case with the records of the coroner for the City of Manchester, where the only 19th century records to survive are witnesses' depositions for the dates 22 August 1851 - 24 December 1852 (ref GB127.M381/1/1/1-2). "

    Unfortunately I can not find any mention in the newspapers that are available on Find My Past, by searching his name, and can't find him in the British Newspaper Archive which is online (I'd have to subscribe if I wanted to browse each Manchester newspaper page per page). I used to be able to access newspapers online via my library, but it seem I can not access it remotely now, so will have to go to library to enquire.

  10. #10
    Wilkes_ml
    Guest

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Lesley Robertson View Post
    Also, she might have been happy to be rid of him, and knew exactly where he was - remember that WDYTYA on Bruce Forsythe? His ancestor was visiting his first wife in England while living with his second one in America...
    Somehow I managed to miss the last few episodes of WDYTYA, but thanks for reminding me...I'll check to see if I can download the episodes I missed!

    This isn't the first (potential) bigamist I've come across....my direct ancestor's brother left his wife & kids in the workhouse while he went off to America where he married another woman, had another family, and lived for 30 years before returning to his wife in England. Coincidentally, his first wife also run a pub in Deal, Kent!

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
Select a file: