Valentine Batten & Ann & Mary

[susanlimbrick]

Hi

I have an Ann Shuttle marrying Valentine Batten within my line, 1851 Newbury Berks. They had a son Alfred Valentine who was christened 27th October 1851 in Kintbury.
Valentine was born in East Woodhay Hants 1828, and in the 1851 census is described as a single 22 year old cattle dealer in Kintbury with his father and sister.

In 1855 Valentine is in Inkpen with his wife Mary christening Edwin. Valentine and Mary went on to have a further 6 confirmed children plus a possible 2 more before Valentine married Hannah Pounds in 1873 and had 4 more. (1 of the possibles was after the marriage to Hannah and both were found when checking the 1881 census for the known children and was found living with his mother Mary!)

According to the 1861 census for Inkpen Mary is aged 30 and was born in Vernham's Dean Hants.

Checking the IGI there were 13 Mary's christened in Vernham between 1829 - 1833 one of which was Mary Shuttle (Nov 1830), parents are listed as George and Sarah, in checking for their offspring they had a daughter Anne christened in 1826.

Does anyone have an Ann(e) Shuttle marrying Valentine Batten or possibly a Mary?

I have a feeling Valentine was a bit of a scoundrel but would love to know what he was up to!

Susan

[susanlimbrick]

Marriage between Ann and Valentine not proven, an assumption was made due to christening of Alfred their son.

Discovered a death listed in bmd for an Ann Shuttle mar q 1852 Hungerford district vol 2c pg 148.
Also mar q 1858 Hungerford vol 2c pg 172.

Susan

[susanlimbrick]

Hi

I have now found and received the marriage certificate for Valentine and Mary.

They married 19th August 1854 in the parish Church of St George Hanover Street, Middlesex (London).

Valentine is described as a widower and we believe he was married to Mary's sister Anne previously, however a cousin has discovered that marrying your dead wife's sister was illegal but is not sure when this was repealed. Can anyone shed anymore light on this?

Also we have yet to find Valentine and Anne's marriage although the information we currently have was Reading in 1851, as well as Anne's death, and Mary's death.

At the time of Valentine and Mary's marriage both were of full age, Valentine was residing in Duke Street, and Mary in Vernham's Dean where she was born, their first child was baptised in Inkpen August 1855.

Susan

[Victoria]

The law forbidding a man to marry his deceased wife's sister was repealed in 1907. However, such marriages did occur in the 19th century. I have no idea how common it was, but I have come across two cases in my research. One of these took place in a village where both families had lived for generations,
so the vicar would certainly have known what he was doing.
If a couple married far away from where they were known, it would have been easy to get away with it. I have the impression that this law was not
taken seriously by many people.