Stuck in Islington

[PaulWBetts]

Hello All,

My g-g-grandmother Hester Nash committed suicide on the eve of what have been the 13th anniversary of her third marriage. She jumped into the Menai Strait where her husband had been bridge-keeper until his passing a few months earlier. The local paper said: "An inquest was held on Monday by R. Jones Roberts, the coroner for Anglesey, when the jury found that the deceased committed suicide whilst temporary insane."

Her son by her first marriage (my-g-grandfather Charles) was sent to Barnardo's in Stepney in 1879 after his father died. In 1881 he was sent to Canada as what is known here as a British Home Child. Shortly After Charles was sent to Canada, Hester remarried to a Percy George Brooks in Islington. The marriage certificate says Percy is 40 years old and that his father's name is David. Their address is given as the same as Hester's in the 1881 census (but not Percy, whom I cannot find in that census)... which brings me to my brick wall

Hester marries again 4 years later in Bangor, Wales to the bridge-keeper, William Knight. She is using her Betts name for the marriage. I can find no record of a Percy George Brooks of the right age and parentage anywhere... not in censuses before or after, not in death indices, not in court documents, not in ANYTHING. My only assumption is that he was using an assumed name and that he was perhaps a bigamist, and that she somehow escaped/left him. I am trying to fill in this 4-year gap in Hester's difficult journey and am wondering if anyone has any idea how I could proceed. Could she have had the marriage annulled? If so how could I find the record of it? Any suggestions would be gratefully accepted!

[wimsey]

two newspapers of August 1884 have articles about this case of bigamy. The North Wilts (Wiltshire) Herald of 22 August and Islington Gazette 20 August. (the articles are pretty much identical)

His real name was Henry George Brooks and he married Ellen Callister in Shoreditch in February 1863 and was still married to her when he married Esther Betts in 1881. His first wife and left him and Henry had been advised (by a newspaper) that no charge would be brought if he remarried. The article ends by saying Henry was committed to trial for bigamy.

Whether I can find a follow up article - I'll try my best.


edit - have found the 1863 marriage where he is called DAVID George Brooks, marrying Ellen Laura Callister

[wimsey]

now finding other newspapers of August 1884 calling him David George Brooks, 46, painter, of Barrett's Grove, Stoke Newington.

perhaps the David George Brooks who died Holborn 1904 aged 67.

[Megan Roberts]

If Percy Brooks married Hester bigamously, there was never a marriage in the first place that need to be dissolved annulled or anything else.

Although the records of it may exist - it was never valid and therefore she did not need to do anything.

[wimsey]

Old Bailey trial September 1884. David George Brooks for bigamy. Not guilty.

born David George Brooks, Islington, June 1837 to David & Matilda.

[PaulWBetts]

AS if Hester hadn't been through enough... and the worst was yet to come!

[PaulWBetts]

This is great... can I get copies of the articles? Thank you so much!

[wimsey]

this is the Old Bailey

https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/brow...=t18840915-897

to get the articles I guess you'd have to take out a subscription to the British Newspaper Archive (BNA)

[PaulWBetts]

Again thanks... Ancestry doesn't have access to everything, so it is extremely helpful to become aware of new resources. I hate to subscribe to an Archive for just these couple of things, but I'll look into it!

[wimsey]

Ancestry has the scanned image of David's 1863 marriage to Ellen Callister.

The newspapers may have got it wrong calling him HENRY George Brooks since they also say Esther Betts instead of Hester.