Why would a different maiden name be used?

[MrsF1619]

Evening,

This question follows on from my thread about William and Elizabeth, my Gt Grandparents, on the Brickwalls forum.

I was given a lead that suggests a name used by Elizabeth on her son's birth certificate was in fact not her maiden name, which would explain why I have not been able to trace her birth under that name.

I believe that Elizabeth and William were not married when William Jnr came along in 1893. The name she gives on William Jnr's birth certificate is 'Elizabeth Sutcliff formerly Arnold'. Sutcliff is William Snr's name so I know she took his name but I don't believe they were married. She was a school mistress before and after until the 1901 census, so I have two questions:

1). Why would she assume a maiden name that wasn't hers? I believe the name she used was the maiden name of her brother's wife.

2) We know she taught at a small church school in a village near York, how would she be able to continue to teach despite appearing to be married? I know she was using Sutcliff at the school as the archives in West Yorkshire have the school minutes and she is mentioned in them.

I'm just trying to piece together what might have happened and any lead that will assist me to confirm if she was indeed Elizabeth Southern at birth and up until 1891.

[Lesley Robertson]

Are you sure that it’s not a previous marriage?

[grisel]

I can only see snippets I'm afraid, but there are many newspaper reports in the 1900s describing the debates in town councils as to the employment or dismissal of married women teachers.

The Yorkshire Post of 14Oct 1908 states there were 102 married women employed in North Yorkshire of which 31 were head teachers and assistant teachers.

The Hull Daily Mail reported 64 married ladies teaching in Bradford in 1907.
In July 1909 Gazette for Middlesbrough had a headline "Women Win. Married Teachers in School. Dismissal Illegal." after a dismissal had been challenged in the courts.

However there were also reports of councils passing rulings that married women could not be teachers.

[MrsF1619]

Are you sure that it’s not a previous marriage?

I explored that when I first started researching, that Elizabeth had been married previously, but I can't find a marriage record that matches, either on Ancestry, FMP or on FreeBMD and Cheshire BMD.

If I work on the premise that she is Elizabeth Southern, she is single on each census up until the 1891 census from which point she disappears. I can only find Elizabeth Sutcliff from 1901 onwards. She dies in 1946.

I was just wondering really, about the possibility that she has used another maiden name to try and cover her tracks as we believe William Snr was possibly already married which means she would have had William Jnr out of wedlock.