Another Bedminster marriage

[Forfarian]

I have Joseph Leslie Fraser Duncan in my tree. He was born in Birnie, Moray, Scotland in 1821 and died in London in 1913. I have reams and reams of information about him, but I am struggling to find the first of his four marriages.

Shortly before his death he told a newspaper reporter, "I advertised for my first wife, and had 80 replies by return of post. I picked out a dozen of them and entered into correspondence with the writers, finally narrowing my correspondents down to one. Although I travelled some way to see her, we were already pledged to one another. I met her and found her to be a girl of 19, I being then a young man of 25. She was as fair as one could desire, and I had the license in my pocket. Next day we were married, and until 1 lost her, 12 years later, we lived as happily as could be." 

In another interview he said that he had run away with one lady in Somersetshire. I have dates and places for his other three marriages.

In 1851 he was living in London with his wife Lucy, aged 24, born Bradford, Wiltshire.

There is no marriage of a Joseph Duncan to a Lucy any time in the 1840s, but there is a marriage in Bedminster in the September quarter of 1847 of a Joseph Duncan to a Louisa Clisild Daniell.

In the 1841 census a Louisa Daniell, 14, is in Bradford with her parents and siblings.

a Lucy Duncan died in Stepney in the fourth quarter of 1857.

Is it possible that Louisa Clisild Daniell became Lucy Duncan?

[avm228]

Louisa could easily become Lucy, yes.

Was your Joseph a son of a Joseph?

Marriage extract here: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XTSJ-LY9

Apparently the bride and groom were both single, not widowed.

[avm228]

1841 shows a Louisa Daniell, 14, in the household of a Joseph Daniell, 55, clothier, in Bradford, Wilts.

Perhaps this is the one you already have - but you say "parents" - there is no female old enough to be her mother.  1841 of course does not tell us relationships in any event.

[Forfarian]

Louisa could easily become Lucy, yes.

Thank you.

Was your Joseph a son of a Joseph?

Yes, he was.

Marriage extract here: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XTSJ-LY9

Thank you. The ways of FamilySearch never cease to amaze me. I had tried there but nothing came up. (Why Bristol, as a matter of curiosity, if they were married in Bedminster?)

Apparently the bride and groom were both single, not widowed.

Then it all fits quite well. That's really helpful. Much appreciated.

[avm228]

(Why Bristol, as a matter of curiosity, if they were married in Bedminster?)

Not my area but I suspect Bedminster had been absorbed into Bristol by then.  Or at least it had been long absorbed before the records were organised into an LDS database!

When people claim in censuses to have been born in "Bristol" and you can't find them in Gloucs, it's always worth a search in Somerset records in case they were born south of the Avon.

[Forfarian]

Thanks. I have to confess that my knowledge of parishes in England is at best a bit hazy 

[KGarrad]

The parish of Bedminster (not to be confused with the Registration District of Bedminster) was in Somerset until 1889.

In 1889 the part of the parish of Bedminster in Bristol County Borough became part of Somerset, in 1894 the remaining part of the parish in Gloucestershire became the separate parish of Bedminster Without, so that thereafter Bedminster was wholly in Somerset. Abolished 30.9.1896 to become part of the parish of South Bristol.

[Forfarian]

Thank you. That makes it a bit clearer!