Joseph Lawton Irregular Marriage? in Edinburgh in 1923

[isobelw]

The Edinburgh Evening News for 28th June 1923 has a bit about this case. Joseph is described as a Commercial Traveller of 29a Howe Street, Edinburgh. Eliza had been married first at 19 but her husband died when she was 22. She became a trained nurse. She was an Englishwoman but came to Scotland in 1919 and met Joseph in a boarding house in Glasgow. He proposed marriage in Nov 1921. He was a Roman Catholic so she joined the RC church. At the beginning of 1922 she came to Edinburgh and took  rooms in East London Street and on 11th May 1922 they went to the office of a marriage agent and in the presence of two witnesses took one another as husband and wife and signed a declaration. The defender (Joseph) gave her a wedding ring. They did not go before a sheriff but she was known as Mrs Lawton. At first Joseph treated her well-but afterward a change came over his attitude and witness felt the strain of neglect. Last occasion they lived together was Sept 1922.
Marriage was not contested by defendant Joseph who was appearing in connection with ailment. Lord Morrison granted decree of declarator of marriage and granted ailment of 30s per week.
Basically Joseph and Eliza only seem to have been together for a short time and she was in court to have her irregular marriage recognised so she could claim aliment. The marriage between Joseph and
Eliza would appear to predate the one to Agnes?
My guess is that the same Joseph married both women and that one of the marriages is therefore bigamous.
Isobel

[Forfarian]

The normal procedure for an irregular marriage was for the couple to declare themselves married before witnesses, which was a legal marriage (assuming neither of the parties was already married, of course). In order to have the marriage formally registered you then had to go to the sheriff with the witnesses' evidence. If the Sheriff was satisfied you then got a warrant which you took to the Registrar, who then entered the marriage in the statutory register.

If Joseph and Eliza had not gone before the Sheriff, the marriage would not have been registered, so you're right, she would have had to go to court to have the marriage recognised so that she could claim aliment (not ailment! ) from Joseph through the legal system.

[vicky19]

Ah, that's great Emma, I was wondering where to look for a list of divorces to eliminate that query. No the 1932 birth certificate just gives parents names sadly no mention of marriage date.

Thanks Isobelw that's amazing information, the Joseph I was looking for was definitely catholic so it could very well be as you said it was bigamous. Was ailment like we would say maintenance or the Americans would say alimony?

Vicky

[isobelw]

Yes aliment is the same as alimony. Ailment is what my predictive text has!!
Isobel

[Forfarian]

Yes aliment is the same as alimony. Ailment is what my predictive text has!!

[vicky19]

So it basically looks like Joseph was a bit of a naughty boy. He must have gone back to Eliza once Agnes left him as his death ref stated Eliza as his wife. He was very busy man, he took Eliza as wife on 22 may 1922, but didnt register it with the sheriff, left her on 22 sept 1922.....and went straight to Agnes.... marrying her on 29 sept 1922 which was registered on 2 oct 1922.  I wonder if 'strain of neglect' in the newspaper article meant he was not at home...cos he was living with Agnes?

[vicky19]

Also interesting that Joseph and Eliza met in Glasgow but married in Edinburgh, and also Agnes was living in Glasgow as she had a son born in 1918 who was believed to be at school in Glasgow...but Joseph and Agnes also got married in Edinburgh.......

[RJ_Paton]

It looks very much like Joseph kept quiet about the marriage to Agnes as with the Court deciding that the marriage to Eliza was "Extant" ie valid and surviving this would have made his marriage to Agnes bigamous (although lawyers would have been rubbing their hands with the tricky legalities of this one)
The Scotsman Newspaper archives don't give much information although they do list Edinburgh addresses for both Joseph and Eliza and confirm Joseph as a Commercial Traveller.

[ScottishAncestry]

Hi Vicky,

I was in the NRS yesterday and I was able to look at the court records for you. They certainly add some detail. Contained within the records are some personal details which I feel it would best to share offline. I was able to take some digital images of these records for you and can email them to you. If you would like to send a PM with your email address I will send them on for you to look over.

Emma