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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Huntingdonshire => England => Huntingdonshire Lookup Requests => Topic started by: jbml on Saturday 23 August 14 15:29 BST (UK)
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BMD has John Ekins marrying Frances Malden or Ann Harradine (Hunts, St Neots 1838 Q1 vol. 14 p.243). It is clear from the 1841, 1851, 1861 and 1881 censuses that it was Frances Malden he married, not Ann Harradine, as his wife is consistently shown as Frances.
The marriage was probably in either Grafham, Perry or Great Staughton. They subsequently lived in Perry. But I believe that the Frances Malden he married was a widow from Grafham, but originally from Dillington, whose maiden name was Hardwick. I am strengthened in this belief by the fact that in the 1881 census, John and Frances Ekins of Perry have Elizabeth Hardwick living with them, and said to be John's mother-in-law.
To make this absolutely certain, though, I need either to buy the marriage certificate, or find the parish register record of the marriage in 1838, to confirm my belief that when Frances Malden married John Ekins, she was a widow.
If anybody could look this one up for me, I should be most grateful.
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Perry wasn't a parish, just a hamlet of Grafham.
Hunts Marriage Index, which unfortunately stops in 1837, has the following marriages
1835 Grafham, William Mauldin and Frances HARDING
1835 Gt Staughton John Spavins and Fanny HARDWICK
A William Mauldin age 30 was buried in Grafham in 1837.
Which unfortunately doesn't prove that Frances Mauldin was Frances Hardwick; in fact it points to her being Elizabeth Harding, despite the 1881 census. Of course it might be that the parish register/Hunts FHS transcript is in error, but that's up to you to prove. Grafham parish register hasn't been filmed by the LDS nor is a transcript available from Hunts FHS so you either need to go to Huntingdon Archives or use their research service. Great Staughton has been filmed but again no transcript is available, so you have the option as with Grafham, or order and view the microfilm at your nearest LDS Family History Centre. Probably easier to shell out £9-25 on the certificate! Not only will you find out if she was a widow, but you'll also get her father's name.
Fanny/Frances (Hardwick) Spavins shows a birth of c1816 in censuses born Gt Staughton
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Many thanks, Bedfordshire Boy.
Frances Hardwick ... Frances Harding ... could well be a mistranscription of the name. The incumbent at Grafham wasn't familiar with the family, and the family were illiterate ... so it was up to him to write what he heard.
If Hardwick was pronounced with a silent W (like Flitwick) then Hardwick and Harding would sound very similar.
I think you're right though ... I shall probably need to invest in that certificate after all. The death certificate for Elizabeth Hardwick (who died later in 1881) may also help ... my money being on the informant being "Frances Ekins, daughter, present at the death".
(There's an infant James Mauldin who was buried in Grafham in 1836, too ... and I'm assuming that he was William and Frances' son ... )
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Member submissions on the IGI, which I never trust, have two Frances Hardwick baptisms in Gt Staughton, one in 1816, the other the one that you quote in 1821.
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Thanks Beds Boy
The one I quote is definitely the correct one - I've checked the parish register at Huntingdon Record Office and her parents are my great x4 grandparents Thomas and Elizabeth Hardwick(e) so she's my great x4 aunt.
I don't normally trace what happens to the collateral lines (I've enough work to do on the direct lines); but sometimes - as here - it's necessary to do so to verify something in the main line.
The Elizabeth Hardwick in the 1881 census is definitely my great x4 grandmother. She was widowed in 1879. Everything else about her tallies. She'd spent her married life in Dillington and Staughton Highway - so why did she move out to Perry? The explanation on the census, that John Ekins was her son-in-law (and hence that Frances Ekins is her daughter) makes sense. But for Frances Ekins to be her daughter, she needs to have gone from being Frances Hardwick to being Frances Malden.
The marriage certificate will (hopefully) prove that Frances Malden was a widow in 1838 and that her father was Thomas Hardwick ... but even if it does that will still leave me having to assume that Frances Hardwick and Frances Harding were one and the same.
I feel another trip to Huntingdon coming on ...