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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Cornwall => Topic started by: hatofthecat on Wednesday 10 September 14 18:57 BST (UK)
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I have a Catherine Morcumb marrying a John Warne Morcumb in St Columb registration district (1869 Q3) according to FreeBMD. John died Sept 1870 and his probate explicitly notes him as a bachelor and his closest next of kin as his brother William.
I believe Catherine was actually the widow of his older brother Joseph, who died in 1862, and that she was Catherine Spear born Little Petherick in 1817 who married him in 1839 at Padstow.
My understanding is that marrying your brother's widow was not a legal marriage until the passing of the 1907 Marriage Act. Would that explain the second marriage being not recognised in the probate ?
I haven't yet found the 1869 marriage in a church register but am working my way through the St Columb registration district. This might at least show me if she was noted as a widow.
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possible he didn't make a new will after his marriage?
And you're right about marriage to a brother's widow. Not legal at the time, but doesn't mean that it didn't happen. Probably not in their home parishes where their situation would be known. Could be a registry office marriage?
:-\
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Thanks osprey. Probate explicitly notes John as a bachelor so don't think its a lack of a (new) will. The 1869 marriage was within St Columb district so can't be far from St Merryn where both Joseph and John lived. Am just going through all the online images on Familysearch for churches in the district to see if I can find them there. If no luck I guess it would have to have been a registry office.
Have another similar case on other side of my family and all they did was head from their pit village into Newcastle to do the deed.. am calling that one the "black widow" as she got through a publican brother and 2 husbands and always kept the pub... :o
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The Probate Calendar entry records "letters of administration", not a will. That is, JW Morcumb died intestate, and his brother applied for administration of his estate.
It might be the case that William did not know about, or knew and did not approve of the marriage.
I think (but am not certain about this) that a marriage such as Catherine and John's, although it was against the law, was not void if no one challenged it before it took place.
However, if William decided that John was not legally married, and that Catherine was not entitled to inherit, she may not have felt herself to be in a strong position to contest that.
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I have ancesters who did this, the older brother passed away and his widow married his brother after a space of a few years, they were very respectable (high ranking RN) and I can't see any info in my research to suggest this was a problem. (About 1880 ish).
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marriage to a deceased wife's sister was made legal by an act of 1907, and that to deceased brother's widow only in 1921.
http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095705475
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Well I've been through every available parish image on Familysearch for the St Columb registration district and not found the 1869 marriage. Plenty of gaps though, notably Padstow and Newquay. Still also very possible it was a civil ceremony instead as osprey suggested.
I've also tracked Catherine down on each census to her death in 1905. There was only one Catherine Morcumb widow (born in Little Petherick) about anywhere in Cornwall between 1862 and then. It was difficult enough tracking just her down due to search in Ancestry not seeing similarity between Morcumb and Morecumb spellings ::) One curiosity is that on 1891 census her place of birth was given as "St Petroc Minor" an alternate name for the parish of Little Petherick, had me head scratching for a minute there :-[
I'm pretty much convinced, short of ordering up a copy of the 1869 marriage certificate (though plenty of lies on certificates), that Catherine Spear married both brothers and as Galium suggested brother William may well not have approved thus his handling the probate and John being officially noted as still a bachelor at death.
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Newquay parish was created out of St Columb Minor in 1882, so no separate records for the period you're looking at.
Any possibility they were non-conformist?
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Any possibility they were non-conformist?
All wall to wall CofE, not found any from this line outside the standard option (unlike some of my "up north" line where I've got Presbyterians marrying Catholics and having their children baptised/christened twice...)
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I'm pretty much convinced, short of ordering up a copy of the 1869 marriage certificate (though plenty of lies on certificates), that Catherine Spear married both brothers and as Galium suggested brother William may well not have approved thus his handling the probate and John being officially noted as still a bachelor at death.
The certificate may well hold the answer. It would be interesting to see who the witnesses were.
As you say, there seems to be just the one Catherine Morcumb who fits and she married with that name so presumably no cover up.
William could have just taken charge and it was an error- that's something you may never know. They could have been separated by then. Who was the informant on the death certificate?
Heywood