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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Davedrave on Sunday 02 December 18 18:54 GMT (UK)
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Having been driven half crazy over the years trying to get to the bottom of the marriage of Richard Heath of Clifton Campville, Staffs. and Ann Lea “of this parish”, I seem at last to have found the truth. The puzzling thing was that she seemed to be considerably older than him, as far as I could see.
I have now tracked down the marriage allegation, thanks to the wonders of the internet. He was 22. She was “31 or thereabouts”. Keep this to yourselves, but she was baptised in Shenton, Leics. in 1682. What a useful word “thereabouts” can be ;D
Perhaps not surprisingly, she seems to have had no offspring. This was a pretty odd family: her brother Francis, baptised 1685/6, was a batchelor ‘til the age of about 58, when he clearly went mad, married, and fathered 6 children, the last not long before he died in 1759.
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Can you give us the year of the marriage Dave, then we can work out how near '31 or thereabouts' she was? :) (bit difficult to work our from what you have posted).
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::) Definitely a 'record breaker' & wishing I could have a 'record breaker' in my tree as there's nothing else getting overwhelmingly excited about so far! ;D
Add...At least 'thereabouts' is kind of unique from the usual 'circa/ca/abt' etc :D
Annie
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Can you give us the year of the marriage Dave, then we can work out how near '31 or thereabouts' she was? :) (bit difficult to work our from what you have posted).
Sorry, too much wine at lunchtime! It was in Lichfield Cathedral in 1724 :)
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Gosh! I make it she was nearly 41 years old then instead of 31!
Some 'thereabouts' as you say! :)
I wonder if poor hubby wondered why they never had any children?
Was he a man of means?
What do they call that these days? - an older woman and a younger man?
The term 'cougar' comes to mind! ;)
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Perhaps Ann Lea had a lovely fat dowery? And the young man was after it.
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Perhaps Ann Lea had a lovely fat dowery? And the young man was after it.
They were both of the yeoman class and Ann’s younger brother Francis got most of the property. Ann actually outlived Richard by four years. Maybe she was just very well-preserved for her age ;D
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Maybe she was just very well-preserved for her age ;D
;D ;D
We should all be so lucky! ;)
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"31 or thereabouts" is an ideal age for a woman - mature but not middle-aged. I was "thereabouts" for several years.
A father and son in one of my lines each married in mid 20s to spouses a decade older. One was a widow. Both wives outlived their husbands.
As Ann's brother was aged around 40 and unmarried at the time of her marriage perhaps Richard had hopes of his potential children inheriting.
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"31 or thereabouts" is an ideal age for a woman - mature but not middle-aged. I was "thereabouts" for several years.
A father and son in one of my lines each married in mid 20s to spouses a decade older. One was a widow. Both wives outlived their husbands.
As Ann's brother was aged around 40 and unmarried at the time of her marriage perhaps Richard had hopes of his potential children inheriting.
I’m still waiting to become “middle aged” though I’ll start getting my state pension in a couple of years or so ;D. Interesting point about her unmarried brother. If that was Richard’ plan, it certainly backfired. Ann gave her deceased husband’s estate to her nephews and nieces, though the children of the elderly brother got very little, presumably because he had been the eldest son of Ann’s father and had therefore inherited most of that estate. (I think there is probably some sort of kinship link between Ann and her husband's family, though I can’t quite nail it).