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I've done a freeze frame on the pooter and this is all the information on the children's birth certificates that I can see  - Sarah Frances d/o Alfred Robinson and Alice Adeline Brown born 3 August 1885 at  Grove Cottage, Grove Road Wallasey  he is a watchmaker (master) and his address is 62 Falkner Road Liverpool. I can just make out the words Alice A under his address and assume it's her separate address but I can't read it.

The second daughter Alice Adeline was born 6 Ivy Street, mother Alice Adeline Brown formerly Savage (deceased) no father's name given and nothing in the address box.

The 1891 census has Alfred Robinson, 44, his wife Ann 39  and daughters Sarah F 5 and Alice 3, all born in Liverpool living at 62 Falkner Street Liverpool.

Carole

Interesting news from Australia that an unsent text message in the draft folder of a man's phone has been accepted as his legal will http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-41580970.

I suppose that if it was written before death it would be accepted as his intended will. I also suppose it's just a modern variation on the 'appeared personally' bits you see sometimes when reading through probate records when someone who knows the testator swears that an unsigned/non-witnessed/undated will is true.

Carole

Well Frances was living in St Neots when her sister Henrietta died in 1805 as Henrietta mentioned in her will - I don't know that she ever lived with her niece Sarah. Frances left her estate 1/6th each to her nephews William Wiles, Thurloe Brace and George Page and the remainder was to be invested and the dividends and interests to be paid to her niece Sarah, by then the widow of George Atkinson, and her children.

I hadn't thought of Sarah perhaps being John Smith's child but being passed off as the child of Frances' sister, although there's no real logic there - why would he have gone through this strange "marriage" if he wasn't going to acknowledge his own child, or make provision for her in his will?

I'm not quite sure what happened to John Smith's estate - although granted probate his nephew Thomas Cave (d. 1819 unmarried) and niece Frances Hampson (d. 1811 wife of Leonard Hampson of Luton, banker) never administered the estate as there is a tiny note in the margin of the copy which reads (as far as I can make out):

On the 26th day of December 1829 admons of the Goods Chattels and credits of the Reverend John Smith late of Mattishall in the Counry of Norfolk Clerk deceased left unadmd by Frances Hampson (wife of Leonard Hampson Esquire) the Niece and the Revd Thomas Cave Clerk the nephew both since decd while living the residual legatees named in the --- deceased’s Will was granted to Joseph Resticaux the younger of the City of Norwich Gentleman as a Person for that purpose named by and on the part and behalf of Richard Wilby of the Hamlet of Thorpe next Norwich in the County of the city of Norwich Gentleman --- so far only as concerns all the eight title and interest of him the said deceased in and to certain Heredits and Prems situate in Mattishall in the county of Norfolk or so much and in such part thereof as are Freehold or Copyhold with the allotments there made under & by virtue of any acts of parliament with the appurts and the residue and remainder of a certain Term of 500 yrs therein granted & assigned to him the said Decd by a certain Indenture 0f assignment of 4 parts bearing date the 11th day of Octr 1782 and now to come and expired and all benefit and advantage to be had --- and taken here--  but no --- or otherwise having been first sworn by common duly to adms - Frances Smith Widow the Relict and sole Exec named in the said will herefore renounced the probate & execution of the said Will.


Carole

It just doesn't seem to fit what I know. She appears to have spent her life  to all appearances as a single person while he appeared to the world to be single, but his will revealed that he firmly believed he was married and had been making payments to his wife. I know dodgy clergymen, usually those in debt, would perform dodgy marriages (Fleet marriages etc) but he believed his to perfectly legal. He really did want to marry the widow Elizabeth Davie but it appears that his conscience wouldn't let him.

Carole

When is a marriage not a marriage? Has anyone got any ideas about something that has been baffling me for several years now - sorry if it’s a bit longwinded - I made it as short as I could!

The Rev John Smith was b.c. 1735 and studied at Caius College Cambridge and got his BA in 1756 and MA in 1759. He  was Greek and Hebrew lecturer at the college until 1780 when he took the living of Bratton Fleming in Devon, exchanging it the next year for Mattishall in Norfolk where he became a neighbour and acquaintance of James Woodforde and appears regularly in his Diary of a Country Parson. Smith was apparently a bachelor and there is never any mention of a wife. In 1784 he made an offer to marry a widow Elizabeth Davie “after his mother’s decease” (she died in 1786)
but withdrew the offer the next year, blaming her for going off with someone else (Elizabeth never re-married).

In his will PCC PROB 11/1399/166 dated 15 April 1795 (he died in 1803) he left his wife Frances, formerly Brace, a life interest in his Mattishall property, £500 and most of his household effects. Other beneficiaries were his niece Frances, the wife of Leonard Hampson of Luton and nephew the Rev Thomas Cave of Bedford. A lot of the will is about the legality of  his marriage:

“The said Frances Hampson and the said Thomas Cave or either of them who shall so dispute and call into question the legality of my marriage with my said wife Frances Smith or shall prosecute or commence any such Suit at Law or in Equity shall forfeit and absolutely lose and be deprived of the rest residue and remainder of all my Estates and Effects  .... and finally to remove all doubts and suspicions that may be entertained by the said Frances Hampson and the said Thomas Cave or either of them respecting the certainty and legality of my aforesaid marriage I refer them to my Books of Accounts to my said wife Frances Smith and to such living witnesses as she may be able to produce after the time of my decease from anyone of which they may receive such evidence or so ought to prove perfectly satisfactory and restrain them from making any attempts to controvert my assertions or to set aside any part of this my will.”

If either started a lawsuit their inheritance was to go to “Sarah the daughter of the late William Wills of St Neots in Huntingdon and Harriot his wife”

Frances was made sole executrix but renounced execution of the will which was done by Frances Hampson and Thomas Cave.

I am pretty sure I have the right Frances Brace - she was born in Tempsford Beds in 1746 and one of her sisters, Henrietta, married William Wiles an Innkeeper in St Neots and their eldest child was called Sarah - not quite, but near enough to the people mentioned in Smith’s will. Frances Brace lived with them, died in 1813 and was buried in Tempsford. She made an Archdeaconry of Huntingdon will in which she called herself spinster and made no mention of  either John Smith or Mattishall.

I can’t find a marriage - surely - especially as he was a clergyman Smith would have known that a legal marriage would have to be performed in church and easy enough to confirm by the register? I’m guessing the marriage took place while he was at Cambridge at a time when married Fellows were forbidden to live in College as he did, but what other form of marriage could that be? A marriage that he considered to be perfectly legally binding but one that it appears she did not?

Carole