Hi there,
Just a thought ... remember Jane Spencer's reference to Mrs Ransom, in the Sydney Gaz of Thursday 25 August 1825. Jane's advertisement includes the following .... I was advised by my mistress, Mrs Ransom ...."
I have at hand a 1911 Concise Oxford Dictionary, so I looked up 'mistress' (yes, I have books printed earlier than that) .... there's 7 meanings listed there in that edition. And I have understood that this dictionary was organised so that the most usual meaning was listed first, and the least usual was listed last ...
mistress n
1. Woman in authority over servants; female head of household
no mention of any sexual relationship between unmarried couples until meaning no. 4.
7. (As title) see MRS. (so I did !)
MRS. n Title prefixed to surname of married woman who has no superior title; Abbr of MISTRESS ...
My point being that "Mrs. Ransom" is the name that others used when referring to Catharine, but so far, after all the many pages of these threads, there's no sighting of either Thomas or Catharine actually referring to Catharine as Mrs Ransom. In 1828 attestment papers for the 1826 incident,Catharine used the surname McNally (see first thread) .... When in 1820, Thomas born Nov 1820 was baptised in Dec 1820, Catharine used the surname McNally .... And in the 1829 will, Thomas simply chose not to explain the relationship at all , but he called her McNally ....
Does it not thus follow that there was NO common law wife/husband relationship ... It is entirely possible that she was employed by him as the Woman in authority over the servants.
I would be interested to read a transcript of the entire letter that Thomas Ransom wrote to Gov Arthur about the issues affecting his publican's licence in 1825 .... particularly in comparing the various rules / regulations as administered by the various "regimes" in VDL and in respect of the various changes to those regulations. The impediment was not causing the issue for his licence under previous annual reviews .. The impediment occured the same year that Thomas was transferred to VDL ....
Wiggy, what's the information on the certificates and etc that you have at hand and have been juggling specifically for the year 1814 .... perhaps the key to your puzzle is found within those certificates ...
Wiggy, so your edit to the post about Rosetta .... does that mean you already have a copy of the TAO file on that birth, and also that you are dismissing ALL of the references to your very own Catharine from the Cash story ... see your point 8 on your summary on this very thread ... Ummmmmm
Must go,
Cheers, JM