What happened to my 2x Great grandmother after 4 marriages and bigamy acquittal?

[avm228]

Either way, since she was acquitted and since husbands 2 and 3 were dead, her marriage to Robert Eagleton was presumably lawful it being 20 years since John Tann had left her. (Marriage 2 was at least 9 years after he'd left. )[/size][/size]

If John Tann was still living and there had been no divorce, the marriage to Robert Eagleton was void for bigamy.  The fact that 7 years' absence provided a defendant spouse with a defence to the criminal charge did not affect the civil status of the purported (re-)marriage.

[Milliepede]

I wonder would it be worth looking for a newspaper report of her bigamy trial? 

It was pretty close to when she possibly died so am wondering if the two are connected 
She may have been distressed by it and left the area altogether wish we knew her fate.

[Duodecem]

Sorry I'm don't quite understand this. Does that mean that she was not guilty of the criminal charge of bigamy but the marriage to Robert Eagleton was invalid, despite her husband having deserted her 20 years previously and having bigamously remarried? I don't suppose she had divorced, I don't know if that would have been possible if John Tann was not around to contest it.
It's possible then that she didn't die in 1890, though I haven't found a record of her in the 91 and 01 census.

[Duodecem]

Sorry Millipede your reply must have come in when I was sending the above.
I suspect Hannah was pretty resilient -she survived the death of 3 sons, assault and desertion by one husband and the death of 2 others, but perhaps the court case and possible annulment of her 4th marriage were the last straw.
Her mother died a pauper in 1856 and her eldest brother and his wife were paupers in Costessey in the 1891 census. I presume  that was the fate Hannah was trying to avoid.
Maybe she did move away, though I'm not sure where she would have gone and what she would have done, 66 was a bit old to start afresh, even if you do lie about your age! I'll investigate the Hannah Howes in Smallburgh.

[Milliepede]

On the face of it then all her subsequent marriages were bigamous if her first husband didn't die till after she married husband number 4.  Works both ways I would have thought whichever spouse married again whilst the other was still alive.

I think it might help to read a newspaper report for her case (if there was one)  Might give a tiny clue of some kind you never know 

[Milliepede]

There's a probate for Hannah Howes North Walsham spinster died 15 April 1890 which is right district for Smallburgh.
However think she is with sister and previously parents unmarried so probably not her either.

There's an Anne Maria Howes widow died 8 Nov 1891 so should be on 1891 somewhere to rule out.
Yep found her widowed with two children so rule her out.

[Duodecem]

Well that's another one eliminated, thank you Millipede.I  haven't seen a newspaper report  of Hannah's trial. I wonder if they would report a not guilty verdict? Ancestry only has a record of the charge and verdict, nothing about who brought the prosecution.
Did I understand avm228 correctly that all her marriages apart from the first were illegal? I was under the impression that after 7 years desertion she would have been free to remarry.
John Tann served his 5 months for bigamy and in 1881 was living with his "wife" Lucy and the 3 children of the bigamous marriage. (I can't find him in 71 although his 2nd wife is in Huntingdon with her children, using her previous name).
While I think Hannah was possibly overdoing it a bit with 3 further marriages it seems a bit harsh if a woman who had been deserted was not free to remarry without evidence of the death of the first husband. Presumably he could disappear and she would have no way of finding out if he was alive or dead.

[avm228]

Did I understand avm228 correctly that all her marriages apart from the first were illegal? I was under the impression that after 7 years desertion she would have been free to remarry.

While I think Hannah was possibly overdoing it a bit with 3 further marriages it seems a bit harsh if a woman who had been deserted was not free to remarry without evidence of the death of the first husband. Presumably he could disappear and she would have no way of finding out if he was alive or dead.

As I mentioned before, she was not free to remarry if she was already married. A remarriage whilst a lawful spouse was still living was void for bigamy.

However, as you say, it would be harsh for a person to suffer a criminal penalty for bigamy if a long time had elapsed without news of the estranged spouse.  For this reason English law developed a statutory defence to a criminal charge of bigamy based on lapse of time (7 years of continual absence without knowledge that the person was living in that time).

[Duodecem]

Thank you -I'd completely misunderstood and thought that a person was free to remarry after 7 years, the presumption being that the missing person was dead. By 1889 (the date of the bigamy trial) John Tann had been absent for at least 24 years. Was there ever a presumption of death after such a long absence?