A slip of the pen, or secret revealed?

[Roy G]

I thought I had my Clifton- Sayers ancestry as good as sorted, but then a deserted wife makes a declaration that could involve a major headache and rewrite.

The birth cert of Emma Clifton (1848 Brighton) lists her parents as William Clifton and Sophia nee Sayers.
They were not actually married at the time but must have pretended to be, for they appeared as her married parents on that cert and at Emma's baptism at St Nicholas also 1849.  William and Sophia did eventually marry in Marylebone in 1850, and William was once again verified as Emma's father when Emma herself married in Portsea in November 1869. 
William & Sophia had split up by 1861, with Sophia and daughter Emma still living in Brighton, and William in London with his mistress Catherine Morrell of Rottingdean, living as the Morrells.  All that seemed fairly logical until the following emerged.
 
The certificate for Emma's marriage in Nov 1869 in Portsea was preceded by another almost identical marriage certificate issued in Islington in Sept 1869 where Emma is recorded as having married the same guy. (John Hay, Gunner Royal Marine Artillery, whose father was a farmer called Arthur) The differences however were that on the earlier certificate Emma was listed under her mother's maiden surname of Sayers, her mother Sophia Clifton nee Sayers was down as Sophia Stapleton, and her father William Clifton was now listed as John Sayers, deceased farmer.  nb (Sophia listed herself as a widow when she bigamously married Patrick Stapleton a year later)
 
I am now in a quandary. 
Was William Clifton the father of Emma as all,documents up until Sept 1869 had verified? 
Was Emma's mother Sophia nee Sayers admitting to an earlier indiscretion with a farmer, perhaps relative, called John Sayers?
Or did Sophia just put those bits into the first marriage cert amongst a few other falsehoods to hack off her ex and his mistress?
I cant see that there is any way of actually finding out!

Roy G

[josey]

What a story 

Who were the witnesses on the 2 1869 marriage certificates? Does it appear that there were 2  weddings & if so, were they both in a church?

Josey

[Roy G]

There were 2 weddings, both in the parish churches of the area. 

12 September 1869 wedding in St Pancras where Emma married as Emma Sayers daughter of deceased farmer John Sayers.
Groom was John Hay, Gunner Royal Marine Artillery, whose father was a farmer called Arthur.
Witnesses were her mother Sophia Clifton nee Sayers who falsely listed herself as Sophia Stapleton, and Patrick Stapleton, her partner (She married Patrick a year later as Sophia Clifton, but then falsely claimed to be widowed.)

22 November 1869 wedding at St James, in Milton, Portsea, where Emma married as Emma Clifton daughter of William Clifton, Stationer.
Groom was John Hay, Gunner Royal Marine Artillery, whose father was a farmer called Arthur. Residing Eastney Barracks.
Witnesses were Lucy Owen (nee Clifton her aunt) and a Thomas Egerton whose name means nothing to me.
Roy G

[Galium]

If Sophia's marriage to Patrick Stapleton was bigamous, I think we can assume that he did not know her true marital status.  There would be no point in a marriage which both partners know to be bigamous.

Perhaps if she introduced herself to him as Sophia Sayers, she might then have needed to continue with this pretence, even to the point of getting her daughter to give the wrong information at the first marriage, since Patrick was there to witness it.  If Patrick later found out about William Clifton - but Sophia claimed that he was deceased, this would explain her marrying him as Sophia Clifton.

This may account for Emma and John marrying a second time, as perhaps they  feared that the first was made invalid by the false details.

[Roy G]

I would go along with them suddenly fearing the invalidity of the first marriage due to so many proven false claims made on that document, I only hope that 'father John Sayers' was another of those falsehoods.  If you think of it, as Emma was actually born when her mother was not married, her mother's maiden name of Sayers should have been Emma's correct surname at birth.
Roy G

[avm228]

Was Sophia's father a John Sayers, farmer? If this was the name of Emma's maternal grandfather it might have been a convenient falsehood to alight upon in the strange circumstances of that first marriage ceremony.

[Roy G]

Sophia bapt 1830 was from Henfield and her father Robert (bapt Henfield 1797) was a Bargee on the canal.  Her grandfather Richard b Henfield 1767 an Ag lab.  The family connection in those times to anyone with a farming status was improbable, other than being the dalliance of a farmer's son.   I am therefore crediting her rightly or wrongly, with a vivid imagination which resulted in her telling lies, and then having to create further lies in order to get herself out of a difficult situation.  Roy G