And I again, was reading through these pages - have not been able to come back to this for a few days - too much going on with the farm. But - here I am.....
So Elizabeth Ives - She does have a daughter Maria and they did have banns read for three weeks in church prior to the marriage but the priest that married them says in court at the bigamy case, that JBL married her and the next day left - I think to join his regiment and that he had never been back which I am thinking.... was the child his in the first place? And then her second child, Charles, who she names in church documents as being the child of JBL, a soldier. Charles is born I think about 4 years after the marriage and if James had never been back..... I suspect he is not the father.
Its all so intriguing. With wife no. 3 - she called herself his wife in census docs and takes his surname etc etc, they had three children - two girls and a boy. The first girl is born in Ireland in Cahir where Caroline has followed him as he is stationed there permanently.
The third child, Tweed, is born only two years before James dies. In the 1871 census James is working at The Kennels for the Heythrop Hunt and Caroline is in a cottage up the road when the census is taken.
They're both buried in Chipping Norton. James at St Mary's and Caroline at the 'new' cemetery. Neither have gravestones.
Wish I could have known them - I bet they had a story or two to tell!
