Abberline's First Marriage

[Simon Wood]

Hi Debra,

Nice find. Thank you very much.

Regards,

Simon

[Debra A]

There is another Martha Mackness on the 1861 born in Oundle/Elton c 1847, maybe this is her.

1861
MACKNESS, Tobias Head Married M 43 Agricultural Labourer
Welton
Northamptonshire VIEW
MACKNESS, Frances Wife Married F 40
Bourne
Lincolnshire VIEW
MACKNESS, John Son Unmarried M 17 Agricultural Labourer
Elton
Huntingdonshire VIEW
MACKNESS, Rebecca Daughter Unmarried F 15
Elton
Huntingdonshire VIEW
MACKNESS, Martha Daughter F 13 Scholar
Elton
Huntingdonshire VIEW
MACKNESS, William Son M 9 Scholar
Elton
Huntingdonshire VIEW
MACKNESS, Thomas Son M 0 (1M)

Duck Street Elton
RG number:
RG09 Piece:
963 Folio:
175 Page:
24

Registration District:
Oundle Sub District:
3 Fotheringhay EnumerationDistrict:
14 Ecclesiastical Parish:
Ely

[Simon Wood]

Hi Limehouse,

As a matter of interest, which source gave Martha's place of death as Elton.

Regards,

Simon

[aspallek]

Frederick Abberline was from Blandford Forum in Dorset. Had his first wife been from that area, I suspect she would have been sent home for fresh country and sea air both of which were thought to have curative powers. Since she was sent elsewhere, I suspect she was not from Dorset.

I believe the Inspector's second wife was from Dorset.

[Limehouse]

Hi Simon,

According the source I have read, Martha died in Elton which was (and still is) a beautiful village just outside Peterborough (now Cambridgeshire, but then Northamptonshire). It is likely her death was registered in Oundle, the nearest registration district at the time.

I think the most likely explanation is that Martha was sent to Elton because she was suffereing from tuberculosis. This would have been to provide her with fresh country air, away from the city. It is possible she had relatives there but I think that she was most probably from London (where she and Abberline married) or perhaps from Abberline's home town.

I think you need to be looking for her birthplace away from Oundle and the surrounding area. If you could trace their marriage certificate, it would record where each of them was living at the time of the marriage and it would also record the name and occupation of each of their fathers.

I would like to bet Martha was not local to Elton or to Oundle as it would be extremely unlikely that she would meet and marry a man from London.

Good luck.

Limehouse

[Simon Wood]

Hi All,

Following on from my earlier post—

Before the Age of Marriage Act (1929) a lawful marriage could be contracted by girls aged 12 and over. It was the 1929 Act which made 16 years the minimum age at which males and females could marry.

Regards,

Simon

[Simon Wood]

Hi All,

First off, my apologies for losing track of who first posted this information, but my thanks to whomever it was. It's an intriguing subject, to which I have added some further information.

Abberline's marriage to Martha Mackness
Quarter 1 1868
Islington
Vol 1b Page 244

Martha's death registered as follows:
Quarter 2—June 1868
Oundle—[Northamptonshire, south-west of Peterborough]
Martha Abbeline (sic) aged 25
Vol 3b Page 123

This would suggest that Martha was born in 1843. There is no birth of a Martha Mackness registered in that year. However, there is a birth registered in Oundle as follows:

Quarter 4—December 1847
Martha Mackness
Oundle
Vol 15 Page 272

If this is the Martha who married Abberline, she was 21 at the time of her death, not 25.

This Martha Mackness is listed in 1861 as follows:
Exeter Arms, Middleton, Northamptonshire
Head: Joseph Stafford aged 46 born Ashley - Wheelwright and Publican
Wife: Ann Stafford aged 49 born Middleton
Daughters in law:
Martha Mackness aged 15
Jane Mackness aged 13
Sons:
John Stafford aged 9
Thomas Stafford aged 5

(I would suggest that "daughters in law" is, because of the girls' ages, unfeasible. The most likely explanantion is that this should read "Step daughters" i.e. they were the daughters of Ann Stafford by a previous marriage).

In 1851 the two girls, Martha and Jane, are again listed as "daughters in law" to the same couple.

In 1871, Jane Mackness is listed in service at Market Harborough, Leicestershire.

Martha is listed in the household of Joseph Stafford under the name of Martha Sarrington with her husband, Samuel, which obviously excludes her from being Abberline's Martha.

But it does seem odd that this Martha was born at Oundle and Martha Abberline's death was registered in the same place.

I have added the following information—

Samuel Sarrington married Martha Mackness at Aston (Warwickshire) in March 1871, three years after Abberline's wife died. So they are definitely not the same person.

In exactly the same month and year as Martha Abberline's death, we find another death—
Quarter 2—June 1868
Wellingbro' [(Wellingborough) is about 16 miles south-west of Oundle].
Martha Mackness aged 67
Vol 3b Page 84

If the age is correct, this Martha Mackness was born in 1801, 36 years before BMD records began.

A search through the BMD between 1837 and 1855 reveals only two instances of a male Mackness marrying a woman named Martha—

June 1851—George Mackness and Martha Dixon—Huntingdon (16 miles south-east of Oundle)—Vol 14 p 255

Sep 1854—Josiah Christopher Mackness and Martha Anne Bell in Bath—Vol 5c p 1081

SUBSEQUENT BIRTHS

Sept 1853—Martha Jane Mackness born in Thrapston (6 miles south-west of Oundle)—Vol 3b p146

Sept 1855—Martha Mackness born in Huntingdon—Vol 3b p233

Presuming these children weren't born out of wedlock suggests perhaps that Martha Jane was the child of George Mackness and Martha Dixon, and Martha the child of Josiah Christopher Mackness and Martha Ann Bell. The same presumption rules out Martha Sarrington (b.1847) being the child of these parents.

If either of these children were Abberline's first wife, then the Martha Mackness born in 1801 gave birth late in life (aged either 52 or 54). And it also means that when at the age of 25 Abberline married Martha Mackness in 1868 she was either 15 or 13 years of age.

Interesting, too, that mother and daughter may have died within days of one another.

It's all very perplexing. I don't know what the legal age of marriage was in 1868, so it would be appreciated if someone could throw some more light on this subject.

Regards,

Simon