1851/61/71 - Smith - Towcester

[Tati]

Was Mr. West married in 1841? 

[wamwig]

Tanja

Yes he was, he was married to a Maria Ann born 1814 in Birmingham, in the 1851 census she was back living in Birmingham. They appear to have had just one child William John West, born 1843 and a scholar living with his father in Towcester in 1851. It looks like John West died in 1854, the son went on to be a brewers manager in Northampton.

Regards

Anthony

[Tati]

And the boy was however registered as West, right?

What a tricky case!!

[wamwig]

Tanja

He was registered as Samuel John, with fathers name as John West, a draper, so yes I suppose he was. perhaps Maria found out and that was why she was back in Birmingham in 1851? Well I guess we will never know that, unless there are any descendants of Maria Ann out there................ Now that would be good luck, and pushing it just a bit, at the moment I'm just pleased to get this far as I've also now traced the wests back a couple more generations in Gayton.

Anthony 

[wamwig]

Tanja (and anyone else following this)

Slight correction to information from Friday. John West did marry Maria Ann, but it appears not until after 1841, so he was single then and she was still in Towcester in 1851. However everything else appears to be correct. Still got to look for his first marriage though, spent the weekend doing other things, like trying to write all this up into something coherent!   

Anthony

[smitz28]

Hi Anthony.

I've just stumbled across this thread because a few of the names are in common with what I'm looking for.

From the quick census research we've done so far, I've found Samuel J W Smith married to Kate M Dunham (or Marriott?) with Frank Marriott Smith born in Braintree 1885. Also listed as children are May, Eleanor, Lilian, Kate, Harry and Leonard. Both Frank and Samuel (if this is all correct) would be direct ancestors on my dad's line of the family, Frank being my gt gt grandfather.

Did you ever confirm how many marriages and who he married? We're struggling to get past Sam's father John (married to Mary).

Hope you can help.

[Poppet]

Samuel John West Smith married Emma Halton nee Tooms 22 Jan 1877 at Northampton Reg office. She had been living with him since at least 1866 and had her first child by him in that year. I don't know when her first husband died exactly. She had two sons by Edward Halton who had both died by 1863. It's only speculation that it was around then that the marriage failed and she took up with SJWS. She had six children with Samuel and then he left her sometime after the 1881 census and if he did marry again it was bigamously. He died in 1887 reg in Peterborough district.

They were living together in the 1871 census but there is a gap in the children's births from 1867 to 1877. Of course there could have been more who died between that time.

[wamwig]

Almost Right Poppet the one that died in Peterborough in 1887 is a different man, our Samuel John West Smith (or John Smith/Samuel Smith depending on how he felt it seems) died in Hertford in 1905 and it seems he never married Kate Marriot, at least I have never found a marriage certificate or record.