The mother of all brick walls!

[toni*]

The 1871 census is interesting.  Margaret has left her parent's pub, the Duke of Ormond, in Princes St. Westminster and appears in the census living alone on census night in a boarding house at 10 Gloucester St., Finsbury.  Intriguingly, she records herself as Margaret Butler, married. It's hugely circumstantial, I know, but why would she record her name as Butler and her marital status as married if she had recently started living in sin with her boyfriend in an area where they were not known, and where I suspect many such examples existed.  This makes me think that they really were married, but where is the certificate?  Margaret was almost certainly Catholic, Henry almost certainly not - I don't know if this would be significant.

I geuss Maragret was already with child and being catholic and unmarried would not look good so even if she was not married to Henry she could have just said she was.

[Timbottawa]

Thanks Toni,

Their first son, Henry Thomas Butler, was born on 25 Sept. 1871, so on census night she would have been about 3 months pregnant - not really obviously pregnant.  But yes, I't possible she was simply embarrassed and covering up!

Tim

[Koromo]

Hi

Have you searched the 19th Century British Newspapers (under the Gale Group's free trial) for any clues, in particular The Era which catered for the theatrical crowd?

A sister of my gr-grandfather was an actress and I'd had great difficulty finding out what happened to her from the 1880s onwards. In The Era I found 20 years' worth of adverts, reviews, personal notices, etc. for her and her actor husband as they continually traversed the country appearing in plays and music hall dramas from Aberdeen to Dublin to the south of England. She was using her maiden name as her stage name; he always used his stage name (they both are on the 1901 census under his stage name.) For all that, I've still to find their deaths under any name!

There's a thread about the Gale Group free trial here:
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,316248.0.html
My free trial has finished, but you may be able to sign up for two weeks.

Good luck!
Koromo

[toni*]

the Rainbow Theatre in Leicester, i think have records at the relevant RO
do you think he preformed there?

[Timbottawa]

Great Koromo ... thanks for this lead.  I had searched in various places, but with little success.  Margart apparently went under the stage name of Margaret Tremayne, or possibly Tremain, and was supoosedly an accomplished singer - some family stories even record her as an opera singer who appeared for the D'Oyley Carte (but I checked their web-site, with no record of her, so it's probably a myth).

Henry apparently used to describe himself as "the Original Silver King", apparently in reference to Herny James' well-known play "The Silver King".  But the first performance of the play in 1882 featured the famous Wilson Barrett in the title role, so I'm not sure what he was on about!

Cheers
Tim

[Timbottawa]

Thanks Toni ... Leicester is actualy one part of the country where I have no record of them having spent any time!  Tim

[Koromo]

Henry apparently used to describe himself as "the Original Silver King", apparently in reference to Herny James' well-known play "The Silver King".  But the first performance of the play in 1882 featured the famous Wilson Barrett in the title role, so I'm not sure what he was on about!

Probably meant he was the Original Silver King for the particular theatrical company he was with at the time!   

My one was supposedly known as "the Welsh Nightingale" according to family notes, but she is never called that in the couple of hundred references to her which I found in The Era. 

Cheers
K.

[toni*]

Thanks Toni ... Leicester is actualy one part of the country where I have no record of them having spent any time!  Tim

typical!
 

[Timbottawa]

Hi Koromo,

I got into the Gale database after experiencing some of the problems encountered by others, and it has proven useful!  I've established that Margaret Butler's stage name was Bella Tremaine - similar, but not identical to what I had previously understood.

But on Henry the confusion only grows - in some advertisements where her appears alongside Bella, he is descibed as "W.H. Butler"!!  At least it seems he did not use a stage name ... or was Butler his stage name?

Cheers
Tim