Thomas Henry Dranfield, Rebecca Rhodes and Ann Powell

[Neale1961]

I've just looked at the law as it was then (MAtrimonial Causes ACt 1857. Even if the marriage wasn't consumated they would have had to petition the court to grant a decree of nullity.

However, only the very wealthy could afford to go to court for a divorce.

[Bilham]

Further information found. I have located a spreadsheet of all the burials at Kirkheaton Parish Church (I've already searched the Dewsbury burials and found nothing). Again, no record of a burial of Rebecca Rhodes or Rebecca Dransfield but the spreadsheet indicates that a number of pages of the parish records are illegible - it doesn't mention which years so I am trying to contact the owner to see if he knows.
However, what I did find was the birth of a child - Wilkinson Rhodes - to a Rebecca Rhodes of Houses Hill Kirkheaton. No father was named and the birth was eight months before she married Thomas Henry Dransfield. Then in 1870 the child died of a scalded chest (Thomas Henry there at the death and reported it). Did this end the marriage as she was living with her parents in 1871 and Thomas Henry was back living with his mother and siblings.

[Neale1961]

Interesting find. Both the death and burial records make it quite clear that Thomas was not the father.
What a sad death.

[Bilham]

And finally...to cap it all off, Thomas married Ann Powell but the marriage only last 5 years before she died birthing her third child who also died. They rushed a priest to the house (Ann may already have been dead by then), they christened the child Mary Ann although a day later when Thomas and his brother went to register the birth and death of the child, they called the child Emma.
I can find the burial of Ann in the parish records for Dewsbury but can't find the burial of either an Emma or Mary Ann anywhere near the date of Ann's burial. 

[Neale1961]

I also looked for the burial of the baby Emma / Mary Ann.
 I wondered if she was buried with the mother. Seems likely.

[J.R.Ellam]

Hi

The last time I heard from Richard who did the Kirkheaton burial spreadsheet he wasn't in very good health so I don't know if he can answer any questions.
I have seen the registers for the period you are looking & they are legible.
Thomas Dransfield was sentenced a few times for debt so I would think the article mentioned is him.

[Bilham]

Thanks JR
I hope he's ok.
I was taking the illegible reference from his spreadsheet where he refers to "illegible entries here" and "pages illegible here". I've looked back at the spreadhseet (the references are down at row 26047 and onwards) but I don't know what year they refer to as the date of burial order is strange. At those rows I have a mixture of 1865 to 1883 and then late 1600s so I can't tell what dates are covered by the illegible entries. However, more to the point, if you've seen the original entries for the period we are looking at 1871 - 1874 and they are illegible with no Rebecca Dransfield (or Rebecca Rhodes) I'm back to (unfortunately) making assumptions that she died at some location during that period. Maybe she moved away due to the stigma of 1) an illegitimate child and 2) the death by scalding?