Double marriage

[Just Gillian]

According to the Oxford University and City Herald of 9th April 1825 -

"On Monday last was married Mr Thomas Haines, coach maker, son of the late Mr Robert Haines of St Ebbe’s, in this city, to Miss Salomoni, daughter of Mr Salmoni of St Clement’s."

Marriage Register St Bride, City of London (couple's names and witnesses only) -

3rd December 1826 Thomas Haines married Elizabeth Salmoni

Elizabeth was born c1807. Thomas had died before Elizabeth's marriage to her second husband in 1836 so I have no details about him.

I think the most likely explanation for the apparent second marriage of Thomas and Elizabeth is that the notice had been sent to the Oxford paper in advance but then did not go ahead for some reason. Elizabeth would have been about 18 in 1825 but, as the marriage appeared in the paper, she would presumably have had the consent of her father, and Thomas's father was dead.

Catholic baptisms have been found for most of her siblings, both older and younger. Several of her siblings' marriages were posted in one of the Oxford newspapers, both before and after her own, and each of those named the church where the marriage took place. However, I notice no church is named in Elizabeth's announcement.

The 1753 Marriage Act would still have been in force in 1825 so I'm guessing that if Elizabeth had a clandestine Catholic marriage no notice of the event would have been published. I have found no children of the marriage and can think of no reason why the couple would need to remarry in London.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

[kiterunner]

I'm not sure what you mean by "couple's names and witnesses only" on the St Bride's marriage register, Gillian? The record also shows that they were both of the parish, bachelor and spinster, and that they married by banns. Witnesses were Richard Child and Ann Sumner(? anyway, a "serial witness".)

If Thomas was a minor at the time of the first marriage announcement, he would still have needed consent from his mother or whoever his guardian was, if his father was dead. But as you say, if the marriage was announced in the paper, they probably had the necessary consents.

Maybe one of them was ill, or got cold feet at the last minute? If the first marriage was supposed to take place in Oxford, maybe the banns will turn up when the Oxford parish registers go online, and there might be a clue there.

Newspapers sometimes printed a correction if a notice turned out to be incorrect - have you checked to see if there was one?

[crawfie]

Just quickly as I am on my way out, there is no Haines- Salmoni marriage in Oxford on the Marriage disc in any year.

[Just Gillian]

I'm not sure what you mean by "couple's names and witnesses only" on the St Bride's marriage register, Gillian? The record also shows that they were both of the parish, bachelor and spinster, and that they married by banns. Witnesses were Richard Child and Ann Sumner(? anyway, a "serial witness".)

Maybe one of them was ill, or got cold feet at the last minute? If the first marriage was supposed to take place in Oxford, maybe the banns will turn up when the Oxford parish registers go online, and there might be a clue there.

Newspapers sometimes printed a correction if a notice turned out to be incorrect - have you checked to see if there was one?

Kate - Thank you.

I meant it was one of the records which didn't show fathers' names and occupations.

I thought I had read somewhere on here about the Oxfordshire PRs going online but I can't find it via Search. Is there a projected likely date?

I don't have a sub to BNA or FMP at the moment so my information is from piecing together the free preview snippets on FMP. There are only a couple of results which don't show a preview for the name Salmoni. OCR doesn't always pick the name up correctly however.

Crawfie - thank you so much for looking through the discs.

Do they cover the St Clement's parish, as this was the most likely church for the marriage?

It looks as if the marriage didn't take place for some reason. I wonder why there was such a long wait till the St Bride one.

[crawfie]

Yes, St Clements is covered. There are only 2 Salmoni marriages mentioned - one for Mark (widower) in 1833 at St Clements and one for Martha in 1822 at St Giles.

Lots and lots of Haines/Hains marriages.

[Just Gillian]

Thanks Crawfie.

Mark was Elizabeth's father and that was his second marriage (6 months after death of first wife to a woman thirty years younger!). Martha's was to the Pillinger executor in my will query thread a couple of days ago.

There should also have been a marriage of Lucy Salmoni to William Rouse at St Clements on 3 January 1826 (from newspaper notice). She definitely married him, per details on her second marriage, but I wonder now if that one was postponed too for some reason.

[crawfie]

Ah - found her - she is down as Lucy Salmon!

[Just Gillian]

Thanks so much for looking again Crawfie - I'll stop pondering about some unknown whole family disaster around that time now I know that it was just the one marriage that didn't happen.

Most of the OCR programmes seem to recognise Salmon! as Salmoni so unfortunately I always get lots of fish results. Still, that's better than trying to guess how the priests might have Latinized the name in the Catholic baptisms!