From laidlaws at hotkey.net.au Sun Jul 6 13:38:22 2008 From: laidlaws at hotkey.net.au (Doug Laidlaw) Date: Sun, 6 Jul 2008 13:38:22 +1000 Subject: [Boykett-announce] Thomas Heidut Boykett - again. Message-ID: <200807061338.22789.laidlaws@hotkey.net.au> Rosemary Millar of New Zealand, the original source of the information on the Canadian site, contacted me recently. She tells me that the middle name is Heldut, not Heidut, and that Maria's remarriage was not in 1840, but in 1861, and I have found the registration. She also told me that the family were staunch Congregationalists. I have just heard back from Bill Mumford, the Webmaster in Canada. ?He tells me that Caroline was baptised in the Independent Tabernacle, which was a Congregational Church. ? The IGI reference is as follows: ????????International Genealogical Index - British Isles ????????1. CAROLINE SELBY BOYKETT - International Genealogical Index / BI Gender: Female Christening: 03 MAY 1836 Tabernacle Ind St Luke, Finsbury, London, England ????????Matches: International Genealogical Index/British Isles - 1 That reads like running two churches together. ?There was certainly a St Luke's C. of E. in Finsbury. ?If Caroline was baptised at the Independent Church, the record may be on the new British Archives site at http://www.bmdregisters.co.uk/ , which has only just become available. ?So I went there, and I found her! ?I took a copy of the search result -- all I could get without paying, but it is too big to attach. ?I have asked the AIGS in Melbourne to look for the parents' marriage instead - by Act of Parliament, all marriages had to be in the C. of E. While replying to him, I thought of a possible scenario which would allow the two Thomases to be the same person. ?Once again, it fits so well that it is disturbing. ?Here is what I wrote: A possibility is that he [Carloine's father] *is* my Thomas, that he left Maria almost immediately and was back with his own family by 1841, when he is with them in the census. ?He left England in 1853. ?From memory, divorce became available in 1849. ?7 years for presumption of death would have expired in 1860 at the latest. People used to remarry without a divorce in those circumstances. ? [ Maria remarried in 1861.] ?As a student, I had to learn a couple of cases where people did just that, and the spouse later showed up. ?One woman didn't wait 7 years, but she had credible news that her husband was dead. ?She got off the bigamy charge, but her second marriage was still void. ? A transported convict could remarry after being "separated by water" for 7 years. ?Perhaps Maria could take advantage of that. ? It would depend on the wording of the Statute, which I haven't seen. ?I believe that even now, in Australia, it would be possible to marry a second time without mentioning an existing marriage - at risk of prosecution for bigamy and/or making a false declaration. ?A relative of my wife's did the right thing. ?She got a divorce on presumption of death. ?Years later she did see her ex in the street, but she had the protection of the divorce, and she had not remarried. If this is our Thomas, it raises many questions. ?Did he become a Congregationalist? ?That would explain his interest in the Church Rate. Why did he leave Maria so quickly? Did she claim maintenance from him? Perhaps that was another reason why he left England. These are all speculations. It made me wonder if John was baptised in a Congregationalist Church, but I got no match for him. The hunt continues. Doug. From laidlaws at hotkey.net.au Mon Jul 7 11:04:45 2008 From: laidlaws at hotkey.net.au (Doug Laidlaw) Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2008 11:04:45 +1000 Subject: [Boykett-announce] Frances Hebbert Boykett Message-ID: <200807071104.45704.laidlaws@hotkey.net.au> This Frances, a daughter of Thomas' brother Francis the banker, was born in 1847 in Paris. A Rosemary Baldock has just written via the mail facility on our site that she has two pictures drawn by Frances, in pencil or charcoal. They came from Rosemary's grandmother, and she wants to give them a new home. I believe that they should stay with that side of the family. Any ideas? Doug. From laidlaws at hotkey.net.au Thu Jul 10 13:01:53 2008 From: laidlaws at hotkey.net.au (Doug Laidlaw) Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:01:53 +1000 Subject: [Boykett-announce] The Thomas Heidut Boykett saga Message-ID: <200807101301.53570.laidlaws@hotkey.net.au> This has now become pretty clear. I am having difficulty arranging all the facts in my mind, but here is the chronology: This is definitely our Thomas. A source in England has his complete family. He married Maria about 1835. We haven't found the marriage yet, but it will be there somewhere. The Thomas who wrote the 1831 letter in evangelical terms would not have started a de facto relationship. The marriage didn't last very long. Thomas was a popular person, and was made Chairman of Passengers on the Gipsy. He would not have been a bad or violent husband. A possible answer was suggested by my English contact, and much the same happened with my daughter's brother-in-law. Maria was only 19+ when she married, and came into a family of 4 boys, aged from 2 to 15. We know that the 3 youngest may have inherited the family curse of depression. Her own baby was born in December of that year. It was too much for her to handle, she collapsed and went home to Mother. With my male outlook, I hadn't even considered that possibility. Maria was home with her parents in 1841, while Caroline was with grandparents. She may have stayed in contact with Thomas until he left England. Catherine Cronin married at about the same age, but she didn't come into a ready-made family. My daughter's relative and her fiancee hadn't even tied the knot when their baby arrived. My wife and I have discussed the question of maturity of a 19-year-old girl in those times. They were of marriageable age at 16, but lived a very protected life. It would have been unthinkable for one to take a flat, for example. Uunmarried women went everywhere with their family. For example in one census Francis the banker is visiting his friend Robert Hannay, whom he appointed executor. His wife came too of course, but so did his unmarried daughter. Maria married her cousin Frederick in 1861. Frederick was already married. I am told that their youngest child was born about 1850. I have searched for his wife's death, but haven't found it. The Indexes were written in ink, in a ruled book. Quite a few have faded too much to reproduce on the Web. I must have found about half-a-dozen quarterly lists that were missing. That may explain why Maria didn't marry him sooner. But unless she had a divorce, she would have had to wait until 1860 in any event, to have had seven years' separation from Thomas. Doug. From laidlaws at hotkey.net.au Thu Jul 10 14:22:09 2008 From: laidlaws at hotkey.net.au (Doug Laidlaw) Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:22:09 +1000 Subject: [Boykett-announce] The Thomas Heidut Boykett saga - addendum Message-ID: <200807101422.09084.laidlaws@hotkey.net.au> I was mistaken about the age of the eldest boy. He was only 9. I probably mentally subtracted from the census date. It was still a big ask of Maria. Marrying a woman so young was apparently not uncommon in the 19th century. I Who Do You Think You Are? a schoolteacher in Tasmania married a girl young enough to be one of his students. The narrator said that it was not unusual. Francis Jnr, son of the banker, when in his 50's married a woman of 32 as his second wife. Doug. From laidlaws at hotkey.net.au Fri Jul 11 08:36:15 2008 From: laidlaws at hotkey.net.au (Doug Laidlaw) Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2008 08:36:15 +1000 Subject: [Boykett-announce] Bobbing Court - another connection. Message-ID: <200807110836.15949.laidlaws@hotkey.net.au> This footnote just came in from Rosemary in New Zealand, in response to my comment about young wives: "Bobbing court was once owned by the st legers. ?It came into anthony st leger hands through his 2nd wife mary southwell, from her 3rd husband, sir conyers clifford, and she left it to her 3 sons -2 cliffords and 1 st leger- who soon sold it on to a sir edward duke. Many years ago I saw her, ?mary southwell/st leger's, monument in st patricks cathedral dublin, and I never forgot it or her. ? She died 1603 aged 37, married 4 times and died giving birth to her 9th child. ?They had 7 marriages between them! I am descended from the irish branch of the st leger family, the hon eliza caroline st leger, is my great grandmother.--on my fathers side . ?useless information-- You are right about the men marrying young women-- ?my 2xgreat grandfather fagan's 3rd wife was only about 17 and he was 58!" Fascinating - another family connection linked to Bobbing Court! This is the kind of info I would like everybody to share via the mailing list. It doesn't have to come to me. Just watch those -bounce headers! Doug. From enrobso at lizzy.com.au Fri Jul 11 14:31:19 2008 From: enrobso at lizzy.com.au (Peter Osborne) Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:31:19 +1000 Subject: [Boykett-announce] new address Message-ID: <000e01c8e30e$f7e841e0$1096ddcb@net.au> Hi Doug .Please note our new address 4 Black court Wilsonton Toowoomba 4350. 0746330463--0437733901 Regards Peter&Helen. From laidlaws at hotkey.net.au Fri Jul 25 14:47:14 2008 From: laidlaws at hotkey.net.au (Doug Laidlaw) Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:47:14 +1000 Subject: [Boykett-announce] Web Site updated Message-ID: <200807251447.14780.laidlaws@hotkey.net.au> I have updated the History pages as follows: - Added to the Marriages page a paragraph about Maria Selby. Updated some other details. - added formatting to quoted paragraphs (
tag.) - Renamed the various History pages with more descriptive filenames (invisible to users.) - Added a sub-menu at the foot of each History page to allow users to navigate between them. - Added a print-friendly format to the history pages, also Timeline, the Gipsy and Lola Montez. The stylesheet reduces all navigation links and makes the top heading smaller. Font for printing is serif-type, like a newspaper. Images are retained. Until I read up a bit more, you still need to use your browser's Print command (menu or Control-P.) I am slowly adding Maria's family to the family tree. Doug.