Charlotte Sandow Quick 1841 St Ives

[Glazin2018]

CT

Here is another wee teaser for you.

Victoria again - and a marriage between Charlotte Quick and Nicholas Pierce in 1856. A search of deaths for Charlotte Pearce finds a death for a 31 year old woman, born in Cornwall, daughter of Nathaniel Quick and Susannah Sandow who died in 1873 - suggesting that Charlotte in 1856 was the daughter of Nathaniel Williams Quick and Susanna Sandow of St Ives, Charlotte being baptised 11th June 1841 at St Ives.

The tease comes from trying to guess who the Charlotte Sandow Quick is who marries John Stevens Hollow in 1870?

Lannanta

[Cornish Terrier]

I seem to remember agonizing over this problem at length a couple of years back. In the end I came to a tentative conclusion that is far from satisfactory but the only one possible pending further evidence one way or the other.

1. the indexed marriage record shows that John Stevens Hollow and Charlotte Sandow Quick had both been born at St Ives
2. OPC records and FreeBMD indicate the birth of only one person named John Stevens/Stephens Hollow/Holla
3. OPC records and FreeBMD indicate the birth of only one person named Charlotte Sandow Quick
4. there appear to have been no children to Nicholas Pierce/Pearce and Charlotte Quick
5. Charlotte would have been just 15 when she married Nicholas Pierce

Based largely on the above points I concluded tentatively that Nicholas Pierce/Pearce either died or disappeared prior to 1870 and that Charlotte remarried under her maiden name. There were also no known children from the marriage to John Stevens Hollow but he must have returned to Cornwall where he married Mary Wallis in 1876 and had at least five children.

None of this would explain why Charlotte was buried as a Pearce but I have no other answer ......... unless the second marriage was recorded but never actually took place. (i.e. details of the marriage entered in the register but the marriage not performed/finalized)


There is a death recorded for a Nicholas Pearce in 1863 in Victoria. He was age 26, born Cornwall and parents recorded as Nicholas and Mary Anne. Nicholas possibly born at Wendron to Nicholas Pearce and Mary Ann Treloar who married in 1836. I cannot find his burial but there is no guarantee this is the man who married Charlotte in any case.


If anyone is able to find anything at all to help answer your question I will be most interested.

CT

[Glazin2018]

CT

I reckon that Nicholas Pearce was the son of Thomas Pearce and Mary Ann Eva. I think that he died in 1873 after he had married Jane Frances Floyd in 1868. My theory is that Charlotte was too young in her first marriage.... and that is why she married again in 1870 as did Nicholas. I cannot explain however why she died Charlotte Pearce and not Hollow....

Lannanta

[Cornish Terrier]

Hmmm, that is interesting especially given I have been working on the EVA families for the last couple of months. But I think the only way to solve the problem would be to get a look at the marriage certificates unless there was a record of annulment somewhere.
As for reasons for the names recorded at death - we're in the same boat and I think we might be missing a paddle.

CT

[Cornish Terrier]

Well, persistence and ingenuity sometimes pays off. I have managed to source copies of some documents that may help.

Lannanta - it looks like my summary of the Charlotte Quick marriage situation was pretty close but the jury remains out on the fate of Nicholas Pearce I think.

AH! - on a second reading of the first document I think it is your own theory that might be correct! Both Nicholas Pierce and Charlotte Quick were just a little less than truthful about their ages and the mother of the groom looks like Mary Ever. Nicholas was therefore the son of Thomas Pearce and Mary Ann Eva as you surmised earlier.

7th April 1856 At the Mission House Geelong
Nicholas Pierce bachelor born Cornwall England age 21 miner
Charlotte Quick spinster born Cornwall England age 18 housemaid
Both residents of Ballarat
Groom's parents Thomas Pierce and Mary Ever
Bride's parents Nathaniel Quick and Susan Sandow
Witnesses - Samuel Semmons, Margery Semmons


9th April 1870 Urquhart Street Ballarat West
John Stevens Hollow bachelor born St Ives Cornwall miner age 27
Charlotte Sandow Quick spinster born St Ives Cornwall age 28
both of Ballarat but groom usually resident at Avoca
Groom's parents Edward Hollow and Honor Stevens
Bride's parents Nathaniel Quick and Susan Sandow
Witnesses - John Mann and Margery Mann

These documents prove that the same Charlotte Quick was involved in both marriages and as the Pioneers Index shows a later marriage for Nicholas Pearce it also proves that Charlotte was not widowed. What we still don't know is whether the first marriage ended with a Divorce or with Annulment. The fact the marriage took place at Geelong when both bride and groom were resident at Ballarat suggests maybe an Annulment.

The final document is information from the death certificate of William Quick who died at Wiseman's Creek, NSW in 1885. It does not provide names of parents or any other relatives but coupled with the information from immigration records and passenger lists this does support the likelihood that William was the son of William Quick and Margaret Polmear.

William Quick age 72 died 26th October 1885 at Wiseman's Creek.
Cause of death - debility accelerated by starvation and neglect
Burial - 28th October 1885 at O'Connell (a small village south of Bathurst)
Birthplace shown as Penzance but time in the Australian Colonies was not known

Not all questions have been answered but most of the mystery has been solved I think.

CT

[gandolf]

May 24, 2018 17:59:23 GMT -5 Cornish Terrier said:

Well, persistence and ingenuity sometimes pays off. I have managed to source copies of some documents that may help.

These documents prove that the same Charlotte Quick was involved in both marriages and as the Pioneers Index shows a later marriage for Nicholas Pearce it also proves that Charlotte was not widowed. What we still don't know is whether the first marriage ended with a Divorce or with Annulment. The fact the marriage took place at Geelong when both bride and groom were resident at Ballarat suggests maybe an Annulment.

CT,

Just a thought on the idea of marriage versus annulment. Bearing in mind that divorce was rather difficult to obtain (particularly in the Australian colonies), and annulment equally problematic, there is probably a far simpler explanation. Especially taking into account this marriage is in a different location where the parties were probably not known.

The most simple answer to the problem is that the second marriage for the parties involved was a straight forward bigamous marriage.

I have seen many incidences of this in my research into various families here in Australia. From what I have seen, the 19th century was in some ways no different to the 21st century with marriages and relationships coming to an end for various reasons. The main difference was that there was no easy solution like today's "no fault" divorce.

So when a newly formed couple had at least one partner with a living spouse (and not divorced), they had only two options if they were staying together. One was to live as a "common law" husband and wife - what is now often referred to as a de-facto marriage. The other was to have a formal marriage ceremony and for the married person(s) simply lie about their current marital status and ability to marry.

I have many examples of both options (common law marriage and bigamous marriage) in my research, and indeed at least one example of both options in my own direct ancestry.

[Cornish Terrier]

I had not considered the option but yes, bigamy would be another option. I think it was the fact that Charlotte Sandow Quick would have been only just 15 (or perhaps just a little short of 15) when she married Nicholas Pearce and the fact there were no recorded children that prompted the thought of a possible annulment. Of course there were also no children from the second marriage either but ….

That the first marriage took place in Geelong with both parties misrepresenting their age suggests the possibility of a 'runaway marriage' so termination of that marriage by an 'irate' father may be on the cards. I shouldn't think Nathaniel Quick would have been considered among the 'upper class' so just how that marriage was terminated might be anybody's guess.

I haven't been able to identify the witnesses to the first marriage as yet (Samuel and Margery Semmons) but John and Margery Mann who witnessed the second marriage were related. John Mann was the son of Richard Mann and Ann Quick so was first-cousin once removed to Charlotte his mother Ann being sister to Nathaniel Quick.

CT