Keeping it in the family

I very nearly messed up on my New Year's resolutions by not posting a new entry within a week.  Granted, some purists might argue that a week traditionally has seven days in it, but I have been listening to The Beatles a lot so far this year and have decided that eight days is still acceptable.

One of these things I keep coming up against in my family tree is the recycling of widowed spouses by marrying them off to some single cousin or, in many cases, sibling of their recently deceased partner.  The most famous example of course is Henry VII's passing of Katherine of Aragon's dowry and, by extension, Katherine herself, from the late Arthur Prince of Wales to his younger brother Henry.  My family boasts less exalted roots, and almost certainly less money, so what were the reasons for keeping the spouse married into the family?

This is just speculation, since no one bothered to write down their justification (or, if they did, I haven't found it), but I suppose there was a financial reason.  A widow with children but without the means to support herself independently could benefit from the stability of having a husband, possibly the brother or near relative of her late spouse, who could help her maintain her home and raise her children.  Children born to the new marriage likely would physically resemble children born to the previous marriage.  A widower with children would benefit from having someone to keep his house and raise the children, and the marriage would have removed the need for the family to support a spinster relative.  All very pragmatic, I'm sure.  What cannot be proven is whether or not the new couple felt any affection for one another -- oh sure, they might have been friends, but were they in love before they married or was marriage more of a practical arrangement and love, if it happened, could come later?

How was the subject of remarriage approached?  Did the family suggest it to the widow or widower after a suitable time had passed?  (Try not to imagine the funeral, where someone is saying to the widower, "So sorry for your loss.  By the way, doesn't your late wife's sister look fetching in black?")  Did the widow or widower make their own move?

The examples from my family tree are all 19th and early 20th century ones, since this practice is less common nowadays: a widow or widower could receive insurance, women can work, social contacts are wider than just family and neighbours so future spouses could come from much farther afield, and social attitudes have changed so a widower marrying his late wife's sister would certainly attract more comment than it would have 150 years ago.

The Halls
A more recent branch I've discovered in my Clark family includes Emily Sarah Hale, widow of Edward Walter Halls, who in 1927 married the widower Alfred Stanley Holgate in Romford.  Alfred's first wife was Mary Ann Halls, first cousin of Edward Walter Halls, so Alfred and Emily had been cousins by marriage prior to their wedding.

The Chamberlains and Bees
Alice Maria Chamberlain married John Henry Bee in Kent in 1889.  He was a clerk of excise for Inland Revenue, and his work took them to Scotland, where Alice died in 1906.  John returned to England and, in 1910, married her sister, Edith Mary.  On a presumably unrelated note, John and Alice's only child, Allan, a surgeon, joined the Royal Navy and spent the rest of his life on Ascension Island and in South Africa.

The Chamberlains and Brightons
It isn't as if the Chamberlains would have been unfamiliar with the idea of marrying a sister: Alice's great-grandfather, John Hoys Chamberlain, married Elizabeth Brighton in Runcton Holme, Norfolk in 1815.  Elizabeth died, aged only 45, of "decline" in Stow Bardolph, Norfolk, on 25 May 1842.  Four weeks after Elizabeth's death, her grieving widower eloped with her sister Priscilla: although both were living in Stow Bardolph, they married in Wisbech.  Not surprisingly, banns were not read for the three Sundays prior to the wedding.  John and Priscilla returned to Stow Bardolph, but Priscilla's widowed mother evidently chose not to continue living with them, as she was resident in Wimbotsham when she died in 1844.  There must have been quite a story about this in its time.  My own reactions have changed: I used to laugh at how quickly John leapt from one wife to another, but more recently have begun to wonder if the first marriage had been an unhappy one and John had long wished he'd married Priscilla in the first place.

I can remember finding more examples than this, but my mind has gone blank at the moment, so I'll stop here.  Hey -- I said I'd try to post something new every week.  I didn't promise it would be good!