(This is the story of my great-grandmother's marriage prior to her marriage to my great-grandfather)
In late 1896 19yo JW married 20yo Janet and they lived with her parents (& several teenage siblings) - and 5 months later Lexy (Jean Alexandra) was born.
They moved several times, the majority of which involves living in the homes of relatives, her having the next 2 - James Alexander and George Herbert - in the next 3 years.
There is a gap of nearly 3 years between these and the next girl - Mina (#1), during which time she had to take the children to Sydney from Far North Queensland for medical reasons.
(The story I got in childhood was that she had left him to get treatment for Mina and one of the brother's polio, and he sued her for desertion but the truth is far more terrible.)
He stayed in FNQ while this was going on, and when she and the 4 children return he sent her first to the home of her mother-in-law's and then to his unmarried brother's pub to help run it.
He sent irregular payments (but she could go to any shop in Cairns he advised) for her to look after 4 children under 7. She eventually contacted him from a completely different town asking him to send money so she could see him.
They haven't seen each other for about 10 months and she has appeared - 7 months pregnant.
My take? I do not think that this was a love affair but yet another bad mistake for whatever reason that this poor young woman has made - or has had made for her.
She offers to go away and look after the children and him to send enough money and he agrees and indeed does - once or twice - until his lawyers advised him not to.
In the interim she has baby 5 - Jack - whose paternity on paper is JW but in soon to follow court room evidence is revealed to likely be his uncle's son.
When brought to the court - seemingly against her own wishes - all of this is laid out for the world to see. Her desperation, her fertility, her plight - her guilt, and possibly additional guilt in the shape of her body and another son born to adoption.
She asks for nothing. She just wants this whole nightmare to be exorcised from reality. She is a broken woman.
It is 1906. Less than 10 years have passed.
(#1) I actually met Mina when I was a young child. In 1975 or 76, my mother put her mother, me and my toddler baby brother in a station wagon and we drove for days to the top of Queensland to meet her. She walked with crutches as she had polio as a young girl. She hadn't seen my grandmother - her baby half -sister - for over 60 years.
4 comments:
So was your grandmother (a half sister) a later child? After Jack? It's a tragic tale (and I'm sure there were so many similar stories out there!)
My grandmother is from a second act in her life - and it truly was a three act drama, poor Janet.
I was a bit confused as well. So Jean (who is your mother and the oldest) is half sister to Mina. Your mother had a different father?
What a sad story, really. Janet did not get pregnant by herself, yet the shame was all hers. The thing that is forgotten sometimes is that many a girl has foolishly thought that words uttered by a horney man was a promise of a better life. Once the itch was scratched, they stepped back and left her to deal with the consequences.
I have edited slightly, which hopefully will make it easier to follow. This was prior to her marriage to my great-grandfather. If her life is a 3 act play, this is Act 1 - he was Act 2.
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