Sepia Saturday

A man with two wives



This was our inspirational photo this week!
Was he a man with two wives?

Well here is my contribution this week....
These are two of my family photos the first is my Great Grandfather Basil Edwards and his second wife Kate


And this one is Annie his first wife


Here is a scrapbook layout I did with these photos




The story is a sad story.......
Annie and Basil were married and had four children, one of which was my Grandfather. I was told by my mothers cousin George,who was taken by his mum to visit his Grandad Basil and Grandma Annie, as a small child, that she was a lovely lady kind and loving. She had a small gift for him on one visit of a little tin clockwork mouse, she had hidden in the bottom drawer of a dresser.

Grandad Basil on the other hand was not so nice and kept a stick by the side of his chair, and would say to George that if he moved he would use the stick to hit him.He was so awful to my Grandfather, his son that he left home before he was sixteen and went to live with his mothers mother in Boston and did a carpenters six year apprenticeship. My Grandad had won a scholarship to the Grammar school but Basil would not let him go, as in his eyes there was no point, as he expected my Grandfather to join him and go to sea as a fisherman like he had done, with his father.He was not poor, he had been brought up as a child in a household with servants.Sadly he was not nice to Annie and friends would tell her to leave him, as she was a fantastic dressmaker she could earn her keep, she would not hear of such a thing and said she had married for better or worse and she was his wife and would stay put, she had not come from such a good background as Basil's had.
In those days it did not take much for a man to get his wife put into an asylum. He got a doctor to sign the forms and she was sent to Bracebridge Asylum, near Lincoln,where I found her on the census.
He soon after went on to marry Kate his second wife. He got his comeuppance though..... He died a couple of years later still in his 50's!

My mother and I only found all this out a few years ago. It helped my mother understand why her father never took her to see her Grandad and Grandmother.