Was Bridget a widow?

[Lynn The Forest Fan]

On Wednesday, I was at Lincoln archives and managed to find the marriage of my gggg grandparents Robert Young & Bridget Westoby, 1796 in Barton upon Humber. This was a great find as it showed that Robert was from Goxhill & I had already managed to find a baptism for him there, so I was able to take his family further back. However, Bridget was of the parish, ie Barton upon Humber and I have been unable to find a baptism for her either there or in nearby Barrow or Goxhill. :( I did manage to find a baptism for a Bridget Ostler in 1766 in Barton, so I am now wondering if this could be her & she was married before her marriage to Robert. According to the marriage record, they are listed as single man & single woman, although the record after uses the terms batchelor & spinster. I have been unable to find a marriage for Bridget Ostler on Familysearch, but I don't think it holds marriages for Barton.

Could she have been a widow?

[SuffolkSue]

Most of the Westoby marriages on Boyds marriage index are in Yorkshire, so could she have come from there?

[Lynn The Forest Fan]

According to the 1841, she came from Lincs. There are Westoby families in either Goxhill or Barrow

[KiteRunner]

Don't forget, "of the parish" only means that was where she was living at the time of the marriage. Couldn't she have been born somewhere else and moved there, perhaps to work as a servant or something?

[Lynn The Forest Fan]

Sadly anything is possible.
My other reason for thinking she might have been married before, is her age, 30/31 at time of marriage, whilst Robert was 10 years younger.

[Barbara Dodds]

Are you thinking she could have been a widow because it says "single woman" rather than "spinster" on the marriage - when others do specificaly say "spinster"?


I'm sorry I don't know enough about PR's to answer the question for you though.

[Lynn The Forest Fan]

Yes that is exactly what I meant.

[Anne in Carlisle]

Don't forget the different spellings. I have them in OH's family
WESTOBY
WESTERBY
WESTABY

His came from Welton-le-Marsh in Lincs.

Anne

[Lynn The Forest Fan]

That is a thought although Familysearch does tend to find all the different spellings.

[Phoenix]

In Norfolk, you tend to have the terms single man and single woman used instead of bachelor and spinster.

Try looking for as many references to the Westoby etc surname as you can: wills, poor law, 1841 census, to see where it is concentrated and look for Bridget there.

I don't think that the age gap is a sufficient reason to suspect she was a widow. Young farm workers moved around from village to village. Girls usually married intheir home parish, but there aren't hard and fast rules on this.

It is possible that record keeping was poor when Bridget was born, she was born in a different parish, or her family were non-conformist. Bridget was not a particularly common Christian name at the time, so it is worth, as you have done, looking at other instances of the name. If not your ancestor, they may be relations.

[KiteRunner]

Also, I believe Bridget was most common among Roman Catholics, in which case you would need to find a Catholic baptism!

[Barbara Dodds]

. According to the marriage record, they are listed as single man & single woman, although the record after uses the terms batchelor & spinster.

....

Could she have been a widow?

Did you happen to notice if it was the same vicar/curate for the two records? If it was a different person it may just have been a difference in style

[Lynn The Forest Fan]

Thanks Pheonix, Kate & Barbara. I think that the fact that Bridget Ostler was the only Bridget I saw being baptised in 1865/66 in Barton, Goxhill and Barrow was the reason that I wondered if she was actually mine. I hadn't thought that she could be RC, as I don't have nay in my family, but it is always possible.
I printed off the marraige & got 2 others on the same page. All three were cunducted by the same curate. Robert & Briget's marriage was by banns & the dates that the banns were read are included. The other 2 marriages were both by license, one says batchelor & spinster & the other batchelor & widow.
There is a 4th marriage that I only have the top part of which was again by license and the groom is again listed as a batchelor.

[Lynn The Forest Fan]

A contact has checked out marriages for Bridget Ostler to a Westoby and not found any, so it is unlikely that my theory was correct. :( This means that I have to go back to the drawing board re her baptism. Perhaps she wasn't baptised at all?