General Chat

Sydney Morning Herald

Wednesday 9 June 1886

In Memoriam

In loving memory of my dear mother, who died at her residence 55, Bell-street, Newcastle-on-Tyne, England. Inserted by her loving daughter, M. M.


NOTE: I wonder if she was the daughter of George and Barbara TAIT ( Margaret age 15 before marriage perhaps) who lived at 55 Bell Street in the 1881 census. I also wonder if the memoriam was every read by any of the family.

I haven't checked the 1871 or 1891 census.

If one thinks about it Theresa, Australia took a great interest in the Mother Country in those days and reported accordingly.

I have found many a person or piece of information by searching them.

For instance...If anyone has a bigamist in their family ( or wants to know if they have) just keying in the words Bigamist/plus the name being researched or....London ( or whatever area they lived, including Australia or USA, and as sure as eggs is eggs ( as long as they are not war time eggs, that is lol ) They have a high percentage of being reported

Thanks Susan, what a lot of interesting info.

Poor Mrs B.A Freeman, working so hard. Wouldn't it have been great if she had written her life story. With talk about the flighty girls of 1928 and the fields that she used to ride her pony, in what is now Brixton, with the cows grazing nearby. It makes me think again about people in my tree who livrd in London in the 19th Centuary.

As for the man with seven wives .... Isn't there a poem about him??

What struck me most about your news items, was that they came from Aussie newspapers! I just wouldn't have thought about looking there for info about what was happening in the UK.
So thanks for bringing it to my attention.

Thank you Susan

7 wives!!!! Glutton for punishment.

Canberra Times

February 3 1928

Beware of Toast

The hopes of women who seek to preserve slim fingers by eating toast instead of bread have been shattered by Professor R. H. A. Plimmer, professor of chemistry in the University of London.

"Toast," he says, "is worse than bread for fattening. The mere fact that we see steam arising' from 'the bread when it is being toasted should prove to us that the resultant toast is only concentrated bread. People are apt to cut two slices of bread in the crisper, more concentrated forms," the professor remarks, "and so are worse off from their point of view than if they only had one slice of ordinary bread."


There were some who had quite a few more Mick.

7 wives!

He must have been insane-

that would mean 7 MOTHERS IN LAW!

xxxxxx mick

Sydney Morning herald

Friday Dec 13 1895

STRANGE CASE OF BIGAMY

A MAN WITH SEVEN WIVES.

LONDON, DEC. 11.

A man named William Cadman has been sentenced to seven years imprisonment for bigamy.

The evidence showed that the accused had gone through the marriage ceremony with seven women, and that there were 23 children living.

Canberra Times

Feb 3 1928


WORKING AT 92

At the age of 92, Mrs. B. A. Freeman, of Bedford-road, Clapham, works eight hours on four days of the week. On two days she does washing, and on the other two ironing. By these means she augments her old-age pension, and so manages to keep a little home going for her crippled and ailing daughter.

"I've worked all my life, and I'm still working," she told a press representative. "I get up every morning at eight o'clock, and on my working days I only allow myself 10 minutes for meals. I guarantee I get through more in a day than any of these modern girls with their flighty ways."

Mrs. Freeman's father owned a farm which covered the land upon which much of modern Brixton is built."I used to ride my pony," she said, "where now the big stores stand, and the places where thousands are doing their Christmas shopping to-day were grassy meadows in my girlhood, where my father's cows grazed.

I remember when Brixton police-station was first built in the middle of one of my father's own fields. It was a little wooden hut, with room for only one prisoner, and the policemen wore top hats."



NOTE: I cant find any sign of her in the 1911 census

Canberra Times

Friday Feb 3 1928

Bigamy Rampant

Mr. Justice Horridge said, in charging the grand jury at Surrey Assizes at Guildford:

“I have just come from Maidstone, where I have had six charges of bigamy. I am going to Lewes, where there are also a number of bigamy cases, and there are seven such cases in this calendar. I am afraid that the offence is very rife, and is may be necessary to consider whether more severe punishment should not be allotted.

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