I hadn't realised that I had neglected my Everard blog for so long...it has been months, and I seem to have stalled before even getting to my most frustrating ancestor, John Everard Senior. I have written about what little I know of John in my blog about the family of his wife, Jane Sanders, so rather than rewrite his story I will copy it verbatim from the Sanders blog:
JOHN EVERARD & JANE SANDERS.
This couple are my great-great-great grandparents, and although I have been researching them for over 20 years, I still cannot crack the mystery of their relationship, or the story behind John Everard.For many years I had searched for their marriage certificate to no avail, deciding in the end that it simply didn't exist..that it had not survived from c. 1849 and thus was not recorded in any of the Government or other marriage indexes for Victoria. Then, several years ago, I was absolutely gobsmacked to find the "missing" certificate...John and Jane had married, all right, but not until 1894, when John was 84 years old and almost on his death bed, and Jane was 64!!!!The certificate itself was marvellous...it gave John Everard's parents- or at least, he gave the names of two people whom he claimed were his parents- and gave his birthplace as County Sligo, Ireland. John switched and changed between two birth places when he had to nominate his origins on official documents, writing "Sligo" or "Leixlip, Kildare" as the mood took him. John Everard's usual and present place of residence was given as 'Melbourne' and Jane's as Warrnambool, and the couple were married at Swanston Street, Melbourne by the Reverend Robert Angus according to the rites of the Presbyterian Church. This was a surprise...the Presbyterian faith had never been associated with this branch of the family. The witnesses who signed the certificate were strangers to me...James Holt and Annie Holt. I noticed that this couple had also acted as witnesses for the other two marriages on the page, both of whom were also married by Rev. Angus.This was unusual, I thought...perhaps they were a married couple who were employed by the church as caretakers and who were called upon occasionally to serve as witnesses to small, private wedding ceremonies?
How wrong I was... James Holt and his wife Annie were the proprietors of a thriving business, Holt's Matrimonial Agency, who pre-1895 operated from 345 Swanston Street! The Reverend Robert Angus was just one of a series of ministers of varying denominations who could be relied upon to be called up at short notice to officiate at marriage ceremonies.The Holt's Agency not only conducted marriage ceremonies, but also arranged marriages between parties who had not even met before. In a famous example of this, wife murderer Frederick Bailey Deeming, after killing his wife and burying her under the fireplace in their home in Windsor, Melbourne, on Christmas Day 1891, wrote to Holt's Matrimonial Agency in January 1892 indicating his "matrimonial intentions" in meeting a woman..."she must be good-looking, age 18 or 20 and know something of housekeeping." Luckily for any prospective wives, Deeming was captured and hung before he could find himself another victim.Reverend Robert Angus found himself in the newspapers on occasion as the result of his association with Holt's. He was a Scotsman who had arrived in Victoria in c. 1879, and as well as preaching sermons at Melbourne's Presbyterian churches, also aligned himself with Holt's Matrimonial Agency to earn himself a bit of extra pocket money...25 shillings on a good week, to be exact.In October of 1896- two years after he married Jane Sanders and John Everard- Robert Angus was being quoted in papers Australia-wide as he stood witness in a trial in which a woman was accused of lying about being the guardian of an underage girl who had been married by Rev. Angus.Following are some excerpts of articles that were printed about the case, which help to paint a good picture of the character of both the Reverend Angus and the establishment for which he worked:" Witness(Robert Angus) said that he derived his income from occasional employment in connection with the Presbyterian Church, and that he also had private means. He had been attached to Holt's matrimonial Bureau for 3 or 4 years, and he received 25 shillings per week for celebrating marriages there. He would marry any couple, Jew or Gentile, who came before him so long as they complied with all legal requirements.Annie Holt, who carries on the business of a matrimonial agency, stated that one or more marriages were celebrated at the bureau nearly every day. She had had about 11 years' experience in these registries. Other clergymen besides Mr Angus officiated there. The latter had several allowances besides his 25 shillings per week, and his emoluments altogether might amount to about three pounds per week."
"The Reverend R. Angus stated that he took them as they came without respect to denomination, provided the law of the land was complied with."" The Reverend R. Angus's evidence evoked much laughter. He said he was engaged by Holt's Matrimonial Agency to celebrate marriages, and he had married as many as 14 couples a week. Holts paid him 25 shillings a week. He married all denominations, and would marry aboriginals for love."" Much amusement was created in court by the cross-examination of the marrying man, Mr. Angus, who said he would marry a Jew and Jewess or two Roman Catholics according to the Rites of the Presbyterian Church if they came before him."
Okay..we get the gist of what sort of place Holt's Matrimonial Agency was- legal but with very few questions asked- but why would John Everard and Jane Sanders choose to get married there? An even bigger question...why would they choose to get married at all, after raising an adult family and spending 45 years together without marrying? John was 84 years old and just 16 months away from death, and Jane was twenty years his junior.What had stopped the pair from marrying in 1849-50 when they first met and Jane fell pregnant with their first child? They pretended to be married for over 40 years..I would imagine that not even their children would have known their secret. I wonder if their children knew of the late marriage in 1894, or if just Jane and John stood before the Reverend Angus and the Holts, signed the certificate with crosses and buried yet another family secret?
I can think of three possible scenarios which would have prevented John and Jane from marrying in 1849-50.... the previous marriage of one of them with a wife or husband still alive; religious issues, or something specified in a will or official document that prevented marriage between the couple.
As far as I can tell, the latter situation is out of the question. There was no money in this family...John was a humble carpenter, and the family certainly never enjoyed the trappings of wealth as they worked hard for a living in Warrnambool. Religion is a possibility...John was from Ireland, and may have been Catholic when he emigrated, and Jane was from a mixed background of Episcopalian and Quaker back in England.
It is the first scenario that rings true with me...I honestly think that John had been married before, and that his wife was still alive when he took up with Jane Sanders.He was 20 years older than Jane, and the only indication of when he arrived in Victoria is an estimation on his death certificate that states he had spent 48 years in Victoria. This puts his year of arrival at c. 1847, when he would have been aged about 37 years- plenty of time to have been married and had another family somewhere.
I don't think it could have been Jane who was previously married- she was only 18 when she arrived from England in 1849, and by 1850 had given birth to Elizabeth Everard, her first child. Because John Everard is such a mystery, I believe that he is the catalyst behind the late-in-life marriage arrangements. He hasn't been located in any State's shipping records, and both his pre-Australian life and his life in Victoria are blank canvasses. All that we know about him is that he was a carpenter born in c. 1810 in either Sligo or Kildare, Ireland, and that his parents were supposedly John Everard and Catherine Clark. He lived initially in Melbourne, then moved to Warrnambool, and finished his life in Melbourne Hospital at the age of 85 years.The name 'Ignatius' may or may not be associated with John Everard...when he registered the birth of his daughter Annie Everard in 1863, John noted that a son, Ignatius, had previously died. This is the only mention of this child. Similarly, on the death certificate of one of his daughters, John's full name is given as "John Ignatius Everard".
This name 'Ignatius' may hold the clue to John's Irish background. When we look for early Everards in Sligo, only one family shows up...that of Sligo merchant Ignatius Everard and his wife Bridget Higgins. Official church records seem to be non-existant for the 18th century and early 1800s, or if they do iexist I have not been able to find out where they are located. I was lucky that Bridget Higgins was related to a famous chemist named William Higgins, and her marriage to Ignatius Everard, along with the births of three of their sons, was mentioned in an article about said William Higgins.
The article," William Higgins, Chemist", written by Thomas S. Wheeler and published in "Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review" in 1954, stated that Bridget's father, Bryan Higgins, was a "Doctor of Physik" of Collooney, Sligo. The only daughter of Bryan Higgins, Bridget married Ignatius Everard, of Neenanagh, Mayo, in 1774. Three sons from this marriage were named- Patrick born 1775; Bryan Higgins Everard, a gentleman farmer; and Richard Higgins Everard, born 1781, a Dublin barrister.
There may have been more children, but they were not named in the article, which was more centred around the Higgins family. If another son existed named John Everard, he may very well have been my John's father. My John stated on his marriage certificate that his father was "John Everard, gentleman", which was an unusual fact considering that the former was a very poor carpenter. Being a gentleman from Sligo would have placed my John's father quite nicely into the family of Ignatius and Bridget.
Taking the Everard search back even further, I had to switch counties, and start looking in Mayo, since that was Ignatius Everard's place of origin. I could not find any reference to a location called 'Neenanagh', but in June 1822, a notice appeared in Freeman's Journal concerning the distribution of funds in various counties for relief of the poor. It stated that "The Committee of Management have allocated the following sums for the relief of the poor in the distressed districts in the South and West of the Kingdom, viz..
County Mayo, 150 pounds.
Reverend W.R Smith, Castlebar, 30 pounds
Rev. Paul MacGreal, Ballyhaunis, 30 pounds
Rev. Charles Hargrove, Castlebar, 20 pounds
John Knox Eqs, Killabar, 30 pounds
Ignatius Everard, Eris, Sligo, 30 pounds
Rev. James Kinelyand Mr Mitch Flanerry, Clare, 10 pounds."
Erris was a region in Mayo...the parish of Kilmore Erris had a long history of association with the Everard family. Other references referred to Ignatius Everard and then his son Richard holding property in Erris, Mayo, although it had passed out of Everard family hands by the time of the Griffiths Valuation in 1856-57.
" The Everards settled in the parish of Kilmore, barony of Erris, county Mayo, in the early 18th century and held lands on renewable leases for ever from Sir Arthur Shaen. The Ordnance Survey Field Name Books help to identify the townlands belonging to the Everards, most of which were in the possession of John W.O.Richards by the time of Griffith's Valuation. At the time of Griffith's Valuation John William Owen Richards had an estate in the parish of Kilmore, barony of Erris, county Mayo. This property was previously held on a lease for ever from Sir Arthur Shaen to the Everards. In 1876 Richards owned 2228 acres in county Mayo and 3219 acres at Tempo, county Fermanagh.
Sir James Shaen, Surveyor General of Ireland, left his estates to his son Sir Arthur Shaen, who had 2 daughters and heiresses. One daughter, Frances, married Sir John Bingham of Newbrook, county Mayo in 1738 and the other daughter, Susannah, married Henry Boyle Carter of Castle Martin, county Kildare in 1750.
Sir Arthur Shaen's property was left in equal shares between his daughters and their families. The Carter half still remains entire, in the present possessor, William H. Carter, Esq. ; but of the Bingham half, part is now held in fee by Counsellor Everard, Knox of Rappa, Mr. M'Donnell of Carnacon, Kirkwood of Cottlestown, Miss Nash of Cam, within the Mullet; Major Bingham still retaining a considerable part. Major Cormick and the Bishop of Killala are the other proprietors.''
- from the website http://www.nuigalway.ie/ , which has a very useful database of landed estates.
There is a reference to a Paddy Everard living in Mayo even earlier...
" This verse has particular allusion to Paddy Everard, the grandfather of the late Councellor, who was considered the wisest man in the country and a great stock farmer, but a bad month came and he was shilla dore."
This came from an article about well-known Mayo poet Richard Barrett, who was born in the Mullet, Mayo, in c. 1740, and died December 8, 1819. According to Patrick Lynch who visited Barrett in 1802: "He keeps a little Academy, for the gentleen's children of the Island. There are a great many genteel people, men of landed property, in the Mullet. I suppose the young men of them had most of their education from Mr Barrett; they pay him great respect, and are very fond to see him in the evening in the whiskey hour."
In light of this information, it is highly likely that some Everard lads would have been amongst his pupils, although perhaps not those sons of Ignatius Everard as he had removed to Sligo city after his marriage in 1774.
The question must be asked of the identity of the man referred to as "Councillor Everard", particularly as he is specified as being the grandson of Patrick Everard, and the owner of the Kilmore Erris lands in Mayo. Further research has shown "Councillor Everard" to be Ignatius's son Richard Everard, the Dublin barrister, which means that Patrick Everard WAS the father of Ignatius.
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