Why would there be two different marriages for the same couple?
I found this marriage between Thomas Knowland Williams and Esther Clark 22 Sep 1852 by banns in St Phillips, Liverpool.
and this marriage between Thomas Knowland Williams and Esther Clark Richmond 12 Aug 1852 by license in St Mary's, Edge Hill.
The one on 12 Aug has Thomas' sister, Adelaide Knowland Williams as a witness and Thomas' address of Paddington fits with the 1851 census where they lived at 100 Paddington, so it is absolutely the correct couple. But the other record, in Sept looks like the same couple. Why might there be two marriage records? Why would they have two different addresses? The Sep one puts them both down in central Liverpool, the Aug one puts Esther from up in Seaforth, some 6 1/2 miles north of Paddington Village.
So far as I have found, only this man and his father with this particular name. Knowland or Knowlden.
Thomas Knowland Williams 9SMY-1J1
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I’m wondering if there some was some objection to the first marriage so they married again by banns so anyone’s objections could be considered and addressed. I could see this happening if the terms of a will were at issue. It just sounds to me like internal family strife was a factor which might also explain the new address.
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Every so often people hit instances where a couple marry twice and it's virtually impossible to know what the reason was. My own 3G GPs married twice in the Bristol area - no idea why.
In this instance, I'd speculate that it was something to do with the different names the bride had - Esther Clark Richmond in the first and just Esther Clark in the second. Further, her father's name has been omitted in both cases, which is usually (not always) a sign of illegitimacy. It could (maybe, possibly, perhaps) therefore be that her name of Esther Clark Richmond on the first marriage had been challenged, and therefore, they married again under the name of just Esther Clark, which was perhaps more acceptable to the challenger (the challenger might have been Esther herself, worrying about what her "proper" name was).
It would take some careful reading of Rebecca Probert's Marriage Law for Genealogists to decide whether that first marriage might have been invalid. My impression on a very swift read-through is that the first marriage would only have been invalid if there was a deliberate attempt to deceive - if there was simple disagreement between people about what Esther's "proper" name was, then that wouldn't, of itself, void the marriage. But they might have decided to marry again under the other name, just to be sure.
All this is pure speculation on my part - but it does use the fact of the different names.
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Thank you, I had noted the difference in Esther's name, but hadn't attributed it to illegitimacy. My only experience with illegitimacy in marriage records, the guy used his father's given name but his mother's maiden name. So while I wondered about no father listed, but hadn't thought of that. She does give that Richmond name to one of her sons as a middle name. I guess I will need to research more to see where that takes us on her line. Thank you both for your thoughts on this.
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