TOWCESTER FAMILIES

Ann Paviour                                                                                   Home

Ann Paviour was born in 1794, the second of six children born out of wedlock to her mother Lydia. She was 19 when her mother married for the first time, an event which was quickly followed by her own wedding in 1814 to James Elliott (or Helet, as the register has it), a soldier. She probably left Towcester with him, returning for the birth of her first child, James, in 1817.

But all was not well. She and her child were back in June 1819, the subject of a disputed Removal Order. The parish of Amersham was insisting she belonged to Towcester. The Towcester solicitor instituted enquiries, and in Maidstone in Kent evidence of a previous marriage for James Elliott was unearthed. Moreover, the lady had still been alive when he married Ann!

The Vestry minutes read:

3 Oct 1819    Crow [Vestry Clerk] to be paid 6d per week for Ann Elliotts lodging commencing 28th June

Vestry Room Oct 5th 1819

Resolved that the appeal entered at the last Quarter Sessions at Aylesbury against Ann Elliott alias Paviour's orders of removal from Amersham [micks?] shall be abandoned in consequence of it being ascertained by Mr Lovell on enquiry at Maidstone in Kent that at the time of Pauper's marriage with James Elliott he had a prior wife living, and that Pauper therefore belongs to Towcester as being her maiden Settlement

Resolved therefore that James Elliott shall be immediately proceeded against his being the reputed Father of Pauper's Child, and also for bigamy if hereafter thought necessary

Samuel Perkins                                                                 Churchwardens

John Thomas Pinkard for John Pinkard, William Drayson, William George         Overseer

P Phipps, John Inns                                                           Inhabitants.

Strangely, there was no sign of a court case at the Quarter Sessions.

Ann continued to live at Towcester for a few weeks, and attempted to get some clothing out of the Vestry:

7 Nov 1819   Ann    Pavior wants a shift & flannel     Not

All, however, seems to have ended well, as on Monday 29 November 1819, Ann and James remarried in All Saints Church at Northampton.