Emma Archer and William Willis married at Lane End near Marlow in 1838. She was born in Marlow in 1821 one of several children born to unmarried mother Ann Archer. Her father was given at marriage as John Sharp, tailor. John witnessed the marriage as did Emma's older married sister Sarah Butler.
William was born in Marlow in 1817 to Henry and Sophia. At the time of his marriage he was a labourer.
As a teenager he had twice been convicted of theft. Firstly he was sentenced to 6 weeks hard labour for stealing brushes from a High Street shop. Then he was convicted of stealing a pewter pot from Mary Sparkes in Marlow. He deceived a sentence this time of 12 months in the house of correction, two of which were to be in solitary confinement.
His marriage might have meant a fresh start for him but William faltered. In 1841 the local tithing man and a constable knocked at Emma's door when her husband was out and asked to search her home. She made no objection, perhaps because she didn't think that there was anything to worry about.
She was wrong. In a hole under the stairs the searchers found a hoe and confiscated it.
The hoe was the stolen property of baker John Cresswell. He had given it to blacksmith Mr Shanks, the hoe's maker, to be blacked up ready for spring work. Mr Shanks had done the blacking and left it outside to dry but it disappeared.
William claimed in court he had just picked it up because he found it lying around in someone's yard.
The court did not believe him and his previous convictions told against him. He was sentenced to 14 years transportation.
Later that year at the time of the 1841 census Emma lived in Dean Street with her sister Sarah Butler and Sarah's much older husband Richard who was a Chelsea Pensioner retired from a regiment of foot.
Emma had no occupation listed then but on the 1851 census she was listed as a dressmaker. She was still living with Richard and Sarah, this time in Marefield Marlow. Emma had moved to Chapel Street by 1861 and was living with a different married sister Elizabeth Owen and Elizabeth's husband Thomas. She was still a dressmaker. That was the last time I found her on a census.
William Willis never reappeared. This doesn't mean he didn't want to reunite with Emma. Getting back from Australia after you had served your sentence was near impossible to afford or manage.
The couple had no children before William was taken away.
To read more about Emma's sister Sarah see here
Emma's Archer grandparents Thomas and Hannah ran the White Hart in Chapel Street. More here
To see more posts about people of Dean Street, Marefield or Chapel Street see our street index here.
Sources:
Great Marlow Parish Registers
Lane End Parish Register transcription, via Find My Past Buckinghamshire Marriage Index.
Newspaper copies held at the British Library and accessed via the BNA October 12th 2020: Bucks Herald 21st March 1835, Bucks Gazette 10th April 1841.
Census my transcription from microfilm.
Chelsea Pensioner Records, National Archives Kew.
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