Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-01-09


ten pounds due to the widow and taken
to the lookup. Here he was visited by
his creditor, who told him that he must
either go to prison Or cancel the debt by
making her his wife, and her fortune OF
thousand pounds mis- own. Trapped as
he was, the young man agreed to the
lady's demands; but she would not allow
him to be set free until all was ready for
the nuptial ceremony; and when they left
the lookup together it was to go straight
way to the church, the officer who had
arrested the groom giving him his bride.
And it is to be hoped they lived happy
ever afterward. The young shoemaker
had little choice in the matter; he was
compelled to surrender his freedom to
obtain his liberty, and had not much rea-
son to be ashamed of himself as the cler-
ical fortune hunter whose self barter was
announced in the Genaeman's Magazine,
in the following terms:
married, the Rev. Mr.. Roger Wanna,
of York, about twenty six years of age, to
a Lincolnshire lady upward of eighty,
with whom he is to have eight thousand
pounds in money, three hundred pounds
per annum, and coach and four during
life only"
Most young ladies, we hope, share the
would rather wed young man with one coat to
his back,
Than would marry an old man with soyereigns in
sack;
nevertheless. there are (more's the PITY
plenty of instances of maidens in the
flush of youth wasting their sweetness
upon the desert air, though not always,
for a substantial consideration. In 1772,
"a fine young girl of sixteen" who had
been brought up from childhood by the
wife of Mr.. Chamberlain, of Leeds, mar
ried that gentleman upon his becoming a
widower at the mature age of eighty
five. Another lass of the same age, Miss
Sally Berrybridge, of Peckham, bestowed
ninety four years were counterbalanced
by his fifty thousand pounds and six
teenyears-old miss, possessing genteel
fortune, tied herself for life to Mr.. Norris,
of Formby, a gentleman exactly six times
her age In 1863, Miss Ann Nugent, of
Mountaston, forward damsel of fifteen,
welded Robert Judge, Esq, OF Cortes
borough, Kilbeggan, a patriarchial soldier
who had received a bullet in his nose
lighting for or against William the ST.
lent. A Worcestershire girl, aged fifteen,
took a blacksmith ninety years for better
or worse and even a miserly old hunks
like the Rev. Luke Ember, with four
score years on his shoulders, found
maiden Of fifteen to share his miserable
lot. 4 Berkshire gentleman finding him.
self for the third time wifeless, at
the age of seventy-six, married a
young lady to whom he had stood god
father eighteen years before, making her
stepmother to men and women thrice
her own age. Among the arliages re-
in, 70
1893, we find "Sir John Leigh, Bart, of
Addington, Surrey, of three thousand
pounds year, aged near seventy, to
Miss Wade, about eighteen, daughter of
Mr. Wade, apothecary, at Bromley, in
Kent, who lately culed Sir John of a
modification in his toe;" and, Married,
last week, Mr. Thomas Growler, an
eminent tailor, grocer, and chandler, at
Warboys, Hunts, near hundred years
old, to brisk young widow, of the same
place, aged thirty. He was so infirm that
it was with great difficulty he got the
license out of his pocket, and he several
times dropped the ring before he could
get it on the lady's finger; but since his
marriage has SO greatly recovered as to
quit the assistance of his cane" Accord
ing to the old saying, for every Jack
there is a Jill, and some very ugly Jacks
contrlve to obtain very pretty Jills.
Even Crutchy Jack, of Leeds, a man of
thirty-six inches, found a spouse; for
when he died at the age of sixty-two, he
eft behind him widow and four chill
dren, the Youngest a boy of five. In
1149, noted Scotch blue gown, named
William Hamilton, after defying female
establishments for eighty years, succum-
bed to the charms Of pretty Jane Lind
say, Just out of her teens He
certainly got the best Of the bargain,
for he is described as having both
legs drawn up to his ear, his arms twist
ed backward, and almost every part of
him out of joint; at any rate, this queer
specimen of humanity had to be carried
to the marriage house" upon the Shout
ders of a friendly porter. There is some
thing repulsive in the union of grabbed
age and youth, and such matches can
hardly be reckoned among heaven made
ones. Of course, there are exceptional
cases, like that,of the accomplished lady
who, Of her own free choice, gave her
many years her senior; and when some
dissatisfied friend urged that the gentle
man was old enough to be her father, an
swered: ooh, if that's all, I'm sure any
one would like to marry papa!'
Patience is a very good thing, but, like
other good things, folks may have too
much of it, as was the case with Robert
Phillips, brother of the "Cider" poet,
and his lady love, Anne Bowdler. This
faithful pair formed, when young, an at
tachment quite strong enough to marry
upon; but with unexampled Difference to
the objections Of disappearing relatives
Nere content to carry on their courtship
for sixty years, only bringing it to its
proper end when death removed the OBJ
iectors. Then they picked up courage
and went to church, when each owned
to eighty. We can find no parallel TO
this example Of long-enduring love; but
we can cite few instances of the perpe
iratIon Of matrimony at an equally adj
vanced stage Of life. A wedding once
came off in Berkshire between bride of
eighty three and bridegroom Of eighty
five. The bridesmaids were none Of them
under seventy. and all of them spinsters.
Four Of the lady's grandsons sang an cpl
thalamium, composed for the occasion by
the parish clerk; and half dozen Of the
gentleman's grand daughters strewed
flowers before the happy pair of octogena-
rians. In 1854, Mr.. Ephraim THAR, aged
eightytive, was married, at Weymouth,
to Mrs. Mary Kingman, aged seventy
eight. The bridegroom had been wild
over just fifteen months, and was then
through his first wife, with whom he
had lived sixty years-father, grand