Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-01-09
man in Queen Elizabeth's College, aged a

man In queen EllZaDeIA COllegc, dgeu
hundred and eight years, and Margaret
Thomas, of Charlton, in Kent, aged
eighty years, married by license OF the
Lord Bishop of Rochester, and leave OF
the Governors of the Diapers" This en-
try had soon afterward a melancholy adj
dendum could Cooper, buried October
81, 1886"
We have not quite done with the old
folks vet. In 1869, MIR. Boys, of Lincoln
shire, then upward of eighty, married a
Mrs. Air, she being his third wife, and
he her third husband The same year
saw a lover of the sex, hailing from Els
sex, take girl of eighteen to wife he
being seventy-three when max
ing this, his third appearance, in
the character of bridegroom, his
third appearance ia twelve months.
Unlike the Irishman who excused his
polygamous propensity by saying he was
only "trying to get good one,' Sir Ger
vase Clifton was fortunate in his many
matrimonial speculations. This many
wived man owned to having been "bless-
ed" seven times in his life, and divided
his helpmates into three "honorable'
maidens, three "worshipful" widows, and
one "well beloved wife"-the last of his
ventures, who had been born under his
roof, and waited upon him as servant
ere he made her ''my Lady" Altogether,
Sir Gervase's experience of the sex was
| an uncommon one; each Of his wives was
nursed in her last illness by her successor
expectant, and had signifed approval of
the match depending upon her departure,
The seventh wife outlived her lord. In
1774 an old gentleman of Sudbury was
sitting at breakfast with his bride that
was to be, before proceeding to church,
when he was seized with fit and died
Immediately, just missing becoming
Benedict for the seventh time. In ITO
died Mr. Salmon, of Hollingbury, Essex,
at the age of 81; he had buried nine
wives and left widow to mourn
his loss; and two years afterward the
death was chronicled of Mr.. Guy, who
had been married fourteen times, yet
never been father.
A soldier who had won and lost five
wives, when he departed this life, in
1885, left widow to lament her fourth
bereavement. Experienced as she was
in wearing the weeds, she was surpassed
in that way by Dame Scrimshaw,
Who lived in the reign of Queen Anne,
And was debonar, buXom and thrifty;
Who married five times-as you see by these
rhymes
And died at one hundred and fifty,
And without them used needle and thread;
And YOU may all see, without favor fee,
Although she so long has been dead
This wonderful old woman danced before
the court few days before her DEATH
and upon Her Maiesty's condescending to
inquire if she intended to marry again,
answered: II think not; | am getting
too old" Dame Scrimshaw's allowance
of husbands has been exceeded by women
hn oil fo Of of aInir har on 9TH
of days In 1772 woman of eighty five
was married at st. Clement Danes to her
sixth husband In 1863 there died at
Florence one Elizabeth Mast, who had
outlived no less than seven spOuses, al
though she had reached her SEVENTEEN
year when she claimed the priests good
offices for the last time. On her death
bed this modern rival of the Wife Of Bath
was puzzled to decide which of her seven
partners most deserved to be her COM
panion in death, and after much cogita
ton and balancing of merits and demer
its solved the delicate question by desir
ing that she might be laid by the side of
her fifth husband. Martha Blewitt, after
following eight husbands to the grave, was
buried by her ninth in 1851, the disconso-
late widower doubtless deriving much
consolation from the sermon preached
upon the occasion from the text, Last of
all the women died also!' If st. jerome
is to be believed, as of course he is, there
once lived woman who would have
laughed at the moderation of those of her
sex who stopped at seven or eight hus
bands; for she buried twenty-one, and
then found a man brave enough to be-
come her twenty-second; but he was al
most her equal in experience, having en-
loved cOnnubial bliss with twenty fair
ones in turn.
There was nothing very odd in DR..
Bowles marrying the daughter of his old
friend, DR.. Stamford, but when the latter
made matters even by converting Miss
Bowles into Mrs. Stamford an extremely
odd complication Of relationship resulted;
as Usher remarks, the women could say:
"These are our fathers, our sons and our
husbands" Each doctor became father
in-law and son-in-law to each other;
while each lady became her step-daugh
ter's step daughter and her step-mother's
step mother, besides standing in tie
position Of mother-in-law to her own
father, and being her own grandmother
in-law! A widower named HARDWOOD had
two daughters. One Of these married
Mr. Chosick, a widower with one daugh-
ter This young lady was persuaded to
DecOUlc hTS. Hal NOou, anu III CouISC VI
time presented her husband with a son,
thereby enabling Mrs. Chosick to say:
"My father is my son, and l am my
mothers mother; my sister is my daugh.
ter, and | am grandmother to my
brother" Citizen Finot, President of
the Provisional Administration of this
Department, had the misfortune to lose
his wife. She left him two girls to take
care of-one her daughter by him, the
other her daughter by her first husband.
In 1897, the President married his step
child, thus becoming the son-in-law of his
dead wife, while he was step father to his
second wife, and brotherin-la law to his
own daughter; Madame Finot, the sec
ond, on her part becoming her sisters
mother; and when some little Finots APP
peared on the scene their father was their
grandfather into the bargain.
Two brothers married mother and
daughter, making the mothers husband
his brothers father in law and the four
made between a mother and daughter
two brothers, father-in-law, mother
in law and two brothers -in-law. If the
elder lady was blessed with a son, he
would have been half-brother to his aunt;
and if the daughter followed suit, her
child would have been one uncle's grand
son, another uncle's cousin, and nephew
to his grandmother.
Amid the variety Of strange marriages
the palm of oddity must certainly be con-