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First Marriage of Mary Winn

Posted by John Bennett on 3/12/2018, 8:46 pm

Good Evening,
Mary Winn married Samuel Stafford in Aug. 1813 at St Andrews Plymouth. Mary Winn is recorded as being a widow.
I have found only one instance of a Mr Winn marrying a Mary in Devon in the relevant period.
Christopher Winn married Mary Clinnick in Aug. 1802 at Exeter, St Thomas the Apostle. Mary Clinnick was born in Cornwall on the 'correct' date of 1786 to William & Grace.
To be a valid first marriage, Christopher must have expired between 1802 and 1813. However, I have been unable to find such a death, in Devon or in fact anywhere.

Any suggestions to another approach to solving this knotty problem would be much appreciated.

Re: First Marriage of Mary Winn

Posted by Karen Newman on 4/12/2018, 6:54 am, in reply to "First Marriage of Mary Winn"

A Christopher Winn is buried in Exeter in 1815 which is likely to be the husband of Mary Clinnick.

A widow named Mary Winn marries a James Greenaway in Exeter in 1816.

Given that a Samuel and Mary Stafford baptise 2 daughters with a middle name LUKE, could this have been Mary's maiden name?

A William and Mary WINN baptise a son, JOHN LEE WINN, in 1811 in Stoke Damerel. A possibility for Mary?

Re: First Marriage of Mary Winn

Posted by John Bennett on 7/12/2018, 8:04 pm, in reply to "Re: First Marriage of Mary Winn"

Dear Karen,
I believe that I have progressed a little further with my Winn/Stafford enquiries.
There were only 2 feasible Winn/Mary marriages in the relevant period; one a Mary Nightingale to Stephen Woon in 1797 and the second a Mary Williams to Wm. Winne in 1798. The age quoted in the 1841 Census implies Mary would be only 12 years old at this time, but I never believe 1841 ages. In fact I think that my Mary Williams was born in 1778.
Hunting through death records, I found that Stephen Woon expired long after Mary declared herself a widow when, she married Samuel Stafford.
I found that Wm. Winne who was a marine and was aboard HMS Cavalier when it was captured by the French in 1809. He died in 1810 and is buried in Essex. It would appear that Mary was a widow and not a bigamist!
I have also studied the possibility that Mr Winne & Mary may have had offspring. The only Wm. & Mary parentage I unearthed was the John Lee Winn you mentioned, but he was born more than a year after Wm. Winne died.
I am reasonably satisfied that I have found the answer to my query and your comments certainly helped.
I now need to find the dob of Wm Winne. The French record shows him as being from 'Shiffield', but so far I haven't found him in Yorkshire. The military records may be more fruitful.

Regards,

John Bennett

Re: First Marriage of Mary Winn

Posted by Karen Newman on 8/12/2018, 10:40 am, in reply to "Re: First Marriage of Mary Winn"

There is a William WINNE baptised in Plymouth St Andrew in 1799 (parents William & Mary), so might be their child.

Annoyingly, neither baptism shows the father's occupation.

I am not sure about the burial of William Winn in Essex...

FMP has the record of a prisoner of war named William Winne of 'Shiffield' and the corvette Cavalier but he arrives in camp on 26th May 1811. He is describes as the servant of Mr Taylor, so he might not have been a marine (though William could have left the service some time after his marriage to Mary Williams).

Re: First Marriage of Mary Winn

Posted by Brian on 8/12/2018, 8:04 am, in reply to "Re: First Marriage of Mary Winn"

The French record shows Wm Winne as being from 'Shiffield' and his burial has been found in Essex.
Just a thought, but are you aware of Shenfield in Essex?

Brian

Re: First Marriage of Mary Winn

Posted by John Bennett on 4/12/2018, 8:53 am, in reply to "Re: First Marriage of Mary Winn"

Many thanks Karen,

The Exeter Christopher Winn certainly sounds like the husband of Mary Clinnick and his 1815 death would rule him out as my Mary's first husband.
Even negative results are useful!

I hadn't found the 2 daughters of Samuel and Mary, but the 'Luke' connection will certainly be worth following up. The 1841 census showed 2 sons and a daughter, Caroline.
The Wm. Winn/Mary son will also be worth a chase.

Your comments have been most helpful and I will post any further developments on the Board.

Kind regards,

John Bennett

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