On this day in Oxfordshire...

On this day in 1891, a Bletchingdon man got six months for bigamy. In April 1889, Charles William Bazeley had married his landlady widow Caroline Carter, in Small Heath near Birmingham. Unfortunately, Charles failed to mention that he already had a wife, Ann Wodhams, in Banbury.

When some trippers from Banbury came across Bazeley and his new “wife” in Birmingham on August Bank Holiday, they informed Caroline about Ann. Caroline wrote to Ann, who replied: “Madam, in answer to your letter, I was married to Charles William Bazeley on 14 October 1866 in the Wesleyan chapel in Marlborough Road, Banbury, and he left me on 10 October 1871. A worse brute to me never could live.”

The police were contacted. When Bazeley, 45, was charged he replied: “I’ve been living away from her for twenty years. She’s not troubled me, and I’ve not troubled her. I was told that when you had been away seven years you could do as you liked.” To be fair, this was a misconception common at the time.

In 1901 Bazeley acquired yet another wife; aged fifty-two in 1901 he married widow Elizabeth Amos.

This is an extract from “On this Day in Oxfordshire: volume 2” by Julie Ann Godson, available at Amazon.