The woman who married two brothers … or did she?
Margaret McNeash McKenzie married Thomas Brickley in Glasgow in 1863. They emigrated with their three young children to Lyttelton on the “Himalaya” in 1875. Thomas died at Oxford, Canterbury in December 1880, leaving Margaret a widow with 6 surviving children. Her youngest was aged only 1.
William Brickley, Thomas’s brother married Isabella Craig in 1869 in Glasgow. The left Scotland as assisted emigrants with their two children Peter aged 2, and baby Isabella on the “Dunedin” in 1874. Both Isabella and her baby daughter died at sea, and so William arrived in New Zealand a widower with his only surviving child, Peter.
By 1880, both Margaret and William were on their own, both living in Oxford and with young children to care for. There is no record that William and Margaret actually married. Margaret gave birth to a son called William in 1882. His father is not recorded. Two further children followed where William is recorded as the father. The “Deceased Husband’s Brother Marriage Act” did not come into law until 1900. Although many family historians will tell you that these marriages occurred anyway. Margaret was already Mrs Brickley, so perhaps they did not feel the need to marry? In total, Margaret had given birth to 11 Brickley children.
The combined Brickley family moved to Wellington and settled in Brooklyn. William worked as a fireman.
Margaret died in May 1908, aged 63 and the children from her first marriage placed numerous and frequent memorials to her in the newspapers but only with reference to her being the relict of Thomas Brickley.
In September the same year, Robert Brickley sued his father William for possession of a sideboard. Robert claimed that the sideboard was to be given to him when he was married. As he had become married, he wanted the sideboard. William said he would give the sideboard to him, but not his wife to whom he objected. He would rather go to jail. His Worship said that the plaintiff had not established his ownership and entered a non-suit without costs.
Despite the quarrel, William lived the last two years of his life at Robert’s home in Petone where he died in 1917 and was noted as an “old and respected resident”.
Do you have similar tales in your family?
