Valentine’s Day has been celebrated for centuries, with the earliest records dating back to the 3rd century. The holiday’s origins are unclear, but it’s thought to have originated from a Roman festival and the celebration of Saint Valentine. 

This mention of the Valentine’s Day is an early one in the Newspaper archives, dated 5 January 1816 this was in the Stamford Mercury, Lincolnshire advertising a Lottery being held by T.Bish of London for the State Lottery Offices.

Over the years, many advertisements in newspapers for stationery for the big day were being promoted.

Marriage in Billinghay

There are many Newspaper reports of marriages for Billinghay in the archives, most are very brief like these two in 1831.

Billinghay Wedding

Almost two hundred years later in 1910, I came across this wonderful account of the Marriage of Mr John Wise and Miss Jane Watson Smith at Billinghay. Even more interesting for me as the bride here, Jane Watson Smith is my first cousin twice removed.

Reports like this one are invaluable for family historians, as they detail parents, siblings, and much more. With this information, what more could I discover about the couple?

Family History

You may recall the name Joseph Smith of the Coach and Horses, Jane’s father, from a previous blog about PC Retchless, link here: PC Harry Retchless Stabbing

I had previously found out a little about Joseph Smith, he was a cottager of 11 acres in 1881, and by 1901 the Smith family were living on Tattersall Rd, North Kyme, Joseph was now a farmer and Inn Keeper at the Coach and Horses, Billinghay.

In 1911 the Smith family along with 2 boarders and nephew Arnold Holmes, brother to my grandmother Jane Watts Holmes, was working on Joseph’s farm as a Carter.

After adding extra details to my family tree because of the newspaper report I wanted to find out a little more about the couple. It was good to find this marriage record as it also gave me the couple’s ages.

I wasn’t able to find the couple on the 1911 census on Ancestry but I’m sure this is John Wise plus 1 female, living at the ‘Farmhouse’ Tattershall Rd in South Kyme in the 1911 England Census Summary Books records.

Because of this record, I decided to look at the 1911 census records on Find My Past and found that the couple matched the Summary Books record that I had already found. John is 34 years of age born in 1877 and Jane is 28, born in 1883. After this, I found the matching 1911 record for them on Ancestry mistranscribed as WIRE not WISE.

Again with the 1921 census, I was unable to find the couple on Ancestry but found them fairly easily on Find My Past, it’s good to be able to have more than one option for searching for particular records if you draw a blank. If you don’t have a subscription to another site where you think the record might be, then maybe ask a friend who does, to do a lookup for you just in case.

As you can see on the 1921 census John and Jane have Jane’s sister Frances who was single, living with them.

John Wise died at the age of 51 and as far as I can see the couple had no children during their marriage. This is John’s digital death record.

Cause of Death: Bulbar palsy/paralysis is a motor neuron disease that affects the lower cranial nerves, which control the muscles used for swallowing, speaking, and chewing. Symptoms include weakness in the face and throat, difficulty swallowing, and changes in speech. 

In this report of John’s funeral below, Jane is described as ‘Brokenhearted’

John’s memorial headstone in St. Mary and All Saints Churchyard, Billinghay, Lincolnshire. He died on 21 March 1927.

On the 1939 register, I had a devil of a job finding Jane Watson Wise a widow, but I eventually found Jane living 40 miles away from Billinghay at Ivy House, 27 Church Lane, Stathern, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire. It was transcribed as INISE and if you look below you can see why!

She’s with her sister Frances again both at the home of George Richard Knott a farmer, who incidentally Frances married in 1942 not long after her sister Jane died. Frances died in 1948.

Jane died on 14 May 1942 and probate left to Frances, just weeks after, Frances married George in the summer quarter of 1942.

Frances left George £5586.7s.4d when she died, the equivalent to nearly £260,000 in today’s money.

After Frances died, George married Edith Emily Whetton in 1950, he was 81, he died in 1956 and left £14,089.19s to his widow who was 69 when they married and 99 when she died in January 1981, still in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire.

Here below are pictures of Ivy House, 27 Church Lane now, images from Google Street. It is a large property.

There is an even bigger surprise still to come in the story of Mr John Wise and Miss Jane Watson Smith who were married at Billinghay in 1910, as you will find out very soon in part two of this Valentine’s blog.

You can always contact me via a comment on here or via email jackocats2@gmail.com