from the Archivist

On December 28, 2012, Alan wrote to Hamilton

Hi Ham

I hope you are sitting out in the sun enjoying your copy of the British Salmson Owners Club magazine (courtesy of Cousin Janet) !

As winter sets in, I’ve been looking at the ‘family warren’ Documents page and have finally got around to drawing up a list of entries that need to be corrected or added to and I hope you find this is useful. If you like, please tick the ones you want and then scan the list back to me.

Now you may have spotted a rather mixed-up record as far as Francesca is concerned and I have agreed with Janet that I will sort out all the bits that we gathered last summer and see if I can make the Hamilton Girls story shape up !

But just for now, you will see that I have asked you to delete the reference to a divorce on the Gibson/Hamilton entries on the Documents list – this is because they never divorced though Francesca had Petitioned for Divorce in the High Court in London.

In the late 19th Century, I’m told, a wife could only petition with evidence of her husbands adultery but her grounds cited his cruelty and that ‘he had been taken over, body &soul, by the Devil’. So the agreed maintenance order (which you already have) was put in place and the case was dismissed. It wasn’t until the late 1920’s that a women’s right to seek a divorce on all the same grounds as men was made law.

Enough for now, have a very merry Xmas in the sun !

Regards

Alan W