Selina YEADON

Now you might ask yoursellf why am I writing a blog on a non HALSTEAD.

In trying to sort out my mothers house and estate I have been travelling a lot and it also means that long research is not as easy. So I have been trying to sort out some of those odd little things that annoy one.

In this case I decided to look at those people who were the right age to appear on the 1939 Register who I had no surname for in the hope that I could resolve them. There were not that many as it happens but it was when I got to Margaret that the fun started.

What I found in the files was a Margaret who had possibly married a YEADON and then appeared to have married a Joseph HALSTEAD. All of this from a single entry in the 1891 census. you will find the details of Margaret here.

All of the information here came from the entry for Joseph HALSTEAD in the 1891 ceensus. This shows him as married and living with Margaret and son James Ed YEADON. The son must have been Margaret's before her supposed marriage to Joseph as he certainly was not with her in 1881. However there is no marriage of Joseph to any Margaret or a YEADON between 1881 and 1891. In 1901 Joseph is back living on his own and saying that he is single. I suspect therefore that he never actually married Margaret and that they were just "living together".

I decided to explore Margaret a little more. Was she a widow in 1891 or was her son James illegitimate?

When I was teaching family history a few years ago my first comment to the students was have you found them on all the GRO indexes and the census returns. If not fill in the gaps. So the first stop was the 1881 census for Margaret and sure enough there is Margaret as a widow living in Yeadon as a widow with James and his two sisters Eveline and Selina.

I can not find a suitable marriage after 1891 or a death for a Margaret HALSTEAD so I went looking in British Newspaper Archive for Margaret YEADONand found an interesting article in the Huddersfield Chronicle on 9th January1892. It reads:-

THE ILKLEY ROMANCE. 
THE WILL OF THE LATE MAJOR MIDDLETON. 
Under this will, dated October 15th last, and proved December 11th, Edward Joseph Middleton, deceased's brother, and Benjamin Currer Rawson, Bradford, solicitor, are appointed executors and trustees. The will states that an agreement was made by testator and Mrs. Margaret Yeadon on November 6th, 1886, whereby testator was appointed guardian of Mrs. Yeadon's daughter, Selina. Since the agreement the child has lived with Major Middleton, at his residence at Ilkley. The whole residue of testator's real and personal estate is to held in trust, and the income thereof paid to Miss Yeadon, with power to appoint by deed or will any part not exceeding one moiety thereof to any husband who may survive her, during his life or for a less period. Subject to such appointment the residuary funds shall be for the benefit of the issue of Selina Yeadon. The provisions are not to take effect if Miss Yeadon marries under the age of 25 without the consent of the trustees. ln the event of such unsanctioned marriage or the decease of Miss Yeadon, the trustees have power to take over the residuary estate for the benefit of testator's niece, Miss Edith Middleton. To Mrs. Anne Curtiss (Miss Yeadon's appointed guardian) is bequeathed £1,000. £8,500 free of legacy duty is bequeathed for the income to be paid to Ed. Joseph Middleton during life, and after his death to his daughter, Edith, with power to appoint any part thereof to her surviving husband. The trustees hold £500 for distribution to charities as they think fit.

Now there are not that many Selina YEADON's who could fit into the details of those in the article and the only other likely candidate appears to marry in 1886 anyway. So I believe that this is our Selina and Margeret.

I had difficulty tracking down who Major Middleton was as there was not a death that matched the Newspaper Archive information nor was there a matching probate record so I went searching for Selina and finally found the Major as John Joseph MIDDELTON. His estate was probated at £22,639 7s 5d in 1892 the equivalent today being about £1.4 million.

Selina was not with John MIDDELTON in 1891 so I can only assume that she was school somewhere, possibly overseas, as I can't find her in the UK. I sis think that I wasn't going to be to get anywhere further with Selina. I had found a possible married in 1906 in Warwick which was outside the 25 year rule set by John MIDDELTON's will but there was no Selina that match either of the possible surnames until I forgot the age and there she was living in Hampstead, London with a John Michael Tucker but the real clincher was the name of the eldest son John Cuthbert Middelton TUCKER!

It still hasn't helped my track down what happened to Margaret but I do know her her first husband was, what her maiden name was and also what happened to a very lucky daughter.

All of this will be included in the next website update.

Regards
John, email:halstead@one-name.org