Richard Kay Pennance 1844 and Mary Warring in Bolton

The unhappy tale of Richard & Mary starting with his birth in 1844.

England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915

Name:	Richard Kay Pennance
Registration Year:	1844
Registration Quarter:	Apr-May-Jun
Registration district:	Bolton
Parishes for this Registration District:	Bolton
Inferred County:	Lancashire
Volume:	21
Page:	119

Source Information:

FreeBMD. England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.

Original Data: General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes. London,

Then we find his marriage to Mary Waring (sometimes spelt Warring).

England, Select Marriages, 1538–1973

Name:	Richard Kay Pennance
Gender:	Male
Marital Status:	Widowed
Marriage Date:	31 Dec 1865
Marriage Place:	Bolton-Le-Moors, Lancashire, England
Father:	John Pennance
Spouse:	Mary Waring
FHL Film Number:	1966659
Reference ID:	it 2, p 53, no 106
Household Members:	Name Age John Pennance Richard Kay Pennance James Waring Mary Waring

Source Information:

Ancestry.com. England, Select Marriages, 1538–1973 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.

Original Data: England, Marriages, 1538–1973. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013

So far so good but things go downhill rapidly from here. From the Bolton Evening News:

Thursday 6 April 1871

EXCITING SCENE AT THE BOLTON INFIRMARY

An extaordinary but very painful scene was witnessed at eight o`clock on Tuesday morning, in Infirmary-street. On Monday a poor woman, named Mary Pennance, of Antelope-court, Churchgate, wife of Richard Pennance, a mechanic, inflicted a wound upon her throat, and afterwards threw herself into the river Croal, from which she was rescued and taken to the infirmary. She was there attended by the house surgeon and carefully watched by the female attendants. On Tuesday morning, at the time above stated, she was in bed, and Miss Harris, the nurse, had hold of her hand, when Mrs Pennance jumped suddenly out of her bed, threw the nurse from her, sprang to the window, undid the fastenings, and made a most determined effort to precipitate herself to the pavement below. The nurse, fortunately, caught the poor woman by the hand as she was falling, and screamed for help, the alarm being joined in by the patients in the ward, which is in the top story. Mrs. Pennance was seen by the passers-by hanging in her nightdress from the window, restrained at first only by the single and of the nurse; but the matron (Miss Wiggins), the porter, and other domestics of the institution rushed to the rescue, and after a sharp struggle succeeded in pulling the patient back into the interior. On being secured, she looked vacantly about her, and said, amongst many other utterances, "Oh, I do so like a piece of fun!" The poor creature was confined about 7 weeks ago; and the occurence on Tuesday morning, coupled with her determined efforts at suicide, would appear to be explained by the general belief that she has become insane. - Bolton Evening News. 

Well, it gets worse....

Richard served a sentence of 14 days hard labour in Salford New Bailey Prison, between 23 july 1868 and 5 august 1868. At the time he was residing in Churchgate in Bolton and was sentenced for stealing 8lb of lead. He is described as married with one child, 5ft tall, weighed 8st 10lb,and had  light brown hair and blue eyes. He also had a scar on his forehead, ear pierces and the 4th finger of his left hand was crooked.

and later.................

Richard was imprisoned on 27th February 1875, in Manchester Strangeways Prison, on a charge of "Neglect of Family". He served 3 months hard labour and was released 0n 26th May 1875. The circumstances that lead to this charge began several years earlier. Following the attempted suicide of his wife Mary in april 1871, his daughter died shortly after, aged only a few months. Mary was admitted to the workhouse in Bury on 4th January 1872 (described as insane)and was discharged on 3rd February 1872. She was readmitted to the workhouse on 19th April 1872 (again described as insane). The two sons, James and George were both admitted to the workhouse on 10th November 1873, (deserted by father and mother), and were discharged on 19th May 1875, shortly before Richard was releasd from prison. Mary was also dicharged later that year on 4th November 1875,(on her own act having shown good conduct). Unfortunately this was not the end of this difficult time for the family as James died less than two years later in 1877 aged only 10 years.

[the above posted on an Ancestry family members page Posted 30 Dec 2012 by marsdenchadbond]

And this is probably the death of Richard....

Name: Richard Pennance
Event Type: Death
Registration Quarter: Apr-May-Jun
Registration Year: 1899
Registration District: Bolton
County: Lancashire
Event Place: Bolton, Lancashire, England
Age (available after 1866): 55
Birth Date (available after June quarter 1969):
Birth Year (Estimated): 1844
Volume: 8C
Page: 231
Line Number: 168
Citing this Record:
England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837-2007," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2J5S-DR5 : 31 December 2014), Richard Pennance, 1899; from "England & Wales Deaths, 1837-2006," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing Death, Bolton, Lancashire, England, General Register Office, Southport, England.

Oh dear, well that's quite enough for today.