What happened to Sophia?
QSophia Jane Woods was born in 1859 in Bedfont, Middlesex. She married Frederick Charles Greening on 26 September 1875 in Windsor, and they had a son Alfred George Greening in July 1877 in Brentford. In 1881, the family was living in Chattenden Barracks in Kent. Frederick remarried on 5 October 1892 to a Jane Hunt in Stoke Poges, describing himself as a widower, but I can’t find a death record for Sophia. Can you help? Christopher Lawrence
AEverything about this case points towards a break-up between Frederick and Sophia during the 1880s. The fact that Alfred was residing with Sophia’s brother at the time of the 1891 census is telling, as is the fact that Frederick was by then already living with Jane Hunt at the Foresters Arms in Stoke Poges. He was somewhat ambiguous when it came to his marital status, and the detail appears to have initially been left blank in the census record – “Sin” (for “single”) has been added in a different hand. Frederick’s claim to be widowed when he married Jane must be viewed in this light.
The marriage was evidently in trouble as early as 19 September 1885, when a notice was published in the Windsor and Eton Express stating that Frederick would “not be answerable for any Debt or Debts my Wife, Sophia Jane Greening, may incur on and after this date”. Then, on 28 July 1887, Frederick was charged at the Windsor Petty Sessions with assaulting his wife, and bound over to keep the peace. Unfortunately, this is the last sighting of Sophia; another report from October 1890 mentions Frederick’s wife, but this is almost certainly a reference to Jane Hunt, even though it predates their marriage by a couple of years.
Sophia’s birthplace differs in each of the censuses in which she appears, which makes it very difficult to identify possible candidates in later records. Life was clearly tough, and she may well have left Windsor and taken on an entirely new identity. David Annal