When Emily married in 1905 a time when big weddings were uncommon unless it was a society one. This was not so in Emily and Edward Weddall’s case. It was just the two of them with two witnesses and the Vicar. This austerity possibly extended to the bride’s dress. It was not that Emily was miserly, in fact the complete opposite could be said of her it was a sign of those times. Below is an article, The World of Women, from the same year taken from the Penny Illustrated:

We are so utilitarian in these days; if we purchase or learn anything, then that thing must be purchased or learned only if it is likely to prove useful. wear carrying this utilitarian principle to the bride’s dress and the writer takes the liberty of thinking that it it not entirely a wise step.

The argument in favour of this application of the “useful” to the wedding garments is this: The young people are not very well circumstanced it is therefore, better than the bride should have a wedding dress that will easily “come in” for ordinary wear, instead of spending money on a garment that must, in all probability be laid aside after the ceremony…

Yet is it not a pity to banish the poetry from the most solemn, the most important and most poetical of all events of a girl’s life…

Whatever Emily wore to her wedding it was certainly set off by a hat. Emily had a lifelong liking for millinery, wearing the biggest hat available, which usually dwarfed her tiny frame, nevertheless she wore them well.

Sources

The Penny Illustrated 3rd June 1905

The newly built Highbury Station where Emily arrived before her wedding in 1905

Emily Burke arrived in London in April 1905. She made the journey alone as her only remaining sister lived in Australia at the other side of the world. Emily perhaps at this stage was used of being alone and the journey to London to become the second Mrs. Weddall would not have fazed the “intrepid” Emily too much. This ‘fly by the seat of her pants’ approach shows up in Emily’s life on many occasions.

Emily knew the sea captain for about ten years before they walked down the Isle together in St. Mary’s church in Islington. They met at least once in France in 1896, when Emily made a collection for the families of the Kingstown Lifeboat Disaster of 1895. Edward Weddall made an ostentatious contribution to the fund. Maybe it was the sea captain’s way of impressing young Emily. It took it’s time but it worked and a decade after first meeting the couple married.

Old map of Islington

Edward Weddall took rooms at 64 Perthron Road in Islington, before his marriage to Emily. It is impossible to say how long he resided there or if the newlyweds lived there for a time. At the time Islington was a hub of activity for artists, writers and journalists, who Emily would have been right at home with, Edward less so.

Emily would certainly have enjoyed the vivacious artistic element of the area.

Map of the route of the Islington Carnival 1901

Sources

http://www.londontown.com/TransportInformation/LondonStreets/petherton_road_910.html

27 June 1900 – Islington Gazette – London, London, England

On Edward and Emily Weddall’s marriage certificate the address 64 Petherton Rd Islington, London as his address. The sea captain it appears took rooms there before his marriage to Emily. As he was retired at that stage he may have made London his home for a time. His health may have not been great and living in the city with access to modern medicine and physicians had it’s benefits. He and his new bride Emily, may have lived there for some time, as they are unaccounted for until the following year, when they moved to Ireland.

The leafy suburb was mostly rented out as rooms in larger houses and was probably a transient community.The below advert in the Islington Daily Gazette, from the turn of the century is an example of the accomodation on Petherton Road.

Sources

Islington Gazette 27 June 1900

1894 was an anno horribilis (horrible year) for Edward Weddall, loosing both his mother and wife within a few months. Eliza, his mother died in January and Emily his wife in May, leaving little time recover from one until the other occurred. He had some sibling living around the Pocklington area of Yorkshire but by and large their existence was a cold comfort to the sea captain as he was at sea most of the time.

The first Mrs Weddall’s gravestone in Hedon, Yorkshire

His loneliness was not destined to last forever, thought it took him some time to remarry, more than a decade in fact. Before hand a strange twist of fate would lead him to the second Mrs. Weddall. Some time after his first wife’s death  Captain Weddall contracted a tropical disease that caused him to retire from the life at sea. It was during his recuperation at Menetone, in the French Riviera that he stumbled up the vibrant young Irish woman, Miss Emily Burke.

Emily was staying at Hotel Splendid, in Mentone, when she made a collection for the families of the victims of the Kingstown Lifeboat Disaster. The sea tragedy occurred the previous Christmas Eve. As a fellow seafarer Edward Weddall made a generous contribution to the fund, which Emily praised in her letter enclosing the collection to the Irish Times. He may have been stuck in some way by the lively young Irish nurse, whose generosity and empathy towards others stood out. Their romance was a slow burning one, which would take more than ten years till they married.

Photo of Burnby Churchyard. Courtesy of http://www.pocklingtonhistory.com

Sources

York Herald 11 January 1894

Thanks

Special thanks to Andrew Sefton, Archivist

Image of Pocklington Church 1844 courtesy of http://www.pocklingtonhistory.com

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