Comments on Robert Parry Young RN

Question

On 27 Sep 2021 C. Mackinnon wrote on Young-47938:

This profile should have been simple to write up as there wasn't much, just BMD. Reading the will changed it into something quite different. He was quite clearly a bigamist. Or was he, his second marriage specifies that he was 21 years old. (Can't find any Robert Parry Young of that age). Any further information gratefully received.

Comments

If I'm reading that correctly, his wife was insane - and, as such, there could not be a divorce, so he  entered into another relationship.  This was probably as common - or moreso - as wife selling.

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Not that common for a naval officer especially with a grown son also in the service. It is all very odd.

Answer 1

  I wonder if Elizabeth knew  in advance that the  marriage  was bigamous (and if discovered,  surely he would have  been cashiered. )

The marriage allegation is dated  12th, March, only 6 days before his departure for NSW. It was a convict ship and rhere was a mutiny on the voyage.   https://www.freesettlerorfelon.com/convict_ship_albemarle_1791.htm

(the  Attwell Family tree linked towards the bottom  includes a  further transcript from the  letter(s?) describing the mutiny)

 Papers submitted  by  his widow Jane to a charity for the relief of Naval widows. I wonder what they say

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C10060754

Answer 2

He has a profile at Three Decks: https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_crewman&id=14139

Comments

As do his sons: https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_crewman&id=14138 , https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_crewman&id=14125

Answer 3

The marriage record doesn't mention their ages. Ancestry has managed to scramble the information. Obviously bigamous marriage and would have cost him his career if discovered.

Comments

The ancestry record is a published abstract from the marriage allegation. Maybe the original said upwards of 21.  

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/sharing/25952599?h=c465fa&utm_campaign=bandido-webparts&utm_source=post-share-modal&utm_medium=copy-url

As well as losing his commision he risked a criminal trial. Sentences for Bigamy in the 2nd half of the 18th C included branding, imprisonment and transportation 

https://georgianera.wordpress.com/2015/06/30/branded-for-bigamy/

Answer 4

Thanks to everyone who helped. He's got a bio now, with gaps. I still find it extra-ordinary. If you want to keep something a secret from the Royal Navy you certainly don't do it in Gosport even today. Looks to me like material for a novel.