Sarah (Nelson) Speed (1767 - 1826)

Born 13 Mar 1767 in London, England

Ancestors

Wife of William John Speed — married 30 Jun 1785 in Westminster, Middlesex, England

Descendants

Died Aug 1826 at age 59 in London, England

Biography

Sarah Nelson was born on 13 March 1767 and baptised at St Peter. Paul's Wharf, London, on 9 April 1767.^[1] She was the daughter of George Nelson and his wife Elizabeth.

Her father was Common Crier of the City of London and and her grandfather, George Nelson, was an Alderman and Lord Mayor of the City of London.

Marriage

At age 18, she married William John Speed, a lieutenant in the Marines, by licence in 1785. They had two wedding ceremonies: first, on 30 June 1785 at St John the Evangelist, Smith Square, Westminster,^[2] and then again on 14 September 1785 at Furneux Pelham, Hertford.^[3]

Her marriage was not a happy one. The family struggled financially, three of their children died in infancy, and there were suggestions of ‘impropriety of conduct’ by her husband.^[4]

Separation

In 1792, after seven years of marriage, she left her husband and sought refuge with her father. The estranged couple formally separated—signing a deed of separation—and from thereon lived apart.

It was a bitter separation, with disagreements about the care of their three young children and her estranged husband badgering her to return to him. When this failed, he took legal action in an ecclesiastical court to either force her to return, or obtain an absolute separation, which she resisted by obtaining an order from the Court of King’s Bench.^[5]

The situation deteriorated further after her estranged husband illegally re-married, and then deserted, another woman in 1799-1800. There followed, in the next few years, a contest for the loyalty of their sons William and Henry, and a dispute over the custody of their younger daughter, Jane, who her husband forcibly removed from her care amid allegations of child abuse.

Sarah suffered a sort of emotional breakdown in mid-1804 and was persuaded to return to her husband—who was already in a relationship with a mistress. The reunion only lasted four months before Sarah—again pregnant with his child—left him, this time forever.

Husband's conviction for bigamy

Nothing is known of her husband's movements for the next four years until, in 1808, he re-surfaced under an assumed name and with his mistress now masquerading as his wife.

In September 1808, Speed says, he discovered that Sarah was ‘in the habit of going to the house of a Mrs. Ward, who keeps a School at Clapham … adducing [his] second marriage as an act of villainy.’ ^[5]

He wrote to Sarah proposing an ‘amicable adjustment,’ together with a thinly veiled threat that ‘a public trial must be a disgrace for [their] children, whether father, or mother, should be proved guilty of misconduct’.^[5] Her response was to have him arrested and taken before a Bow Street magistrate, who ordered him to stand trial for bigamy.^[6]

Speed was tried at the Surrey Assizes in March 1809 for the felony of bigamy.^[7] He was found guilty and sentenced to 7 years' transportation.

Death

Sarah died in August 1826 and was buried at St Nicholas Cole Abbey, London, on 16 August 1826.^[8]

An application for the administration of her estate was made to the Consistory Court in September 1826.^[9]

Children

She was the mother of seven children (three of whom died in infancy):

• William John Speed (1787 - 1848)

• Frances Elizabeth Speed (1788 - 1788)

• James Morris Maule Speed (1789 - 1789?)

• Walter Danvers Speed (1790 - 1790?)

• Danvers Walter Henry Speed (1791 - 1841)

• Jane Mary Speed (1792 - 1847)

• George Thomas Frederick Speed (1805 - 1854)

Sources

1. ↑ Parish register, St Peter, Paul's Wharf, London.
2. ↑ City of Westminster Archive Centre, marriages, St John the Evangelist, Smith Square; available on findmypast
3. ↑ Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies, online index; available on findmypast ).
4. ↑ See, e.g., 'Surry Assizes', The Times (London), 25 Mar 1809, p4.
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2} National Archives (UK), HO 47/41/50, fol.376-387. Case of William John Speed Lieutenant Colonel late St Vincent Rangers.
6. ↑ Morning Post, 26 Sept 1808, p3. 'Bigamy'.
7. ↑ National Archives (UK): ASSI 94/1633. Indictment against W J Speed for bigamy; ASSI 31/21 fol.20-31. Minutes of proceedings at Surrey Lent Assizes 1809 at Kingston upon Thames.
8. ↑ Parish register, St Nicholas Cole Abbey, London. "Sarah Speed; No 26 New North Street Red Lion Square; August 16th; 59 yrs; Wilfred Speer M.A."
9. ↑ The Times (London), 8 Sept 1826, p2.