A near riot, with women throwing things at the bride, isn\u2019t the best start to married life. For Jane Boak, it seems to have been a case of \u2018marry in haste, repent\u2026\u2019 well, to some extent immediately, and for sure at leisure after.<\/p>\n
For groom Joseph Gleve proved a catch in very much the wrong sense of the word.<\/p>\n
The story of the near riot starts in April 1874, with a court case involving an un-named Shap labourer who was charged with drunken behaviour.<\/p>\n
He said he\u2019d been in Mrs Boak\u2019s eating house at one point in the day. Joseph Gleve said he\u2019d gone with the prisoner to get a glass of whisky\u2026 and had later tried to get the prisoner bailed out of the police station.<\/p>\n
Jane Boak, of Little Dockray, Penrith, was newly widowed. Slater Thomas Boak had died on March 31, leaving her with their sons Joseph, 15, and William, 13.<\/p>\n
She looks to have been n\u00e9e Jane Canning, born 1838 Cummersdale, daughter of an Irish Catholic cotton carder, John Canning and his Scottish wife Margaret, n\u00e9e Jordan.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Jane Canning married Thomas Boak in 1857. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Joseph Gleve\u2019s back story (beyond that he was \u2018an Irishman\u2019 and also a Catholic) is unknown, but the court case above perhaps gives some indication of his character.<\/p>\n Love, they say, is blind \u2013 and widowhood didn\u2019t suit Jane Boak.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For on June 2 1874, Jane Boak and Joseph Gleve got married.<\/p>\n The fact they were married just two months after Thomas Boak died did not go down well with sons Joseph and William. Or the good folk of Penrith.<\/p>\n The trouble started the night before the wedding, with a \u2018lively scene\u2019.<\/p>\n There was a row, and young William Boak came out of his home bleeding. He told bystanders Gleve had hit him on the head with a poker.<\/p>\n He was taken to a doctor, and the boys went to stay with a friend.<\/p>\n That night, a straw effigy of a woman was burned before the window of Mrs Boak\u2019s house.<\/p>\n Next day. Jane Boak and Joseph Gleve slipped quietly to the Catholic Church to be married, and took separate routes back. Only to be met by a crowd of women who shouted at her and threw sods, dirt, old shoes, and \u2018items of an even more objectionable nature\u2019 at her.<\/p>\n She got inside safely.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Joseph Gleve had to ask for a police escort to run the gauntlet of the crowd.<\/p>\n Which was no great trouble for the police, as they subsequently arrested him for assaulting his now step-son.<\/p>\n Accounts vary between papers. One says juveniles beat the doors of the chapel during the wedding\u00a0 <\/span>ceremony. Gleve becomes Glee, Gleeve, and Glebe. The effigy was burned possibly on the night of the wedding. Which Gleve for sure spent in a police cell.<\/p>\n In court, William Boak withdrew the allegation and Gleve was acquitted.<\/p>\n One of those said to have encouraged William to accuse Gleve was Pearson Howson, son of William Howson, who will feature in another post.<\/p>\n William Boak\u2019s account to magistrates was that his mother had caused his injury, pushing him against the chimney piece (after she and her intended had threatened to throw him down the stairs).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The row had been over a tape line he needed for his master (he was a stonemason\u2019s apprentice):\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Gleve (in another demonstration of his character) had told him the tape line wasn\u2019t his and he had to pay 5 shillings for it.<\/p>\n William Boak been persuaded by others to blame Gleve for the assault. But it’s fair to say neither Joseph Gleve nor Jane Boak come across well from the story.<\/p>\n The bench thought public opinion would carry more weight than anything they could say.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Joseph Gleve, Jane Gleve and William Boak left court and were variously cheered and hooted as they passed through the streets.<\/p>\n Jane Boak soon regretted her hasty marriage, for her new husband proved to be \u2018abusive and a drunkard\u2019.<\/p>\n Having begun with a near riot, the marriage lasted just over three years: he deserted her in October 1877.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Jane Boak\/Jane Gleve continued to run an eating house in Little Dockray \u2013 which is also described in 1878 as a temperance hotel.<\/p>\n She\u2019d had enough of drunks and alcohol.<\/p>\n Joseph Gleve, however, hadn\u2019t. And he wanted his wife to give him money, even though he\u2019d left her.<\/p>\n Luckily for Jane Boak\/Jane Gleve, the Law had progressed enough by the late 1870s for her to be able to keep the money she had worked hard to earn.<\/p>\n And in August 1878, she was granted a court order to protect her goods and chattels from Joseph.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>Joseph did not give in willingly.<\/p>\n For in October 1878, Joseph Gleve summonsed Jane for assault.<\/p>\n He told the court he had been walking up Blue Bell Yard when she\u2019d come out of the house, knocked against him, called him a blackguard and struck him with her fist.<\/p>\n They\u2019d been separated about 12 months.<\/p>\n He said they\u2019d separated after he accused her of impropriety. But he denied threatening to blow her \u2014- brains out or cut her \u2014- throat.<\/p>\nA merry widow?<\/h2>\n
The near riot<\/h2>\n
A burning effigy and objectionable missiles<\/h3>\n
The police escort<\/h3>\n
Young William Boak \u2013 and his loving mother<\/h3>\n
Wedded bliss \u2013 or not so much<\/h2>\n
The Married Women\u2019s Protection Act<\/h2>\n
Ever the charmer<\/h2>\n