UPDATED information regarding THOMAS BISSETT and FANNY WILLS
It is always worth going back to topics you have originally researched to check if there are new sources of information. When Find My Past made their newspaper archive free over the long weekend to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee I looked again at the Bissetts.
In the Weekly Hants Independent for Saturday 17th July 1875, there was a letter to the editor from the solicitor who had represented Thomas Bissett. George Prince Joyce was passing on to the people of Newport Thomas Bissett's thanks for the financial contribution the townspeople had made to the cost of his defence. Mr Joyce points out that without this Thomas would not have had any legal representation. The solicitor then goes on to report that many people in Newport had independently indicated that they would be prepared to sign a memorial (petition) to the Secretary of State asking that the sentence be commuted.
In a postscript, Mr Joyce reports that a resident from Bournemouth had contacted him with the names and addresses of the jurors. Mr Brock has done so in the hope that something could be done to help Thomas Bissett. Reference is again made to Thomas' good character.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to trace what happened next.
Having found this I then decided to recheck the online records relating to the people in this story.
Originally I had found Thomas Bissett in the 1861 census living with a woman he described as his wife. At the time I could not find a marriage record for them. Thomas was legally still married to Fanny. Although you will recall that Fanny had gone through a marriage ceremony with James Guy in 1855. A new search for Thomas and Isabella was successful. They were married in Ayrshire on 30th September 1856. This would have been a few days after Thomas left the army. By 1871 he was again living with Fanny Wills. So, what happened to Isabella Goldie? Unfortunately, further investigation revealed a sad story. Thomas and Isabella had two sons who died very young. Their eldest son, Robert, was born and died in 1858. A second son, Thomas Pearson, was born in 1865 and died in 1867. Thomas senior at one stage had two living sons with the same name. Isabella herself died in 1870. So, it does look as if Thomas did try to build a new life for himself. Although once he had suffered the tragedy of losing his "wife" and two sons Fanny had reappeared.
It seems that the newspaper journalist of the day missed an extra back story to the trial. One that further complicated Thomas and Fanny's relationship. If it had been reported would it have further increased the amount of sympathy people had for Thomas? Or, would they have been swayed by the fact that he also "remarried" despite not being eligible to do so? How much did Isabella Goldie know about his first family?
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