A newspaper obituary for Mary Ann Holmes Booth.
Image Source: Boston Daily Advertiser 10-23-1885
MAB Obit 10-23-1885 Boston Daily Advertiser
Discovering the Conspiracy
A newspaper obituary for Mary Ann Holmes Booth.
Image Source: Boston Daily Advertiser 10-23-1885
Is this obituary mistaken (or an outright lie) in claiming that Mary Ann married Junius Brutus Booth in 1821 in London, England? He could not have legally marry Mary Ann as he was still married to his first wife, Adelaide. I had always understood they were married only after he divorced Adelaide, sometime after 1851. What is the primary source for for the belief that Junius and Mary Ann were married at all? I would appreciate someone clarifying this for me. Thanks, Steve
Steve,
I like to think of this obituary as revisionist history on Asia Booth’s part. The Booth siblings were well aware of their own illegitimacy and yet Asia would claim, in this obituary and in her books on her father, that her mother and father were legitimately married in 1821. They may have married each other “in spirit” when they ran away together in 1821, but Junius was still legally married to Adelaide, as you point out. I see it as Asia’s attempt to hide her parents’ sin which likely ashamed her.
Dave