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It seems certain that Anne would have met Gilbert as a result of his involvement in helping with William’s release from Fisherton Asylum and they presumably had stayed in contact after the Alleged Lunatics Friend’s Society finished their involvement when William had been transferred from asylum back to prison in 1855. But in 1858 William returns to Anne and she seems to support him when telling the detective that William hadn’t seen the cheques in their house for many years.
After this supportive act in June 1858 I don’t have any information on Anne until the birth of Anne, her first child with Gilbert, just 12-15 months later and then them living together as a family in West London in the 1861 census. Their two other children were born in 1861, Frances, and 1863, Gilbert John before they marry in Dec 1866.
The marriage would be 8 years and a few months after William was sent to prison for the second time so perhaps the question of why they delayed their marriage might be partly answered. If they had contact with William for a while after he started his second prison term then it looks like they left their marriage until 7 years after they would have last had contact with William. This would allow them to claim that their marriage was legal under the “Offences against the person act, 1861” which allowed a marriage, without the risk of being charged with bigamy, if there had been no contact nor any knowledge of William being alive for 7 years. (Though presumably they could have found out through the prison system if they had tried).
In 1866 their address on the marriage certificate was given as West London. Wilmshurst was released from prison in 1868 and his first known location is in Marylebone in the 1871 census where he is given as an “Office Boy” for a missionary society. This address is 3 miles from Anne and Gilbert's former address but they had now moved to Birmingham. The family story is that they reduced the number of servants they had after paying significant compensation to some clients after their money was lost due to Gilbert investing in a Bank that collapsed. It would seem likely that the downsizing happened when they moved to Birmingham but they wouldn't have needed to move to Birmingham to reduce the number of servants they had. Is it possible that they learned that Wilmshurst was living relatively close (though 3 miles would not be regarded as local in London) and they were concerned about him seeing them or spreading stories about them? - Perhaps this even happened. There is no way of knowing if this was the case.
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