Frere Jacques

It's amazing what a record search on ancestry.co.uk can reveal about an ancestor's life.  John Hignell  (1817-?) must have been quite a character.   He was my Great great great grandfather's brother, so I did an ancestry search on  him. His name turned up on the UK Probate index.  It said that his wife, Rachel, died in 1850, but he did not recieve 50 pounds from her estate until 1867.  17 years--what could have caused the delay?  Other Hignells who were affluent enough to have an estate had their wills probated in a few months.

So, I did a death record search for Rachel Hignell, of Newport Monmouthshire, and found she died in the first quarter of 1850.  Then, I did a full search for John Hignell on Ancestry--by the time of the Wales 1851 census, he has remarried to Ann Watters, a woman 10 years his senior  ( Ann Watters, a Victorian cougar-I salute you).  Then I backtracked to the freebmd.co.uk and searched for John Hignell marriage in 1850-52.  He remarried in December 1850.  Granted, he had a 4 year old daughter, Ann, but I do think it showed scant respect for Rachel Hignell.  

Fortunately, John Hignell married Rachel in 1845, and there were no other couples on the page, so I know Rachel's maiden name was Prosser.  Here's where it starts getting weird.  In the 1851 census, John and Ann Hignell are living with Ann Hignell, John and Rachel's 4 year old daughter,  Ann Watters Hignell's two teenage daughters, and John's former mother in law, Mary Prosser, 70 years old.  

Why was Mary Prosser living there?  John Hignell had a stepmother for his daughter, and she brought two older girls to the marriage.  Young Ann didn't lack for female company, so why was her maternal Grandma part of this one big happy family?  Even the Brady Bunch did not add Grandparents to the mix.  My guess is Grandmother Prosser did not trust 'that woman' to take care of her surviving Granddaughter.  Without any family letters, it's all conjecture on my part.

There's a fragment of data in my brain that said Ann Watters maiden name was also Prosser, but I have to find the record to prove it.  If true, that makes the whole situation even more volatile.