Arborealis

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Since writing the first installment of “The lot of the soldier’s wife” in 2015, the recent discovery of a (third) marriage record lifts Mary McDonnell out of the inscrutable murk of family history mystery. Nevertheless, Mary has led us on a merry genealogical chase to learning what was her lot for the twenty-one years between the death of her (first) husband, John Burke , in 1839 and her own death in 1869. In fact, as the most recent edition of Mary McDonnell’s life story illustrates, she remarried twice and had a habit of using her first married surname as circumstances required.

For the time, Mary Burke alias Hodder otherwise Anderson née McDonnell lived to a good old age. This is particularly the case when we consider how arduous and uncertain were the prospects for the widow of a soldier. The words, precarious, tenuous, and vicissitudes, come to mind.

With her husband, John Burke, regimental tailor , posted to the 39th Regiment, from 1819–1825 she travelled to many parts of Ireland: the cities of Dublin, Cork, Tralee, and Limerick, then returning to county Cork to the town of Buttevant. By 1828, she and John were living at Chatham. After her husband’s death in 1839, Mary lived for at least fourteen more years in Chatham with her second husband, John Anderson. A record of this marriage has not been found. The rite might have been solemnized in the Roman Catholic chapel in Chatham, or it might have been irregular in form. In addition, questions remain about the children who were enumerated in Mary McDonnell’s and John Anderson’s household in 1841 , a line of research which is in progress.

Sometime after Mary’s marriage to Charles Hodder in 1854, the couple removed to Chichester, but — why Chichester? Perhaps the hope was that, unlike the rough neighbourhood that was The Brook in Chatham, Chichester offered not only a more temperate climate but also beautiful aspects of the South Downs to the north and the flats leading southwards the English channel. Unfortunately, Mr Hodder’s habits were less than temperate and after his death, Mary went to live her remaining years with her daughter Margaret’s family, first at Waltham Abbey in Essex and finally, in the ancient cathedral city of Winchester in Hants.

See also :

• Blog article: The lot of the soldier’s wife was unenviable (12 Nov. 2015)
• Biographical sketch: Mary McDonnell (1794–1869) of county Mayo

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End notes :

Source citation for this page: Kilpatrick, Alison. “Mary McDonnell in, ‘The lot of the soldier’s wife’ (revisited).” Published to Arborealis, online at arborealis.ca/2021/01/25/the-lot-of-the-soldiers-wife/, accessed [insert date].

All rights reserved. Alison Kilpatrick ©2021.

Published 25th Jan. 2021; edited 30th Dec. 2023.