FAMILY HISTORY: BUCKNER
THE FAMILY OF JOHN BUCKNER
THE SEPARATION:
| According to the press reports below, it would seem that John and Susan Buckner were happily married until her younger sister came to live with them. Was Susan a jealous and suspicious wife threatened by the presence of her younger sister? Or was John a scoundrel who carried on an affair with his sister-in-law right under his wife's nose? Obviously, there are two sides to every story and you can draw your own conclusions from the press reports. |
| PRESS REPORT 1905: |
| ORDERED TO PAY ALIMONY TO WIFE |
| John Buckner Must Support Family - Too Friendly With Wife's Sister, 'Tis Said |
| space'A case affording the best of material for the scandal mongers was heard in the Non-Jury Assizes by Mr. Justice Street this morning,
when Mrs. Susan Buckner sued her husband, John Buckner, of 62 Grant street for alimony, charging him with undue friendship with her sister, Miss Lottie Jennings. Mrs. Buckner no
longer lives with her husband and the judge, after making an order for alimony, informed her that she would have no difficulty in securing the charge of her children, two little girls
and a boy, aged respectively ten, eight, and twelve years. spaceMrs. Buckner said that she had no family trouble until a year after her sister came to live with them. She then discovered Miss Jennings sitting on Mr. Buckner's lap, and he was kissing her. Mrs. Buckner said that she noticed Mr. Buckner was taking the young woman out too frequently. Relations became strained, and her husband she said assaulted her when she refused to tell him where a beer bottle had been secreted. When she threatened to retaliate by "thumping" the sister, her husband banged her head against the wall with such force that the blow broke the plaster. As a result of the injury she was confined to bed, and her husband, to show is contempt, tacked a black ribbon to the door of her bedroom. She asked her sister to leave but was told that the house belonged to Mr. Buckner, not to her. Mrs. Buckner had decided to leave after her husband had come into her room late one night and pulled all the clothes off her bed. She had asked him for $5 and he replied that she would not get five cents. spaceMr. Buckner denied his wife's statements, saying that there had been nothing between himself and the sister beyond his taking her to church once or twice, and to Niagara Falls. He said that his wife had assaulted him, and admitted that he slapped her face. Miss Jennings had kept house for him since his wife had left. space"That Miss Jennings should have remained there is a most shocking condition of affairs" was the comment of Mr Justice Street. In giving his decision for the wife, he left the amount of alimony to be paid by Buckner for future decision.' |
| (From The Toronto Daily Star, Friday, 5 May 1905) |
| PRESS REPORT 1907: |
| An Alimony Case |
| space'In the alimony action of Susan Buckner against John Buckner and Lottie Jennings, an order was granted for substitutional service upon Buckner on proof that he was hard to locate.' |
| (From The Toronto Daily Star, Friday, 21 June 1907) |
| Although separated in about 1905, I suspect that John and Susan Buckner never actually divorced. A divorce was not an easy thing to obtain in Canada in 1905 and it may be that they lived separate lives and may be why John and Charlotte waited 43 years to get married. Perhaps John was only free to marry Lottie after the death of her sister - his wife - Susan. |
| NOTES: | |
| 1: | I realize the above information isn't pleasant and I hope no one is upset by it but it happened well over 100 years ago and is a matter of public record. |
| 2: | The above newspaper records are transcribed for the Pages of the Past website. |