Bling, glamour, scandal

Introduction

Victorian Bournemouth (204) explores the family backgrounds of two people who made ‘a fashionable wedding’ there in 1883. The press reported a glamorous wedding, extensive couture, diamond jewellery, and foreign travel. Their marriage united a groom of middling respectability with a bride brought up in a nouveau riche family. Research into a court case and her genealogy reveals melodramatic infighting over her family’s wealth. The analysis perhaps uncovers how Bournemouth’s new money might experience tensions as their social mobility brought them into an unfamiliar context.

Victorian Bournemouth (204): the wedding

The event

On Tuesday,  25th September, 1883, in St Peter’s church, Bournemouth, Lena Fanny Lance married Albert Edward Overell. The bride belonged to a prominent local family. Her husband, a solicitor and son of the same, lived in Leamington. The Bournemouth Guardian lavished a large heading and over fifty lines for its story. A ‘large assemblage’ attended the ceremony. French silk, Spanish lace, ostrich feathers, satin, iridescent beads. ‘Brookside’, her mother’s house, situated in fashionable Exeter Park, hosted the wedding breakfast, ‘which was of a very recherché character’. The wedding cake came from London. In the afternoon, the couple left for Brighton on the 15.40 train, ‘en route’ for the Continent. The fortunate couple had received nearly 100 wedding presents, all ‘handsome and costly’. They included a ‘valuable diamond and pearl bracelet’. Thus, Bournemouth, Hardy’s ‘glittering novelty’, had witnessed a high society wedding, uniting the grandchildren of a shopkeeper and a carpenter.

The wedding partners

Born in Leamington, the groom, Albert Overell, had already enjoyed success in both local law and civics. His father, also a solicitor, and mother both came from Poole. Perhaps, this family connected with the bride’s through a shared experience of that town. Lena’s grandfather (adoptive), John Hibidage, a Witchampton carpenter, had reached Poole by 1829, marrying a local woman. In Bournemouth at its beginning, Hibidage garnered substantial success as a builder and developer. By 1871, he employed thirty men. During his career, he had assembled an estate worth around £25,000, much of which destined for Lena, the sole descendent. Her grandfather and father, a joiner, may not have ventured into society far beyond their humble origins, perhaps not reaching the Overells’ middling respectability. Nevertheless, they accepted the marriage connection with this substantial heiress, undeterred by a recent and very public court case that encircled the Hibidage fortune.

Victorian Bournemouth (204): the court case

Dramatis personae

Further knowledge of the Hibidage family introduces the case brought by John Hibidage’s estate executor against the old man’s niece. When John Hibidage married Sarah Banger, he inherited a daughter without a recorded father. The Hibidage’s union produced no children. When adult, the girl married a joiner, Thomas Lance. Without natural children, they adopted Lena Fanny Butler, who, as Lena Lance, would make a fashionable wedding in 1883. Mrs Hibidage had at least one brother and sister. The sister married a man called Butler, whose daughter, Sarah Ann, the future defendant, after his early demise, came to live in the house of her uncle and aunt Hibidage. Another niece of Mrs Hibidage, Elizabeth Banger, lived nearby. A hypothesis would connect Lena’s birth name (Butler) with that of Mrs Hibidage’s sister and niece, both Butlers. Thus, Lena may have linked to Mrs Hibidage both as her (adoptive) granddaughter and natural grandniece.

The trial

In March, 1881, Christopher Creeke, executor and former business partner of John Hibidage, dead in 1880, took action against Sarah Ann Butler. A beneficiary of John Hibidage’s will, residing with him, she opposed probate on grounds of undue influence. Hibidage’s adopted daughter, Mrs Lance, a new widow, had resumed living with the old man and her mother. Soon after, stricken by his last illness, Hibidage asked Creeke to make him a new will. This reduced Butler’s inheritance from £7,000 to £1,000. It also ensured that the estate would go to the widow Hibidage, with remainder to Mrs Lance. The press presented the trial as a melodrama: a large estate, a questionable lawyer, alleged forgery of various wills, a mysterious other niece of the Hibidages, an old testator surrounded by apparent scheming relatives. Without delay, the jury decided for the plaintiff, pronouncing in favour of the last will.

Victorian Bournemouth (204): analysis

Star quality

The glamorous wedding and the scandalous trial perhaps reflected the celebrity nature which had characterised Bournemouth society from its beginning. Hardy’s description of the spa as a ‘pleasure city’, ‘a fairy place’ echoes those events. Bournemouth’s commercial and social context enabled the Hibidages to translate humble origins into substantial wealth and local influence. New money blossomed also for other builders and retailers who experienced similar success. The account of Lena Lance’s wedding suggests careful press briefing. Its readers may have wondered about the expense. The bride’s lavish wardrobe, coverage of the breakfast peppered with French phrases, the exact train time and the Continental honeymoon. It suggests new money on parade, conspicuous consumption. John Hibidage had wanted a quiet life. Three years after his demise, however, the family’s womenfolk appeared less demure. They seemed to understand how contemporary Bournemouth society appreciated a splash of star quality: diamonds, silk, honeymoons abroad.

Aftermath

Widow Hibidage died a year after the wedding. She left £300, Elizabeth Banger, the mysterious niece inheriting. Elizabeth had helped the plaintiff win the case. After 1891 she disappears from record. Mrs Lance died in 1890, leaving almost £4,000, her estate executed by the opulent and influential Edward Rebbeck, estate agent. In 1881, a year after John’s death, the Hibidage household, then headed by Mrs Lance, no longer included Sarah Ann Butler, the defendant. After the trial, no certain identification of her appears in the records. After their Continental honeymoon, Lena and Albert Overell lived in Leamington, where he resumed his law business and politics. By 1891, they had two sons. Alderman Overell appeared often in the press thereafter, passing away in 1931, his estate under £3,000. His son, partner in the firm, prospered, leaving over £300,000 in 1979. The Hibidage name in this family vanished as did the reported £25,000. 

Takeaway

Victorian Bournemouth (204) has explored the past and future of Lena Lance, heiress, and Albert Overell, solicitor, joined in marriage during 1883. Her family could have formed the basis of a novel by Trollope, Dickens, Collins, perhaps Hardy. Humble origins to substantial wealth in a generation. A rich old man living in a coterie of single women kin to his wife. A sensational court case about forged wills, an uncertain solicitor, and much money. A society wedding sparkling with bling. All clues to a possible social insecurity occurring in the wake of new money’ sudden acquisition. Lena left this behind to live an apparent respectable life with a Midlands solicitor and local councillor. She may have found a contrast with Bournemouth, a ‘fairy place’.

References

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