On this day in 1899, the late publisher James S. Kerr’s daughter Maude took possibly the worst decision in her life – she married Benjamin Disraeli Wigton, Second Officer of SS Britannia.
A descendant hinted that they may have been distantly related. That was not the problem. (He also spent some time in an asylum in the West of Scotland, for which we can’t condemn him, obviously.) The bridegroom, with perhaps the most memorable Christian names I’ve ever encountered, went on to marry other ladies in Australia AND New Zealand. However, he was certainly more than a bigamist. It must have been comparatively easy to get away with, in those days. But with such a conspicuous name? Breathtaking audacity!
Maude [Maud] Speirs Kerr divorced him not long after her mother died, and went on to make herself a new life in America. Did she deliberately wait until Mary had died before taking this step? Who knows!
Karen McAulay, Musicologist 