An Unhappy Honeymoon

On Friday 7^th June 1878, The Dundee Evening Telegraph reported on a man from whom, they felt, had fallen foul of a hasty marriage:

“A HASTY MARRIAGE AND ITS RESULTS.

AN UNHAPPY HONEYMOON.

A young man named William Ballantyne, described as a chemist or commercial traveller, residing in Thorter Row, Dundee, was brought before Baillie Cleghorn today, charged with having assaulted Margaret McDonald or Ballantyne, his wife, by striking and kicking her yesterday afternoon. He pleaded guilty.

Mr James Scrymgeour stated to the Court that Ballantyne belonged to a highly respectable family in Montrose. He came to Dundee recently and contracted a hasty marriage with a young widow. Immediately after his marriage he began to rue his bargain and tried to soothe his sorrows in drink. He was extremely sorry to find himself placed in such a position this morning and was firmly resolved to abstain from drink and endeavour to do well in the future.

Mr Dewar said he understood the prisoner was married a fortnight ago, and that he had been drinking heavily since then. Baillie Cleghorn passed sentence of fifteen days imprisonment with the alternative of a fine of 20s”.

William’s highly respectable family paid his fine to avoid the further embarrassment of him spending time in the jail of Dundee, but whether he stayed married to his merry widow, we never found out.

We’ve all been there though, haven’t we? Made a bad decision on a night out and had to suffer the consequences. In William’s case, the bad decision was a major one, and not just a dodgy kebab or a drunken kiss with a stranger. He literally married the lassie! And we’re sure she wasn’t exactly happy with her choice of husband either, but despite being the victim in this case the court seemed more sympathetic to him. In times like these divorce, even in cases of violence and abuse, was often near impossible, although she had already survived one husbands death! Oh well, you live and you learn. Hopefully.