First, some background on Susanna. She was
born 25 August 1846 in Barrow, Suffolk, the youngest of 8
children, to John Shorter and Jemima Wright. When she was 20,
Susanna married Thomas Edwards, a seaman, at St Nicholas Church in
Plumstead, London (30 December 1866). Their daughter Martha was
born in 1872, and the three of them sailed from London aboard the
Landsborough on 15 July 1873, and they disembarked in Rockhampton
24 October.
Susanna and Thomas had their second child, May
(my wife's grandmother), on 23 May 1874 in Rockhampton, but their
third child, Alfred, was born 4 years later in Waratah, near
Newcastle, NSW (3 February 1878). Disaster then struck during the
great TB epidemic in Sydney in 1885, claiming first Thomas, on May
4, and then 13-year-old Martha on July 28. Thomas and Martha are
buried in Rookwood Cemetery in Sydney. This is where our family first comes across
James McCartney: he is the informant on Thomas' death certificate,
so I assume he is already known to Susanna at this point. From
your reports, James had separated from his first wife, Harriet
Smalley, sometime just before the birth of their third child,
Charles, in 1874 and now, 11 years later, he is in Sydney.
The next we hear of James is when he is declared
the father of Susanna's illegitimate son, Reginald James McCartney,
who was born in Kingston (now Camperdown) in Sydney on 17 April
1887. Then, on 14 January 1891, James makes an honest woman of
Susanna when he marries her at Bethel House (Congregational),
declaring (wrongly) that he is a widower. Susanna and James then
move north to Charters Towers in Queensland where he dies in 1899 of
TB, and Susanna in 1914. At this point we can construct a timeline
for James that helps tell the story:
11 May 1841
James is born in Dunfermline, Fifeshire (s/o
William McArtney" & Euphemia Kinghorn)
30 March 1851 James,
9, living in Dunfermline with parents and 3 siblings
July 1852
Emigrates from
Liverpool on board the Bourneuu with family
3 September 1852 disembarks at Geelong,
Victoria
6 April 1867
James marries Harriet Smalley at the
Wesleyan Parsonage, Ballarat, Victoria
20 January 1868 James' first
child, Martha, is born in Ballarat West, Victoria
10 August 1870 James'
second child, Euphemia, is born in Clunes, Victoria
1874
James and Harriet separate, presumably while
Harriet is pregnant with their third child
1874
Harriet gives birth to Charles McCartney at
Ballarat East, but doesn't record James as the father
1884
James' estranged wife, Harriet, gives birth to William, son of
John Maxwell
9 May 1885
James is the informant on Thomas
Edwards' death certificate; resides at Leichhardt, NSW
17 April 1887
Susanna Edwards gives birth to James' illegitimate
son, Reginald James, at Kingston, Sydney
1889
James' estranged wife, Harriet, gives birth
to Janet, daughter of John Maxwell
14 January 1891 James marries
Susanna Edwards at Bethel House in Sydney; declares he is
a "widower" (Susanna was originally Susanna Shorter)
10 February 1894 James' first wife
drowns in Albany with John Maxwell
23 November 1899 James dies of TB in Charters Towers.
Susanna, the informant, only gives "Euphemia" as a child
of his first marriage and cannot provide the first wife'' name.
20 December 1914 Susanna dies of heart failure at
Charters Towers. She is survived by Alfred, May and
Reginald.
I have attached copies of most the relevant
certificates for you file. If the information we have is correct,
then James has probably committed bigamy when he married Susanna
(unless, of course, there is an annulment yet to be discovered).
This is definitely an interesting story.