Adnah Oates and Emily Wilson were married on 21 May 1879 in St John’s Church in the parish of Great Horton, Yorkshire “according to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Established Church after banns”. Adnah was aged 22, and was listed as a bachelor and cabinet maker, living in Morecambe (near Lancaster, on the west coast of England), the son of Samuel Oates also a cabinet maker. Emily was aged 23, listed as a spinster living in Great Horton, daughter of Benjamin Wilson a publican. Adnah and Emily both signed their own names on the wedding entry. The wedding was witnessed by Ellen Wilson (Emily’s younger sister by three years), and Joshua Fawcett (?). The latter surname spelling is a little unclear on the marriage entry, and a multitude of Joshua Fawcetts lived in Horton and Bradford during the nineteenth century, at least three in the right age group around 1879.
The signatures of Adnah and Emily and their witnesses differ from those of the vicar (?) who entered most of the marriage details, and each displays a neat and careful script. Some marriage register entries from earlier generations display an X beside the name, but it appears Adnah and Emily each had neat handwriting.
## In the marriage register following Adnah and Emily in 1879, the subsequent wedding was between Richard Wilson a woolsorter of Great Horton, son of John Wilson a woolsorter, and Hannah Wood, daughter of Abraham Wood a labourer. Records of the Wilson family have not been explored in detail to determine any relationship between Emily/Benjamin Wilson and Richard/John Wilson, all of Great Horton.
The 1881 England Census records the household at the Cabinet shop at 341 Great Horton Road, Great Horton. Samuel (aged 58) is the head of household, with occupation listed as ‘cabinet maker employing 1 man, 3 boys’, and born in Halifax Yorkshire. Also in the household are Adnah (24) and Emily (25), Arthur William (1 year) and Clara Ellen (1 month), all four born in Bradford Yorkshire. The same census sheet lists surrounding households on Great Horton Road, including a grocers shop at 339, and a milliners shops at 343 including three unmarried sisters born in Great Horton, Mary Fieldhouse (60, milliner & bonnet maker), Hannah Fieldhouse (56, ‘monthly nurse’[1]) and Ellen Fieldhouse (47, dress maker). In the same household at 343 Great Horton Rd are Mary Ann Lea (80), an elderly widow from Ireland listed as a Lady Assistant, and Charles Thomas Raynam, a teacher in the elementary school born in Bardwell Ash, Suffolk and boarding with the sisters.