We have heard how my great great grandfather, Richard Stranger (1825-1882) moved his family to Porthallow, near Talland in Cornwall, around 1871, and how his two daughters, Bessie Berry and Dorrie married two cousins from a Cornish farming family, both named William Serpell.
Also around about the same time, a John Gundry (born 1841 in St. Hilary, Cornwall), who had been farming in the Bodmin area, also moved down to Talland (and, perhaps not completely coincidentally, at least by 1891, at Killigarth where John Carswell Serpell had been farming in 1861). His wife was Mary Tyeth Baron and in 1881 we find her niece Elizabeth Baron (my great grandmother, usually known as Bessie, born 1859 in St. Neot, Cornwall, daughter of John Baron) living or staying with them.
Bessie probably met Charles Stranger, who would have been working on the family farm at Porthallow, during her stay in Talland as she married him at Bodmin in 1887. It is likely that they lived at Porthallow for the next couple of years and that Bessie’s sister Susie visited them during this time, since Susie then married Charles’ brother Edward at Bodmin in 1889.
However, by 1891 both couples (and their young children) had moved to Weethley in Warwickshire, where they had neighbouring farms. What prompted this move or why the choice of location is not known, but by 1911 both families had moved on again, this time to the area around Barnwell, near Oundle in Northamptonshire.
This photo was taken during a visit by Charles and Bessie to her parents at Pendower, Bodmin, around 1905. My 2nd great grandfather John Baron is standing far left, with my great grandfather Charles Stranger next to him. It is assumed that the empty chair is for my great grandmother Bessie, who is probably taking the photo.
So, we have two sisters, Bessie and Dorrie Stranger, marrying two cousins, both named William Serpell, and their brothers, Edward and Charles Stranger, marrying two sisters, Bessie and Susie Baron! And all four marriages were in Cornwall. But by 1901, all had left Cornwall.