Marriage Record of Bernard Martin and Sarah Bailey

The journal writer, Matthew Rowan, married Jane Martin.

Jane's parents are Bernard (aka Barnabas) Martin and Sarah Bailey.

Jane was born and raised in Ettington (aka Eatington) in Warwickshire, England, about 94 miles northwest of London. It was, and still is, a small village of less than 1,000 people.

Jane's father was born in Woolwich, Kent, England, just across the River Thames and a little east of London. It was an important shipping port and military town. Barnabas's father, also named Barnabas, was a wheelwright -- he made the wheels for wagons and carts. At some point the younger Barnabas decided to leave Woolwich and ended up in Ettington where he married Sarah Bailey. He was a farm labourer. This meant that he was at the bottom of the social ladder. He worked for the farmer who rented the land from the land owner, who at that time was Evelyn Philip Shirley.

Their first child was Jane. Their second child, named George, lived for 13 months. Their next child they also named George. The 1851 census shows him in jail and by 1867, at the age of 37 he died. The next child, James, was born in 1833. He married Charlotte Hobbes and had five children. Some of you have done their temple work. Jeffrey was born a year and a half later. Three years later Elizabeth was born. There must have been complications at birth because Elizabeth died 7 days later and her mother, Sarah, died 2 weeks after that.

Jane was just ten years old when her mother died. Her father remarried three years later and had four more children. At some point Jane hired herself out as a servant -- a common thing to do for those in the lower classes. The contract usually lasted for a year at a time. She was working for Lady Coltsworth in Wells, near Malvern, Worcester (about 34 miles west of Ettington) when she met Matthew Rowan. They were soon married, twice. Once in the Church of England Parish Church in Claines, Worcester, England, and later that evening by Elder Orson Pratt of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Three days after their marriage Jane had to return to Lady Coltsworth for three weeks to finish her employment contract. She then went back to Matthew in Claines. Six months later he was sent by the church to the Yorkshire in the north of England. After visiting her family in Ettington, Jane joined Matthew in Ecclesall Bierlow where their first child, Ammon, was born. In 1855, after Matthew was released as a missionary, they traveled to Utah where they had two more children, Emma and Matthew Martin. Just before their fourth child was born Jane experienced complications with the pregnancy and both she and the unborn baby died. They were buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery. Matthew soon remarried, and eventually three more children were added to the family.