Hi, A cousin, myself and friend have just been looking at such a case which has remained a family secret since 1865. Two stories were handed down, but we now think the answer may lie with two very interesting and a little odd letters that were held on to by my gt.grandmother's half sister and handed down to cousin. They were written in 1858 when the young lass who received them was just ten years old. We do know now who the writer was and since his occupation took him back from London to the north-east again some 8 years later when she was still only 15 or 16, it is a possibility that there was some liaison which resulted in the pregnancy and so kept quiet because of his standing in the community, and possibly also to spare his wife some sorrow. The two stories are quite different and that is one reason why we think it was somebody else, the writer of the letters. Malcolm