Jessie Murton Minter

1880 - 1953  (73 years)

• Name	Jessie Murton Minter
  Birth	Mar 1880	Westgate on Sea, Kent   [1]
  Gender	Female
  Reference Number	2408
  _UID	5750CF6D4A31462785F5305BDA7FF1001A32
  Death	22 Nov 1953	Frankston, Victoria, Australia   [2]
  Burial	24 Nov 1953	Frankson Cemetery, Frankston, Victoria, Australia   [2]
  Notes	The following appears at Trove, originally published in The Advertiser, Adelaide on Tuesday 28 March 1905: "COLD, PECULIAR, HATEFUL." BREACH OF PROMISE CASE. A cold, peculiar, hateful nature is one of the characteristics of Dr. Morton War- rack Smart, of Welbeck Street and Regent's Park-terrace, London. He has said it himself in the letter to Miss Jessie Minter of Goodneslone Court, Faversham, in which he told her that he did not love her as he used to. Their love affair (says the Daily Mail) began in the pleasant Kentish hopfields when they were mere boy and girl, and might have been an idyllic romance had it not ended in the Middlesex Under- Sheriff's Court on the afternoon of Febru- ary 22, when the lady was awarded £350 damages for breach of promise of marriage. He was seventeen, she nineteen, when they first met at Westgate-on-Sea in 1897 They fell in love. Stern parents forbade an engagement, but relented in 1898. They corresponded with the entire disregard d stationers' bills and stamps which very young lovers manifest. In 1990 the call to arms took him from her side. He went to Africa as a volunteer. But he still wrote, and it was she whom he saw first when he returned. In 1992 he qualified as a medical man, and the engagement was publicly announced. To cement the family alliance still further, his elder brother con- tracted in the following year to marry Miss Minter's elder sister. The happy day was named for June, 1904. But just before then Dr. Smart fell ill owing to overwork, and went to recruit in Scotland and Las Palmas. The wedding was postponed over June and next month he wrote to tell "My dear little girl" how much better he was working. He went to Dartmoor for a holiday with his elder brother. The elder brother wrote on July 28 breaking off his engagement with Miss Minter's elder sister. Three days later the younger wrote to Miss Jessie Minter in the following terms:- "My dear Jessie - I got your wire this morning. I have been very much worried for some time past, and it is due to the unhappy incidents that have marked our week-end visits. The most serious was the one when you said you were going to throw yourself on the line, and from that time I felt as if everything died out of me, I tried to get over it, but I could not. There is an invisible barrier between us." Miss Minter wrote to know what the effusion meant and got this reply:- I can-- not tell you what agony your letter has caused me. What I have suffered so long now no one will ever know. I was on the. moors all day yesterday, absolutely alone, fighting with myself. I am utterly miserable to cause you so much pain. I would be cruel to marry you under false pretences. It has not been a sudden change, in so many things have helped already, and I can never feel the same now. I only regret the long time I have partly wrecked your life. Please, please say for any reason you like that you broke off the engagement, and I will take all the blame. I know I never was what I ought to have been as a lover." He wrote still another letter to express his contrition, in which he said, "If it is any satisfaction to you, I may tell you that I love nobody else." It was stated that Dr. Smart was enjoying a lucrative practice as an electrical specialist, and had an appoint- ment at the Great Ormond-street, Children's Hospital. In evidence he put his earnings at £171 for his first year in practice, and a £206 for the second. He was said to be an authority on radium, but startled the court with the theory that "radium is exploded." He said he had long wished to break off the engagement. The jury thought he could afford to pay £350 damages and costs of the action. Some details from death certificate, copy supplied by Debbie Godfrey, March 2015: Address where died: Fulton Rd, Frankston Age: 70 Parents: Henry Murton Minter, Emma Murton Minter formerly Minter Buried on 24 November 1953 at Frankston Cemetery Born in Faversham, Kent; in Victoria for 23 years
  Person ID	I2408	Ash, Kent
  Last Modified	19 Jul 2023

  
  

  Father	Henry Minter,   b. Bef 7 Nov 1852, Sheldwich, Kent d. 30 Apr 1913, Herne Bay, Kent (Age 60 years)
  Mother	Emma Jane MURTON,   b. Jun 1851, Faversham, Kent d. 26 Sep 1923, Herne Bay, Kent (Age 72 years)
  Marriage	26 Sep 1876	St Mary of Charity, Faversham, Kent   [3]
  	Henry Minter, 24, bachelor grocer of Westgate on Sea, father Thomas Minter farmer and Emma Jane Murton, 25, spinster of Albion Terrace, father William Murton grocer, by banns, sign/sign. --- Murton (sign), Thomas Minter (sign), --- Murton (sign), -. H Minter (sign), W Murton (sign), -. H Minter (sign) witnesses.
  Family ID	F362	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Thomas Robley Randolph DOUGLAS,   b. 14 Sep 1894, Carlisle, Cumbria d. 1955, Australia (Age 60 years)
  Marriage	15 Sep 1919	St John the Evangalist's Church, Herne Bay, Kent   [1, 2]
  	The following detrails were copied from a copy of the marriage certificate sent to me by Debbie Godfrey in March 2016: Married after banns, Thomas Robley Rabdolph Douglas, full age, bachelor, lieutenant, Clarence House, Herne Bay, father Douglas [no first names], gentleman. Jessie Murton Minter, full age, spinster, , Clarence House, Herne Bay, father Minter [no first names], agriculturalist. Both signed names in full. Witnesses G Ash Minter, E J Minter. Ceremony performed by Herbert Browne, H M Chaplain to the British Embassy, Madrid.
  Family ID	F479	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	25 Mar 2016

  
  

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• Sources

  [S3] BMD index. [S361] Debbie Godfrey, NZ, March 2016. [S173] Cliff Minter, from St Mary of Charity, Faversham PR, April 2010, Q3 1876 Faversham 2a/1168. (Reliability: 3).