Well, you have hit upon some of the issues and in short order.
We have his complete military record and can trace him from his earliest date in Ceuta.
I think he chose the 1818 because it was at the end of the time that John was in France with the occupation army. However, the rest doesn't make any sense to me. Why wouldn't she go with him to the West Indies? If she was outcast from her family where else would she go?
If the other marriage, Emily Banham, is anything to go by they started having children right away, as any Catholic couple would. Well, not just Catholic at that time. I think Emily had 9 children with John so there was no time to waste.
I had thought that if Emily DuCroix was on one of the French Islands in the Caribbean, after all they French had lost the war and control of their islands, at least nominally, then he could have met and married her there. I found no records to that end.
When the record in Winchester came to light I thought it more than probable. All the elements fit; John was at Chatham after returning from the West Indies and in between being sent back to Portugal. Their first child was born in Portugal in just over a year.
Also, even if Emily Banham was a widow and DuCroix was her maiden name, as the daughter of 'some high official' wouldn't she be educated. She could not sign her name on the register but marked it with an X.
I also wonder how John got to Ceuta? He was obviously educated, could read and write and was a Quarter Master Sergeant. Maybe his father was already in the Military and the reference Julie found to a John McCrohon in the East Kent 3rd Regiment may be right on. The 3rd fought in Spain and Portugal during the war with Napoleon and perhaps his son was with him. Perhaps at Gibraltar just across from Ceuta. Ceuta is still a Spanish enclave in Morocco and was always an occupied military port.
Well, I am raving now. Off to bed.
Thanks for taking a look.
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