Historicaleigh: Brotherly (and Sisterly) Love

January 17, 2017 by Carole Mulroney

It has oft been remarked upon that in Leigh the old families are intermingled with each other so that you could not walk down the street without seeing an uncle, aunt or cousin. It is also not uncommon to find brothers marrying sisters, but it must be much rarer for 3 siblings to marry three siblings.

In the Quilter family of Leigh and the Price family, whose head, Peter, was born in Eastwood, that is exactly what happened. Peter married Maria Brand from Battlesbridge in 1849 and they had 10 children, moving around in the Woodham Walter, Wickford and Downham areas and finally settling in Battlesbridge.

The first connection to Leigh is in 1872 when their eldest daughter married Frederick Murrell, a fisherman, and they took up residence in Leigh. It seemed likely that there was much toing and froing between the Price children and their elder sister for in 1881 Ellen Price married Alfred Quilter. She was followed in 1886 by her sister, Annie Maria who married Alfred’s brother David Quilter and the following year by their brother William David Price who married Alfred and David’s sister Sarah Ann Quilter.