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parents. As
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the Anglican and Catholic churches would never have condoned such a marriage - of a man
marrying his brother's daughter - the marriage of Jack and Lily, on 3 May 1921, took place not
in a church but in a house (or manse), and was solemnized 'according to Free Christian Church
rites'.
The house was at 48 Davis Avenue, South Yarra and the minister was Alexander Clarey. The
witnesses were his wife, Clarice Clarey, and a woman called Mina Walshe. None of the
Honeycombes was apparently present. No doubt Lily's mother, Fanny Honeycombe, who was
vehemently opposed to the marriage and had done all she could to prevent it taking place, had
forbidden her other children from having anything to do with the ungodly pair. It is even possible
that Lily was thrown out of the 236 Ballarat Road before the wedding -or that she ran away.
For in the marriage certificate her 'present' residence is given as 23 Argyle St, West Footscray -
the same as Jack's. Perhaps 23 Argyle St was a boarding-house, a temporary residence for
both, Jack having left 76 Albert Street some days or weeks before. It was temporary, as in
1922 the Melbourne street directories show that Jack (and Lily) were living at 6 Argyle St, off
Essex St, where they would remain for 15 years.
The marriage certificate bears the unusual signatures of a bride and groom with the same
surname - 'John Honeycombe' and 'Lily Honeycombe'. And the fathers of both bride and
groom are both called 'Richard Honeycombe, stonemason' and come from Footscray. One,
Jack's father, is differentiated by being called 'senior' and 'living'. Lily's father was, of course,
'deceased'.
This was not the first time a Miss Honeycombe had become Mrs Honeycombe. In 1864, in
Plymouth, England, Annie Strong Honeycombe had married a distant cousin, Samuel
Honeycombe. A marble mason, he became a newspaper seller and town crier in Jersey in the
Channel Islands. He and Annie had 14 children, from whom the Jersey and Harwich and some
London Honeycombes are descended. It was their great-great-grandson, Peter, who married
Cheryl Walker at the Honeycombe Gathering in Calstock, Cornwall in September 1984.
The age difference between the Melbourne couple was in fact greater than the marriage
certificate shows. Jack, said to be 57, was in fact 59. Lily's age was correctly given as 27. She
was marrying not only her father's younger brother but also a man more than 32 years older
than herself.
Why did she do it? What made Jack want to marry his niece? Was it love? Or was it a
domestic arrangement that benefited them both?
Unfortunately, although I cautiously questioned Aunt Lil about this, among other matters, in
Melbourne in 1987, she was reluctant to say anything about her life with Jack and became
distressed, tearing at a handkerchief in her lap. And when questioned by Laurel Honeycombe at
a later date, Lil said not much more.
She lived to be 101, and thus became the longest-lived and oldest Honeycombe in the world -
surpassing my great-aunt, Emma, who lived to be 100 and 8% months, dying in July 1964. But
Aunt Lil kept her secrets and ail that she knew will never be made known now.
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Jack and Lil never had any children. Nor for that matter did her sisters, Louie and Jessie. But it
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