John Damrel mystery solved?

I've found another John Damrel mystery. As we've seen, in 1861 John was living in Poltimore, Devonshire County, 122 miles southwest of where his future wife, Emily Burton was living (see map). He's working as a stable groom.


Seven years later, in 1868, he married Emily, but she continued to live in Tisbury, Wiltshire County, with her father. The question is, in an age when travel outside of your local village was rare, how did these two young people meet? John worked as a horse groom, Emily kept house for her father. It seems unlikely they would have ever crossed paths.

But I found a description of a modern "horse groom" on the web which may be instructive. It says, "Horse Grooms work in a barn or stable and will be outdoors a good deal of the time, in hot, cold or rainy weather when necessary. Although most Horse Grooms work full time, they may not work regular hours as they travel with horses to shows and races on evenings, weekends and holidays."

So if John Damrel's employer raced horses, just 15 miles away from Tisbury where Emily lived is the Salisbury Racecourse, one of England's oldest. Racing has taken place at the picturesque course since the 16th century and certainly must have been operating in the 19th century. Maybe Emily had just traveled from Tisbury to the nearby big city for a day of shopping and ran into the handsome groom at the local tea shop. It could happen.

Perhaps the reason John is missing from the 1871 census is because John's employer does race horses. In 1871, the census was taken on April 2nd. If that date conincided with the opening of the racing season, or even pre-season practicing, John might be on the road, caring for horses at various racetracks, and be missed by the census takers. This would also explain why Emily was living with her father in 1871. In their three years of marriage, she and John simply had not yet established a permanent home yet.