Junius Brutus Booth - Marriage and Family

Marriage and Family

In August of 1814, Junius met Marie Christine Adelaide Delannoy while boarding at her mother's home in Brussels. She followed him to London where they eventually married on May 17, 1815, soon after his 19th birthday. Their first child, Amelia, was born October 5 of the same year, but died in infancy. The only child to survive infancy, Richard Junius Booth, was born January 21, 1819.

In 1821, Booth ran off to the United States with Mary Ann Holmes, a flower girl, abandoning his wife and their young son. Booth and Mary Ann claimed to be married that year and settled near Bel Air, Maryland in a farmhouse. Booth remodeled it and named it "Tudor Hall." It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. While Booth toured frequently in the United States, his family, which grew to 10 children, lived in great isolation in relatively primitive conditions, despite the grand name he and Mary Ann gave to their residence.

Booth fulfilled his promise to his wife, Adelaide, and went twice back to Europe to see her. Each time he never spoke of Mary Ann Holmes. However, his son Richard Booth set out to visit his father in America, finding his father was a drunk with a prospering family. Richard sent word to his mother who arrived in America in October 1846. After years of unsuccessful attempts to break up his relationship with Mary Ann Holmes, she divorced him in 1851.

On 10 May 1851, with the youngest of their ten children now eleven years of age, Junius finally legally married Mary Ann.