Pablo Fanque - Marriages and Family

Marriages and Family

Fanque married Susannah Marlaw, the daughter of a Birmingham buttonmaker. They had two sons, one of whom was named Lionel. On 18 March 1848, his wife died when a wooden viewers' gallery at the circus in which Fanque's son was performing collapsed. That night, their son was performing a tightrope act before a large crowd at the Amphitheatre at King Charles Croft, in the Headrow in Leeds. The 600 people seated in the gallery fell with its collapse, but Susannah Darby was the only fatality. Heavy planks hit her on the back of the head. Reportedly, Fanque sought medical attention for his wife at the King Charles Hotel, but a surgeon pronounced her dead.

A 4 March 1854 edition of the Leeds Intelligencer recalled the incident, while announcing the return of Pablo Fanque's Circus to Leeds: "His last visit, preceding the present one, was unfortunately attended by a very melancholy accident. On that occasion he occupied a circus in King Charles's Croft and part of the building gave way during the time it was occupied by a crowded audience. Several persons were more or less injured by the fall of the timbers composing the part that proved too weak, and Mrs Darby, the wife of the proprietor, was killed. This event, which occurred on Saturday the 18th March 1848, excited much sympathy throughout the borough. A neat monument with an impressive inscription is placed above the grave of Mrs Darby, in the Woodhouse Lane Cemetery."

In June 1848, Fanque married Elizabeth Corker, a circus rider and daughter of George Corker of Bradford. Corker was 22 years old. With Corker, Fanque had two more sons, George (1854–1881) and Edward Charles "Ted" (1855–1937). Both joined the circus. Ted, known as Ted Pablo, also achieved acclaim as a boxer.

The 1861 census records Fanque as living with a woman named Sarah, 25, who is described as his wife, although in 1871, just before he died census records show him living again with his wife Elizabeth and his two sons, in Stockport.