According to his seaman's ticket, HMS Terror quartermaster John Kenley had his wife's name tattooed on his arm 😢
He married Helen Scott on 28 Oct 1822 when he was 21 and she was around 18 years old. They lived in Fife, Scotland and had seven children together. Two died in infancy.
When he joined the Franklin Expedition in 1845, he allotted part of his salary to her. (Though he gave their marriage date in the allotment lists as 4 Nov 1822, which was a week off.)
After the expedition was declared dead in 1854, Helen was granted administration of his estate. She lived until 1877.
One of their sons, Alexander, had quite a touching eulogy in "A visit to the Eastern Necropolis of Dundee" by Norval. He was paralyzed after falling from the yardarm while whaling in Greenland, and lived in his family's care for four years before he passed. "No one could visit him without being all the better of their visit... Alexander lies with his face and feet to the north-west -- to that grim region of eternal ice and snow, darkness and storms -- where his father's body lies."
