Mister Figg....?

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 85316

> > What I was thinking is, Arabella Figg uses the title Mrs. 
implying, 
> > obviously, that she is/was married.  Now Mr. Figg may have been a 
> > muggle or another squib or maybe a wizard, who knows?   But the 
fact 
> > that Mrs. Figg is a squib implies that she comes from wizarding 
> > blood.  Is there ever any talk of what he maiden name is?  Is 
this 
> > important at all or am I just taking things too far? 


Carol:
> At Harry's hearing (OoP 142, Am. edition), she gives her full name 
as
> Arabella Doreen Figg. Either she omits her maiden name or she was
> never really married and "Mrs." is only part of her disguise as a
> muggle, since muggles tend to expect older women to have been 
married
> at some point. "Miss Figg" would sound odd at her time of life.
> 

Geoff:
Sorry, but why would this seem odd to Muggles at her time of life? 
There are many older women who have never married and are "Miss". The 
church to wihch I belong has a good smattering of them.

I must admit though that I always visualise Arabella Figg as a 
spinster from JKR's description -despite the Mrs. She reminds me so 
very much of a similar description in a "real life" novel which is 
one of my favourite "To serve them all my days" by R.F.Delderfield - 
which curiously is about life in a boys' public boarding school.