By this time Cecil was deeply in debt, and decided to abandon Hanbury for good. He instructed his friend the rector, Rev. William Burslem, to collect the rents and use them to pay off his debts, while he left to live a quiet and simple life under an assumed name. He chose to buy a small holding in the Shropshire village of Great Bolas, and lived there calling himself John Jones. At some time thereafter he fell in love with and married in April 1790 Sarah, the 16-year-old daughter of local farmer Thomas Hoggins. As Cecil had done nothing about procuring a divorce from his first wife, the marriage was bigamous, a serious offence at the time. Only in 1791 did Cecil obtain a divorce by Act of Parliament, after which he and Sarah went through a second marriage ceremony on 3 October 1791 at St Mildred, Bread Street, London (the register records him as "Batchelor" and her as "Spinster"), thus making the union legitimate. In February of the following year their first child, Sophia, was born, and in 1793 a son Henry was born, also in Great Bolas, but died soon afterwards.