Hi
I don't know if anyone's still following this thread but I found it because I was looking for Walter UNDERWOOD. It turns out that he wasn't connected to the person I was researching but as it was this thread that proved to me that he wasn't my man, I thought I would share what I know about him!
Walter was born in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire and baptised there on 18 March 1798. He married Elizabeth BURCHER at St James, Clerkenwell on 10 June 1821 and they went on to have at least one child, Eliza Catherine, born and baptised in Clerkenwell in 1823 (no further trace has been found of Eliza Catherine). The next sighting we have of Walter and Elizabeth comes in 1831 when another daughter, Sophia Maria, was baptised at the Dorset Gardens Wesleyan Chapel in Brighton. The baptismal entry confirms that Elizabeth’s maiden name was BURCHER and that she was the daughter of James and Phebe BURCHER. Sophia died in 1832 but two years later, a son, Walter, was baptised at the same chapel.
Walter was described, at the time of the 1823 baptism, as a publican. In 1831, curiously, he was a paper hanger, and in 1833 a coach keeper. In the 1841 census, which finds him living in Ship Street, Brighton (just along the road from Joseph STRONG!) Walter is listed as a stable keeper. Walter’s wife, Elizabeth, and son Walter are also listed in the 1841 census but by 1851 Walter senior had disappeared. Elizabeth and Walter junior are living at Park Villa, Sloane Street, Brighton with Elizabeth’s marital ‘condition’ given as ‘married’ and her occupation as ‘proprietor of houses’. She was aged 57 and her place of birth was given as Littlehampton, Sussex.
In 1861, with Walter junior now married, Elizabeth was living on her own at an address in Park Street, Brighton. Again, she was described as a ‘proprietor of houses’, her marital condition was ‘married’ but again, there was no sign of her husband, Walter.
Thanks to this thread, I now know beyond reasonable doubt that Walter had left Elizabeth and was now living with Dorothy STRONG/PRITCHARD/BEEDHAM.
The 1841 census entry for Walter indicates that he was born in Sussex which I now know not to be the case.
Incidentally, Elizabeth died in 1862 so Walter's 1875 marriage to Dorothy didn't have anything to do with that. If Joseph really died in 1863 then they would have been free to marry then. I guess Walter and Dorothy just (eventually!) decided to do the decent thing...
