hi
i have a relation, james howe who appears in derby in 1872, where he marries a local girl, eliza knight. i have absolutely no information on this character prior to this date. he supposed to come from kent, hythe in fact, and his father is recorded as william, a farmer, on his marriage up here in derby.
now i cannot find out anything at all about him prior to thgis date and theres a family story that no one knew who he really was except his wife who took that secret to the grave.
i cannot find any connection, via mothers surname, or anything.
so im thinking that 'james howe' wasnt his real name, and he might have committed some fould deed and ran away to derby and took up a new identity.
as he was a tradesman, he must have learned plumbing somewhere, and he was born in 1846/7 .
so im thinking that just maybe some apprentice plumber or freshly qualified plumber actually killed someone - so ran away to escape the noose.
i said it was a long shot, but are there any records from kent c1866-1872 of an unsolved murder/manslaughter involving a plumber who went on the run and disappeared?...
