Taken from the family story book (Lucy is me niece and sidekick)
The Sarah Foster Mystery.
On May 25th 1884 Walter Henry Walford married Sarah Foster at St Marks Church in Leicester. I have passed this church hundreds if not thousands of times and I had no idea. As far was we had known until recently Walter was married to Charlotte Ryder (more on Charlotte later) and that was it.
Sarah Foster was born approximately in1862, she herself is quite a mystery at this stage, she seems invisible to the Victorian record keepers with just a few spartan possibilities in the records, all hard to confirm. They were both living on the now gone Leadenhall Street, she at number 30 he at number 31. I have checked these addresses in the nearest census and in 1881 there is no sign of anyone from the marriage certificate, witnesses, bride nor groom. At the time there was a boom in Leicester, the shoe trade was growing in leaps and bounds and a new product was a Leicester specialty, elastic webbing! So its no surprise people flooded in like a gold rush!
Sarah Fosters father is another mystery at this point, we got his name from the wedding certificate. There are many John Fosters in and around Leicester, but none with a daughter called Sarah who fits with anything near the dates and places. Its all very untidy and I feel unsatisfied with what I have. However, Sarah Foster does come to life in the path of her children and their life journeys. It is fair to say, despite Lucy suspecting Walter had killed her and hid the body that we found her alive and well, she flourished in the end. I have to confess I also did start to think she was in a rug at the bottom of the Canal at Wigston…..
So Walter and Sarah are Married, a daughter is born shortly after they were married, Florence Walford in 1884, the GRO shows Florence and her mothers maiden name of Foster.
The marriage was not to last. By 1886 Sarah had left Walter Walford and was now with William Carter of Oadby, (B:1864) she gave birth to another daughter who was registered as Ellen Carter Walford, William Carter Walford was born 1888, Minnie in 1894 at Coventry and Albert in 1898, they also had George at Coventry in 1906 and it seems she made a good and happy life for herself in Coventry.
Just a few months after Walter Henry Walford died William Carter Married Sarah Foster, she used her married name of Walford, she was never a bigamist, she was not murdered, but she did have a very lucky escape from Walter! Sarah Foster passed away in 1923 in Coventry.
It has taken six months of heavy research to unravel the Sarah Foster story, I am pleased we have done so, it has helped her descendants whom never knew where she came from, all they had was “Sarah, wife of William Carter”.
Thank you for the help here, we would never have done it without you.
Completed
