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« on: Thursday 16 March 17 03:58 GMT (UK) »
This started as a search for the death of Charles Frederick Newby and ended up with various mysteries. Can you help please?
We can follow him from his birth certificate as Frederick Charles Newby in 1843 in Martham/Flegg, Norfolk, to Clapham where he married Emma Hook in 1866 (marriage cert), to Taunton (son born), to Oxford (sons died), to Clapham 1881 (he is in every census, mostly as a tailor). According to family tradition he died in 1884, but actually he was in Wandsworth in 1891. Next he is in Eastbourne where he marries Fanny Florence Watson in 1995 (marriage cert). His first wife is alive and there is no divorce. They then move to Weston Super Mare where he dies in 1916 (death cert). At each census he gets younger and at his 2nd wedding he had taken 16 years off his age!!
Fanny Florence Watson is an enigma. According to the marriage certificate her father was Thomas William Watson a civil engineer. He can be traced from his birth in 1812 in Sunninghill, Windsor, to 1851 age 36 at St Johns Hampstead, married, with sister Eliza 42, to 1861 age 48 a widower with Eliza 54 in Putney, to 1871 age 58 a single civil engineer with sister Jane Fox 53 and Eliza 64 in Mortlake, to 1881 age 69 a widower in Mortlake.
We can trace Fanny and her mother Martha (Maud) Watson in every census where they give various names and inconsistent ages. But we can discover no marriage (of Martha Neville) to Thomas Watson and no obvious birth record for Fanny (or any of her 3 siblings). Thomas is not with them at census time. Something strange seems to have been going on...
Fanny is in the 1871 census in Peckham age 6 with her mother Martha (Maud) Watson age 32 an annuitant, and in 1881 Fanny “Rowley” (probably unmarried (with a new son?)) is with Maud 42 a widow, and in 1891 age 26 in Camberwell with Maude age 51 a widow!!. Martha Maud then goes to Swindon in 1901 to look after brother-in-law Fred Dean. Since she was born in Drayton and Fred’s wife Sarah Neville was born in Drayton in 1832, we can surmise that she was Martha Neville born in 1835. Strangely in 1861 Martha Watson was in Chelsea with two servants and two young children!! In this census she says Thomas Watson is not at home and Drayton is crossed out. Was he "keeping her" in Chelsea while he was in Putney with his sister?
Can some kind soul please check this and suggest if there is a better explanation than this tale of two wanderers and deserters (TW Watson and CF Newby)??