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Emma Deighton, probably born 1Q 1843, St. Saviour 4/501.  This lady is driving me nuts!  Any advice welcome.

My first contact with her is the 1871 census, where she appears as Emma Butler, a 25-year-old professional actress, HoH, born in Blackfriars, with a 2-year-old daughter, Ellen Butler, born Liverpool.  They are resident in Finsbury (St. James Clerkenwell).

Why Butler?  A birth certificate for Henry William Butler in December 1871 lists the mother as Emma, formerly Deighton, a professional actress.  The father is listed as Henry Thomas Butler, actor.  The birth is registered in St. Giles, next door to Finsbury.

Moving forwards, in 1881 Emma (37-years-old, HoH, born Southwark), now a dressmaker, Ellen and Henry William are living in Lambeth, together with 1-year-old Charles E. Butler, born Newington.  By 1891, they are living in Camberwell, Ellen appears to have left home, and Emma is calling herself a widow.

Moving backwards from 1871, there is a 17-year-old (HoH, born Blackfriars) Emma Deighton living in Blackfriars with a 23-year-old sister, Ellen.  The fact that the younger sister is HoH suggests that Ellen may have suffered from a disability.

But ... I cannot find any record on FreeBMD of a Deighton-Butler marriage.  Also, the only Ellen Butler born in or near Liverpool around 1869 (3Q 1868, Prescott 8b/544) is not the correct one (mother was Bridget, formerly Hanley).

So, in summary, we have Emma Deighton calling herself "Butler" from the late 1860's, but apparently not married to someone called Butler, nor co-habiting on census night with an adult male Butler in 1871 or 1881.  So was the father of Ellen, born about 1869, really a Butler, or did Emma apply the surname later? Why was Charles E, born about 1880, also called Butler, when there had never been an adult male in the family on census night since 1851, and the father of Henry William had long since moved on? 

I say this, because I am very certain (without being able to prove it) that Henry Thomas Butler, father of Henry William, was also father of Henry Thomas Butler, born Sept. 1871 (3 months before Henry William) to Margaret McHale, who was a 22-year-old professional actress, calling herself "Butler" in the 1871 census, but with no male adult Butler present, and for whom there is no record of a McHale-Butler marriage!  But Margaret and Henry Thomas certainly spent the next 28 years together, so Henry Thomas (the elder) would have had to be very devious to have sired Charles E in Newington in 1880, when he was resident in Hull.

Complicated - but I would welcome any ideas!

I am virtually certain that James Kerr Boyle, born in Salford, Lancashire in 1872 and orphaned when he was 7 years old, emigrated from the UK to New Zealand around 1890.  He appears in the 1881 UK census, but not in 1891, when he would have been 19.

Ancestry shows me lots of entries for a James Kerr Boyle starting in the late 19th century.  It seems he married, and that he might have been in trouble with the police .  But he seems to disappear after about 1910. 

To save me having to expand my Ancestry subscription to a global one just for this one fellow, I wonder if anyone can provide any more details about him?

Thanks!

Dear All ... I can read the basic text:

Column 1 (Regiment): "Sir B. D'Urban"
Column 2 (Name): "Thos McHale"
Column 3 (Rank): "Sergt"
Column 4 (Age): "41"

But I cannot make out the notation below his name.  All suggestions welcome

Edna Leighton was buried in Elmwood Cemetery, Markham OM (cemetery ID 4882) in 1989; Concession 8, Lot No 11.  According to the OGS Cemetery Search site,  a transcription of the headstone can be viewed in the OGS Library, North York ON.

If anyone is planning a visit to this library, I would veery much welcome information on the transcription.

Many thanks
Tim