Everyone has a Black Sheep/Skeleton in the Cupboard, and this one is mine:- my great Grandfather Walter SCOTT, born on 6 October 1867, in Christchurch,
Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England; son of John Scott & Hannah Doncaster of Euximoor Grange Farm, Christchurch.
He has no middle name and looking at other family names, Walter is a very unusual name to have been used. I can only assume that my Gt Gt Grandmother must've enjoyed reading Sir Walter Scott's novels!
Walter had two younger siblings, Frederick, bn 1870, & Emily, bn 1877.
Walter married Annie Maria LAVENDER, daughter of William & Mary LAVENDER, Herbalists, of Chatteris on 27 October 1890 in the Wesleyan Chapel, Chatteris,Cambridgeshire.
Their 1st child, Grace (my Grandmother), was born on 8 November 1892 at Honey Farm, Stonea, nr Wimblington.
There were 2 more children: Frederick Gabriel (bn 1895) & and Eveline (bn 1901).
As far as my Dad knows from family talk, on the day that Walter disappeared, he had taken some of his father's cattle to market in King's Lynn, Norfolk, sold them,
banked the money for his father and was never seen again!
Another version is that Walter and his men took some cattle to Bury St. Edmunds market, which they had reared at Christchurch. It would have taken several days as
they were walked the entire way. Walter sold them, paid the men, and should have gone back to the farm to hand in the money. This is the good bit - Walter took the
money, which would have been considerable, and went to Canada with a servant girl, and was never seen again.
When Walter did his "runner"- in about 1904 - he was alledgedly accompanied by the local school mistress (who is supposed to have disappeared on the same day) or by the family nursemaid, Eliza SEE.
All I know is that his signature was seen a few years later in a Hotel register [in Canada] by one of his English cousins, John Francis, who just happened to book in at the same hotel the day after Walter SCOTT signed out!
(This was before the First World War]
The description given by the Hotel staff apparently fitted Walter to a T!
This is the only known "sighting" of Walter, so the SCOTT’s assumed Walter went to Canada BUT he could just as easily have gone to America - or Australia - or New Zealand - or anywhere!
His family were farmers so I would assume he got a land grant and started farming - but WHERE is the big question!
But until I can find someone in any of those countries who descends from Walter and a possible 2nd family, I have no idea where he ended up.
And time is running out for my father, who's 83 this year. He never knew his grandfather and is very keen to find out what happened to him.
N.B. An awful lot of Scottish families with the surname SCOTT also emigrated in their 1000s to Canada, the USA & Australia - and Walter was a very popular christian name!
The above text is a slightly edited version of my webpage about my gt grandfather:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~cawthorn/Scott/walter&annie_maria.htmlwhere there are also 2 pictures.
Does anyone connect with Walter?
p.s. have spent hours trawling the new online Passenger Lists at FindMyPast - there's too many Walters and not enough definitive infomation
Ann
