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, Cambs. (I have a copy of their Marriage Certficat
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). Frederick died (of TB) on 9 March 1913, in Ventnor, Isle of Wight, aged 18 years;
Eveline married and brought up a family in my home village, Christchurch.
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", he was either accompanied by the local
school mistress (who is supposed to have disappeared on the same day)
or by the family nursemaid - .
I assume he/they left U.K. in about 1903 - but from where, I don't know
Stonea has a railway station on the main Ely-March-Peterborough line,
so it would’ve been relatively easy to get a train into the Midlands and
then onto Liverpool to catch a boat.
I have no idea where he/they disembarked from in the U.K; or where he/they landed, or where he/they settled; all I know is that his signature was seen a few years later in a Hotel register by one of his English cousins, John Francis, who just happened to book in at the same hotel (somewhere in Canada) the day after Walter SCOTT signed out!
(This was before the First World War, and before John Francis married).
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!
I only found out about Walter in March, 2000 when Dad told me; and he
only told me then because we'd been round the Churchyard recording family
headstones and I couldn't find one for Walter and asked why!
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The above text is a slightly edited version of my webpage about my
Gt Grandfather Walter SCOTT
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~cawthorn/Scott/walter&annie_maria.html where there are also 2 pictures.
Commenst/suggestions welcome, as my father turns 81 in 2 weeks and is not in the best of health, but would like to know what happened to the grandfather he never knew.
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