Thomas Hunt missing from 1861 Census of Leicester?

[Davedrave]

I’m having trouble with someone I can’t find, again in the 1861 Census of Leicester.
Thomas Hunt appears in the electoral registers for Leicester, including in the year 1861, where he is a freeman, living in Swan’s Mill Lane. This was in St Mary’s. I’m fairly confident that he was a brother of John and Peter Hunt, also freemen, who were then living in Gt Holme St, St Mary’s.

It seems odd that I can’t find him in the census but even odder that I don’t seem able to find Swan’s Mill Lane in the address search on FindMyPast (unless it is the same as Mill Lane, which I have searched without finding Thomas).

Dave

[softly softly]

Can you give us an idea of when Thomas was born and do you have him in census before and after 1861

John

[Davedrave]

Can you give us an idea of when Thomas was born and do you have him in census before and after 1861

John

Thomas was baptised in Leicester St Mary’s in 1822 and married Emily Roe in 1843. He was in Shakespeare Court in 1851 with wife “Amelia” (presumably Emily) and was a hawker, so definitely the right person. In 1871 there is a Thomas Hunt in Leicester with a different wife. His job was “dealer in Nottingham lace” so possibly the same person, maybe first wife died and he remarried. This 1871 address was still in St Mary’s parish, which is where he was in the 1861 electoral roll. I think this 1871 job is pretty similar to Thomas’s job in 1851. Thomas’s father William was also a hawker or traveller, who most probably sold hosiery, since he was also at times described as a trimmer and dyer.

Dave

[willsy]

Had a look at the burials in Welford Road, is Sarah Hunt who died 1878 his mother?
There is an Amelia Hunt buried with her who died 1879, same address as 1871 but has birth as Derbyshire

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VFTK-QWJ

Only 2 burials in the grave

EDIT***
There are 3 burials, early one before in 1851

[willsy]

Also found an Emily 'Hernt' 1861 born Long Eaton who is married but no husband as in 1871

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M7YQ-8S4

[Davedrave]

Also found an Emily 'Hernt' 1861 born Long Eaton who is married but no husband as in 1871

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M7YQ-8S4

Many thanks. I incorrectly said that Thomas was in St Mary’s, dealer in Nottingham lace, in 1871, with a different wife. It was actually in 1881. The burials in Welford Road are of Thomas’s mother and wife, (who was from Long Eaton, daughter of a boatman, so probably came to Leicester on a canal boat).

So Thomas is missing from both the 1861 and 1871 censuses. I don’t know whether he was simply away from home during both censuses (but where?) or whether Thomas and Emily were actually separated.

I still think that the Thomas Hunt in the 1861 electoral roll in Swan’s Mill Lane is most likely him, because he and his brothers were certainly hereditary freemen of Leicester.

If Thomas and Emily were separated then maybe it was amicable, or at least maybe Emily was close to her mother-in-law, since she was buried beside her.

The Thomas Hunt of the 1881 Census does look like him, but since Emily had died by the he could well have remarried.

Dave

[Davedrave]

I’ve found that a Thomas Hunt, who would have been 56 at the time, married Catherine Willford in Leicester in 1880. She was born in Great Glen, Leicestershire (Nonconformist baptism), so the Thomas with wife Catherine born in Great Glen is clearly him in the 1881 Census. I suppose that Thomas may simply have been away from home and somehow missed out of both the 1861 and 1871 censuses, though it may be suggestive that Emily Hunt had a lodger in the house in 1871, suggesting that there was space and maybe help paying the rent? (He was a lot younger so probably not a partner.)

Dave

[willsy]

Just found this in the paper for you

Leicester Journal 21 February 1879

Deaths
on the 18th inst., Amelia, wife of Mr. Thomas Hunt, Ruding-street, Braunstone-gate, aged 54yrs.

[Mabel Bagshawe]

There's a Thomas Hunt aged 49 lodging in Whitwick in 1871- pob not known and marital status left blank. he is a hawker.

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VFTF-XYK