Walter SCOTT & Annie Maria LAVENDER

    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.
    My father remembers his Aunt Emily BATES as she married a local farmer, William Francis BATES, but had no children.

     From the Cambs Times, 16 May 1996 - "Lorna Warby of Upwell Park has a sampler made by her aunt, Emily Scott, 
     when she attended Stonea School in 1888.  The Sampler has Emily's name, date and "Stonea School" + alphabet.  
     "My aunt lived at Honey Farm, Stonea for many years", said Mrs Warby".

     From Kelly's 1925 Directory of Cambridgeshire: Stonea School was built in 1882 at a 
     cost of �500 for 94 children.  The school was opened 16 April 1883.

    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 Certficate.)
 
 

   

Grace
   
born
   
8 November 1892
   
at Honey Farm, Stonea
   

   

Fred Gabriel
   
born
   
1895
   
died 9 March 1913 of TB
   
aged 18 years
   

Eveline
   
born 
   
1901
   

   

   

   


   Their 1st child, Grace (my Grandmother),  was born on 8 November 1892 at Honey Farm, Stonea, nr Wimblington.  
       (Grace married my Grandfather, Walter Russell CAWTHORN in Nov. 1914)

   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.

   In 1887, Walter was also a Trustee of the Methodist Chapel in Christchurch 
   - the CAWTHORNs & SCOTTs were responsible for the building of the Chapel in the 1850s.

   As far as my Dad knows from family talk, on the day that Walter disappeared, he had taken some of his father's bullocks 
   to market in King's Lynn, Norfolk, sold them, banked the money for his father and was never seen again!  I am in touch 
   with the auctioneers in King's Lynn to see if they have a record of this transaction in their archives.

   (His mother, Grace, was in a private school- Monica House or College - in March, and had to be moved to the village
   Board School as there was no money to pay her fees.) Grace's sister was born in 1901, so Walter must've been around until
   then.



Walter, Annie Maria & 2 elder children, Grace & Frederick Gabriel, c.1898
   When Walter did his "runner",  he was either accompanied either by the local school mistress (who disappeared on the same day) 
   or by the family nursemaid - I have yet to find out her name, but it should certainly be on the U.K. 1901 Census- more searching.

   The school mistress in the 1900 Kelly's Directory of Cambridgeshire is Miss Alice Goodhall, and she's gone by 1903 
   according to the school log-books in Cambridgeshire County Record Office.
   But there was also E. Harrington, headmistress 12 Jan. 1903 (in temporary charge)
   Jane Bellis, headmistress, (trained certified mistress) March-October 1903
   Miss Hodson, headmistress, 2 Nov. 1903-Feb. 1919
   No reason is given in the log book for the resignations of any of the headteachers

   Also, in the 1904 Kelly's Directory of Cambridgeshire, there are no SCOTTs listed as farmers at Honey Farm, Stonea, 
   which is where Walter & his family lived.  Walter must have gone by the time the Directory entries were made, as 
   Annie Maria and her 3 children moved out of the farm at Stonea and moved in with her in-laws in Christchurch.

   So I assume 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.

     Note: Liverpool at that time was was the busiest emigration port in Britain; it saw over 9 million immigrants 
      (European + U.K.) leave for Australia, Canada and the U.S.A. from 1830-1930. 
      Passenger Lists, from 1890, unindexed or transcribed, are available at the PRO, Kew, but it's a long haul unless you 
      know the year, ship's name and departure port!

     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.
        So the Time Frame is now 1903-1914

    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 because we'd been round the 
    Churchyard recording family headstones and I couldn't find one for Walter and asked why! 



Annie Maria & her children, Grace, Frederick Gabriel & Eveline c.1906
    My father has just told me of an interesting incident in Christchurch churchyard - in about 1995, he was cleaning 
    the CAWTHORN family headstones when he noticed that someone had obviously been looking at the headstone for John SCOTT, 
    Walter's father.  The dirt and grime over John's name had been cleaned away with a finger for easier reading.  Dad has 
    never been able to find out who it was, but he feels it may have something to do Walter.

    Once the 1911 Candian Census is released, I may stand a chance of finding him, but until then, I'm clutching at 
    straws.
 
    My father, now aged 96 is now extremely keen to find out what happened to his never-known Grandfather, so I am exploring all 
    angles in the quest for the elusive Walter.         

         Grace SCOTT & Walter Russell CAWTHORN    
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This page created 18 January 2001
& amended/updated 14:43 04/05/2020