The Many Lives of Richard Edgar

Up until 1871 Richard's progress through the documents is not an unusual one.

There's no birth certificate - registration wasn't compulsory at the time - but in the 1841 Census he's listed as fourth  and then youngest child of Johnson and Sarah and his age is given as ten, so he was born in about 1831. In 1851 he's given as 19 and his employment is the same as his older brother Edmund's - this is almost illegible but it certainly begins 'farmer' and my guess is that what follows is something like 'employed on father's farm'.

In 1860 Richard married Sarah Elizabeth Wright of Bury St Edmunds and the Census of 1861 finds them living in Bury, Richard 29 and Sarah 19 - so she was born in about 1842.

Guildhall, Bury St Edmunds
"Bury St Edmunds - The Guildhall" by Keith Evans. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bury_St_Edmunds_-_

He's now a 'malster and merchant'. Once again Wikipedia comes to the rescue of those of us who don't know as much about nineteenth century Edgar working practises as we should:

Malt is germinated cereal grains that have been dried in a process known as "malting". The grains are made to germinate by soaking in water, and are then halted from germinating further by drying with hot air.[1]

What's the point of that then? Well:

Malted grain is used to make beer; whisky; malted shakes; malt vinegar....(and stuff like Maltesers -the chocolate with the less fattening centre - that Richard never dreamt were possible).

Bury is still a centre for malting and brewing, so Richard's malted barley presumably ended up as beer.

Barley on the floor of a traditional malthouse
"Highland park malting floor" by Lakeworther - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons

The family is living at 85-88 Risbygate Street and next door in the Malster's Cottage is another malster and his family. I think this enables us to take a good guess as to where Richard did his work:


Malthouse Project
Copyright Oast House Archives, licensed for re-use under a Creative Commons License:
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1444197

The Malthouse Project is based in  converted seventeenth century malt house in Risbygate Street, so the original building must be a candidate for Richard's workplace.

So far so good. Richard starts off on the family farm (probably), learns a useful trade, marries and raises a family. The evidence of the 1881 Census entry for Sarah's household and of birth registers enables us to reconstruct their children at the time of the 1871 Census, all born in Bury St Edmunds: Walter Rossiter, born in the first quarter of 1873,  Alice Mary born in the first quarter of 1867 and Frederick William, born in early 1870. But I think that they also had a son in 1866 or thereabouts: Harry James Wright Edgar. I'll explain why I think this in a moment.

In the 1871 Census Richard, still a malster, is recorded as a visitor at his brother Edmund's Hill Farm in Preston St Mary - which means he spent the night of April 2 there. There's nothing necessarily strange about that, nor about the fact that I can find no sign of Sarah or the children Walter, Alice and Frederic in the 1871 Census. Such absences are not that uncommon and can be caused, for example, by faulty modern search engines, illegible Census-taker handwriting or gaps in the records. But then there's another Census entry that suggests the possibility of a family problem: Harry J(ames) Wright Edgar, aged 5 turns up with his grandfather Johnson Edgar at Down Hall Farm. The family trees on Ancestry.com are split as to Harry[2]: one tree has him as Thomas's child (which would make him a part of our branch of the Edgars) but I think the other trees[3] are correct and that he's the son of Richard and Sarah come to live with his grandfather at Down Hall Farm. My evidence for this is twofold: firstly the middle name 'Wright' - that was Sarah's maiden name. Secondly, in the 1911 Census he's recorded boarding with his 'brother' Frederick William.

Harry's presence at Down Hall Farm might mean financial or marital problems for his family, or they might mean nothing of the sort. Johnson was prosperous, he no longer had a young family, and he might have been doing no more than giving a favourite grandchild a comfortable home

If there was a marital problem in 1871, it was presumably temporary, as Richard and Sarah's son, William (not to be confused with Frederick William) had his birth registered in the first quarter of 1873. Further indication that the couple were still together in 1873 is a record that shows that Walter Rossiter Edgar entered the Guildhall Feoffment school (Bury St Edmunds) in 1873 - his father's name was given as Richard (the family's address was in Chalk Lane.[4]

But now we must pursue the rather surprising course of Richard's progress through the post 1873 documents.

First of all, he vanishes. The man who's been making malt in Suffolk and getting about ten years older every time a decennial census was taken disappears from the records.

But in 1881 a Richard Edgar - the second - also a malster and born in Preston St Mary, shows up in Roath, Glamorgan married to a woman called Charlotte. She's 30, born in Newport (Wales) and works as a seamstress.


Newport, South Wales
"Newport UK location map" by Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons

This can't be OUR Richard can it? When we last saw him ten years ago he was 'married'- that was recorded in the relevant column - and we know his wife was Sarah. Divorce papers aren't available online and I've found no certificate of his marriage to Charlotte. But lots of people have claimed, in hotel registers, ships manifests and all other sorts of documents as well as census forms, to be married when they're not, so it's not this that means he can't be OUR Richard - look at the age. He's 40, which would be a pretty impressive achievement for a man born in 1831/32.

In 1891 Richard Edgar - the third -  also lives in Wales but at a new location and with a different profession. He's a caretaker living in Cardiff. He and Charlotte still have no children - just a visitor. But here's an amazing thing: Richard is now 58, having aged 18 years since the last census. Charlotte is 41, so her aging process has remained more or less normal.

In 1901 the two Welsh Richard Edgars have done a vanishing act, just like their Suffolk predecessor. But there's still a Richard Edgar - the fourth; he's a barman at a pub, visiting friends in Birmingham with - Charlotte Edgar. The friends are the Williams family, so there does seem a possible Welsh connection even though these Williamses weren't born there. How old is this Richard you might well be asking?  He's aged 54, which makes him four years younger than the second Welsh Richard Edgar was ten years ago and about 16 years younger than the Bury St Edmunds Richard Edgar would have been. And another interesting point: the first three Richard Edgars were all born in Suffolk, and this fourth Richard also had an eastern counties origin - in his case in Norfolk. And Charlotte, whose now 48 so her aging seems as erratic as her husband's, also has a different but similar birthplace: the first Charlotte (who was with the second and third Richards) was born in Newport, while the second Charlotte (with the fourth Richard) saw the light of day in Newtown, which is still in Wales but about 70 miles away.

Newtown, central Wales
"Powys UK location map" by Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons

Confused? I think you're meant to be. For a start, Richard (if all these four incarnations are in fact the same man) is the only case I've yet come across of someone who was away from home on more than one Census day. The first time doesn't seem of any obvious significance, but the second time - and considering they both give wrong birth places yet seem compelled to keep some element of truth - well, it's almost like he and Charlotte don't want people to know where they are.

But things don't finish with the 1901 Census. There's a fifth Richard Edgar.

This one died in Birmingham aged 62 in the last quarter of 1904 - remember that the fourth Richard Edgar was in Birmingham three years earlier but apparently eight years younger.

While all this was going on (irrelevantly if you think that the Richard Edgar in our family simply disappears from the records after 1873) what's happening to Sarah Elizabeth and her children? That, as the saying goes, is another story.

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malt

[2] http://person.ancestry.co.uk/tree/60181970/person/30109594330/facts

[3] e.g. http://person.ancestry.co.uk/tree/16798471/person/18593884912/facts; http://person.ancestry.co.uk/tree/21782483/person/1136302178/facts

[4] National School Admission Registers & Log Books 1870-1914.