A Bohemian or just a Fink?
Maybe I'm reading too much into this man's story, but for me, it leaves a
nasty taste in the mouth.
Frank Henry Catley was born in Leeds in 1835, the fourth child of Robert
and Ann Catley. After a period as a 'Cloth Dresser', Frank became a stone
mason, like his father Robert.
In 1859 he married Elizabeth Wood, 2 years his senior, who had been born
and brought up at Harewood in Yorkshire. Elizabeth's father Samuel was a
joiner, possibly on the Harewood Estate.
Frank and Elizabeth had two daughters, Maria and Kate, both born in
Yorkshire. By 1871 the family had moved to London and Frank was describing
himself as a stone carver.
Within the next 4 years the family split apart. Frank appears to have
gone off to Bury, Lancashire, with a Sarah Wood some 14 years his junior,
with whom he had three more children: Maud, Ada, and George. Although Sarah
has the same surname as Elizabeth, she was born in Essex and her parents,
John and Mary Wood, were also Essex born and bred. So far I have found no
direct family link between the two Wood ladies.
Frank and Sarah were still together in 1881, Frank now describing himself
as a sculptor, and boasting a servant and a boarder, whilst Sarah was
described as his wife. I have found no trace of a marriage for the
two. If there had been a marriage it would have been bigamous - Elizabeth
was still alive.
So what happened to the deserted wife and daughters?
Elizabeth found work as a nurse. In 1881 she was working as a nurse at
the residence of the Rector of St Botolph's, in Devonshire Square, London. By
1891 she had moved to Chertsey, where she was a nurse at the Chertsey Union
Workhouse. In both censuses she described herself as a widow. She clearly
was not, but may have told her employers that she was widowed to help her
get the jobs.
By 1881 Elizabeth's elder daughter Maria (aged 21) had moved to
Wallingford in Berkshire, where she also was working as a nurse. Maria was a
hospital attendant on the insane at the Moulsford Asylum.
Elizabeth's younger daughter Kate was aged between 7 and 11 when her
father left for Lancashire. In
1881 Kate was a servant in the household of Rochester W Hart, a banker's
clerk, in Carshalton, Surrey, but by 1891 she was
a pauper and an inhabitant of Lambeth Workhouse.
And Frank? He was no hero. Maybe
he wasn't such a villain either, but my sympathy is all with poor Kate.
