[Merry]

Just re-posting this first part here to save reading back and then I am continuing with the can of worms underneath in case it's terrible weather where you are too and you need an excuse to stay inside! (Phoenix, if you read this, the longest paragraph below does mention the chance of Samuel being an engine fitter in 1914 if he is using an alias!). Sorry about the continuous switching between past and present tenses!

Looking for Samuel Chatterley in 1911. These are some of his details:

Samuel Frederick Chatterley birth reg Q1 1874 Daventry (b Weedon Northants)

1881 with parents
1891 not found
1901 Army barracks (in Hampshire? I forget), says born Birmingham, but I'm sure it's him - Birmingham is where he was brought up. His army record is on FMP which shows he signed up in 1893 and was discharged in 1905)
1911 no sign. I have checked the addresses given on his children's baptisms in 1904, 06 and 1910. Nothing to help.

I believe Samuel Chatterley and Kate Young moved to Exeter by 1912. A child was born there (Emily Chatterley) but she only lived one hour and was buried in Exeter Cemetery 18 Jul 1912 (newspaper report about cemetery burials).

I think the parents are Sam and Kate because:

1) the birth reg is Chatterley mmn Young and they are not the 'other' Chatterley/Young family as they are still in Birmingham having more children.

2) In 1913 and 1914 Sam and Kate's son Henry Vincent Chatterley (b 1910 in Birmingham) was registered at a school in Exeter. The family were living in Preston St Exeter which was a poor area. Samuel and Kate's other children (Frederick 1904 and Ivy 1906) don't seem to have come to Exeter. The only issue with Henry's school records is that his father is listed as Henry Chatterley, not Samuel.

Next comes a newspaper report- Taunton Courier, and Western Advertiser 09 September 1914

It's too long to type it all here but a couple called Henry and Kathleen Chatterley, no fixed abode, were brought up at the Taunton County Police Court charged with assaulting two men in Taunton on 7 Sept 1914. The details of the assault suggest Kathleen was at least as aggressive as her 'husband' and less remorseful after they were arrested, though she was discharged and he was fined in the end. The article states "P.S. Sweet said defendants had been in the town about three months. They had two children, one a baby and the other four years"

Now I hit the mystery! I'm pretty sure the four-year-old child above is Henry Vincent Chatterley. He definitely lived in the same house as these 'parents' during the 1920s and early 1930s in Taunton, as none of them were strangers to the courts so there are plenty of newspaper articles about them giving addresses.

After 1914 the father Henry (is he Samuel?) is generally called John Henry Chatterley. His army papers for WW1 survive. They state he is not married but his nok and dependent is Kathleen Rafferty (or Flatterly but not Young!). He lists his children with her, but the list doesn't include Henry Vincent Chatterley (the only child who was born in Birmingham with mmn Young - so, not Kathleen Rafferty's child or not John Henry's child or both?!). There are several birth registrations for Chatterley with mmn Rafferty the first being Rosie Chatterley registered Q1 1914 in Exeter (all others in Taunton) and who is presumably the baby in the newspaper report. Rosie was baptised in Exeter in Feb 1914 from a house in the same street as is mentioned in Henry Vincent Chatterley's school record. Rosie's parents are recorded as John Henry (engine fitter) and Kathleen Chatterley. The last entry in the school register for Henry Vincent Chatterley says 'left the city' in 1914.

Probably between 1920 and 1922 John Henry and Kathleen split up. Henry Vincent C probably stayed with Kathleen as he uses her address in court a couple of times in the early 1930s. Kathleen had several more children registered as Chatterley but the mmn is also Chatterley. Eventually she married Frederick Hodge in Taunton in 1928 (I guess it's likely he is the father of the post-1921 children as in the mid 1920s he and Kathleen were of the same abode in a court case) and had three more children Hodge mmn Chatterley, the last in 1933. Many of these children are in the Hodge household in 1939 but not Henry Vincent who may have been in the army.

John Henry Chatterley seems to have died in Bristol in 1936. He is not the birth reg in 1877 as that JHC had a different life and died after WW2.

Samuel C was born in 1874 and John Henry supposedly in about 1877. From their army records they were both the same height (5'6.5"), complexion (fresh) and eye colour (brown), but none of those are remarkable. Their hair colour is different, but John Henry was 41 and grey when his particulars were taken. There's about 25 years between the signatures on the army records and they are not especially similar!

So, is Samuel Frederick also John Henry? They are not the same age and JH doesn't acknowledge Henry Vincent as his son though he seems to have brought him up. Also are Kate Young and Kathleen Rafferty the same person? I have Kathleen's supposed dob from the 1939 Register (24 Feb 1889). Kate Young was recorded as 25 in 1911 (so b 1885/6). I don't feel they are one and the same, but could be. I could get Kathleen's marriage cert to Frederick Hodge to see if that helps, but it's a bit of a Schrodinger's cat thing where I feel if I get the cert I will be disappointed!

Samuel Frederick was born and did stuff up to 1912.

John Henry doesn't seem to exist until 1912. Neither of them had an official marriage.

Henry Vincent also never married. If it wasn't for him I wouldn't have any reason to believe the two couples, Sam and Kate and John Henry and Kathleen, had anything to do with each other.

I can't find Kathleen Rafferty before 1912 and can't establish which Young Kate Chatterley is before 1911.

Your thoughts....