The heiress and gambling Captain Doherty soon separated. But did the Waterhouses cover it up to hide the family’s shame?
dlesex, of no occupation.”
It went on to announce a ceditors’ meeting “to consider the present position of this estate and to receive an explanation from the trustees why no dividend has been declared; and to consider the advisable of instituting proceedings with a view of adjudicating the abovenamed Daniel Henry Doherty Waterhouse a bankrupt.”
Horrors! The heiress of the Waterhouses of Halifax was married to a bankrupt! I have also uncovered evidence that Captain Doherty was a heavy gambler. It appears that he then faded out of the local picture altogether.
In 1882, when the captain was seeking an injunction against the stewards of the prestigious Jockey Club (he lost, by the way) he stated clearly that “My name is now Daniel Henry Doherty; it was different for a short period. It was Waterhouse then for some years, from 1872.”
This indicates that he and his wife had separated and they may have done so by 1875.
Captain Doherty died at Weston, near Bath, in 1913. He was far from bankrupt then, for his estate was worth nearly £70,000 – and nothing was left to his ex-wife!
Catharine’s uncle, John Waterhouse, and father, Samuel, were still alive in 1875 and were two of the most respected men in Halifax, men of impeccable character and trustees of a famous charity.
Did they persuade the Halifax press to cover up the scandal of the marital separation of the daughter of one of the borough’s most illustrious families?
Even in Catharine’s obituaries in 1916 no mention is made to a marital breakdown. The obituaries read: “In 1872 she married Captain Daniel Henry Doherty, of the 13th Hussars who, by Royal Licence, assumed the additional surname and arms of Waterhouse and who died three years before his wife. The couple had no children.”
In her later and solitary years Catharine became a great benefactress herself. But she did so very quietly, contributing unobtrusively “to many a struggling church”.
She also supported liberally and more publicly the foundation of the Mission Church of St Michael and All Angels on Southowram Bank, in 1887 and early in the 20th century she gave large sums of money towards the erection of the new church of All Saints, Elland, where her name is also commemorated on a plaque.
Catharine also paid for the 1915 refurbishment of the Rokeby Chapel at Halifax Parish Church, involving the installation of a fine new altar and reredos to ornament the chapel where so many of the Waterhouses lie buried.
Latterly Catharine lived mostly at her house in Scarborough. After the outbreak of the Great War she devoted herself to the various Halifax funds for the soldiers abroad and Red Cross work, while the grounds of Well Head were often filled with large crowds attending bazaars and other social functions to raise money for the troops.
Unlike her husband Catharine kept her double surname until her death in August 1916 and described herself as a widow after his death.
She died at Well Head and her burial was the very last in Halifax Parish Churchyard. Hundreds gathered outside the church to witness the committal service for a much admired lady, buried just outside the Rokeby Chapel.
With the death of Catharine Grace Doherty-Waterhouse, after 150 years of continuous occupation by Waterhouses, Well Head and its estate were sold. Her estate was valued at nearly £23,000.
More than 2,300 books were in the library at Well Head when its contents were sold; what happened to all the family portraits and other possessions, one wonders? Is the reason that virtually no personal family papers have apparently survived an attempt to cover up a family scandal?