Scanner memories

Last month I told the story of John Waterhouse, one of the greatest of Halifax sons, a scientist, traveller, collector and musician. John was one of the last members of the Waterhouse family that had lived in the area since the 15th century at such grand houses as The Hollins, Sowerby Bridge, and Shibden Hall, Halifax.

John’s grandfather, also John, built Well Head mansion on the southern outskirts of Halifax and when he died in 1879 the very last of the Well Head Waterhouses was his niece, his brother Samuel’s daughter, Catharine.

And her story was very strange indeed – with more than a hint of scandal.

Catharine Grace was born in 1842. Thirty years later, in July 1872, the Halifax Courier carried the announcement of her marriage, which included this paragraph:

“On Thursday there were many pleasing evidences of rejoicing in the town on the marriage of Miss Waterhouse in London, to Captain Doherty. Flags floated from the parish church tower, the Conservative rooms, White Swan, etc, and the parish church bells during the day rang merry peals.”

Catharine’s groom was Captain Daniel Henry Doherty, 3rd Hussars (retired), born near Dublin in 1839, the younger son of a senior Anglo-Irish judge. As his bride was the last of the male-line Waterhouses of Well Head, on his marriage, Doherty added her surname after his own, by deed poll.

The more I looked into the life of Catharine Doherty Waterhouse, the more puzzled I became. This was chiefly due to the apparent disappearance of her husband from local records, though he did not die until 1913.

From the 1880s Catharine lived with her mother at Well Head and, after the latter’s death in 1901, on her own at Scarborough or at Well Head. Her husband’s address is then regularly recorded elsewhere.

In 1875, just three years after the marriage of Catharine to the captain, her husband was in serious financial trouble. That November, in the first issue of the London Gazette, I found this:

“In the London Bankruptcy Court: In the matter of a special resolution for liquidation by arrangement of the affairs of Daniel Henry Doherty Waterhouse, of No 5, Hertford Street, Mayfair, in the county of Mid- Monkey tricks at Stainland helped to boost the Evening Courier Bodyscanner Appeal in March 1989. Murial Williams, pictured front, right – who made a soft toy monkey – Kathleen Baines, left, and May Taylor hand over cheques for £350 to the Courier’s Elland area reporter, Rayner Hardcastle. With them are members of Stainland Thursday Club and Stainland Good Companions Club. A raffle for the monkey raised £150 and the two clubs made £200 by running a jumble sale, cake stall and raffles at Stainland Village Hall. The money went towards the appeal’s £500,000 target to buy a scanner for the Royal Halifax Infirmary.