Although I am still exploring one or other other lines, here's what I have on the Brazilian connection - there is certainly some "unconventional behaviour" here!
Starting with from the 1871/1881 census there seem to be two family groups with children born in Brazil:
1) The Portuguese-born Maria A de A Carruthers, widow of Richard (who must have died before 1871) living in Chorlton, Lancs in 1871 with three Brazilian-born children, Adelaide (1847), Isaac (1852) and James (1853); of these, the two youngest are still living with their mother a decade later in Fulham (perhaps she moved to provide a base as they developed their careers in London as artist and shipping clerk respectively; I suppose that Adelaide had married by then. There was also a Brazilian-born mechanical engineer Richard Carruthers (1848) in Chorlton in 1871 who was living in the same street, but as a lodger with retired wine merchant William Payant - whose son was he?
2) In Liverpool was a Mary N Carruthers "widow of chandler" and with her were Brazilian-born Conrad J (1855, brass finisher), William A (1857, cabinet maker) and Charles J (1859, scholar). For the reasons below, it may well be that Mary Carruthers was not their mother - or perhaps only of Conrad.
I have failed to find any records at all of the births of the children of Richard and Maria - none of them were registered with consuls in Brazil and they do not appear in the baptismal registers of Christ Church, the English church in Rio de Janeiro. I do know, however from consular correspondence in the National Archives that there was a merchant Richard Carruthers in Rio de Janeiro at least between 1825 and 1834, but he may have moved to another city after that.
William Carruthers however certainly raised a family in Rio de Janeiro. Christ Church baptismal registers records three:
7/12/1856 William Augustus Carruthers, born 27/10/1856
parents William Carruthers (clerk) and Margaret Zimmer
30/10/1858 Charles John Carruthers, born 5/10/1858
parents William (mercantile clerk) and Anna Margaret Carruthers
21/2/1861 Mary Margaret, born 16/1/1861
parents William (mercantile clerk) and Anna Margaret Carruthers
Interesting that first two were born out of wedlock. And this is confirmed by a marriage on 30/10/1858 (the very day of the baptism of Charles):
William Carruthers of Carlisle, bachelor
Anna Margaret Zimmer of Niderbeisen[?], Germany, spinster [in her signature looks like "Margaretkes" (witnesses were non-family)]
It seems unlikely that Anna Margaret Zimmer would have been transformed into the Cumberland-born Mary N Carruthers by the 1871 census. I suspect that the boys were in England learning trades/at school and living with an aunt while 10-year-old Mary stayed in Brazil with her mother.
On 8/7/1881 Charles John Carruthers married another German, Anna Seidemann (born about 1857) at Christ Church, Rio de Janeiro.
However six years earlier, the youngest, Mary Ann Margaret, married 35-year-old Swedish engineer Axel Rudolf Frick on 18/1/1875 just two days after her 14th birthday. And the reason is clear - just three months later on 23/4/1875 they had a daughter Anna Amy Nancy Frick, also baptised at Christ Church.
Both of these marriages were registered with the British Consul in Rio de Janeiro.
Whether Conrad was a product of the same Carruthers/Zimmer union is not known, indeed he may not have been born in Rio de Janeiro.
I have brief records of a couple of strays that may not be connected to the same family. In 1825 there was a resident in Pernambuco (Recife) named George A Carruthers (this may be the George Agnew Carruthers, attorney, referenced in the London Gazette 27 June 1815, p1253). And in the same city the marriage of Margaret Carruthers and José Maria da Conceição was registered at the British consulate in the early 1860s.
There do not seem to be any Carruthers deaths registered by British consuls in Brazil. Unfortunately I do not yet have copies of the Christ Church, Rio de Janeiro burial registers after 1861.
Well, that's it for now - I'll add any further tidbits that emerge.
David
