1901 census query

[silicondale]

An otherwise very legible 1901 census page has just one thing that I can't decipher. Anyone have an idea? It's the word or abbreviation above age 35 for William Button. There are two possible Williams who this could be, but the age is actually wrong for both of them. This identification has been driving me crazy for several years, because the more likely match also implies he was maintaining two parallel lives - this one in Dartford, the other in Brighton - and leading a very complicated life.

[familydar]

It relates to the row above, under 1 mos (months), so no help to you whatsoever 

Jane :-)

[Tickettyboo]

It relates to the row above, under 1 mos (months), so no help to you whatsoever 

Jane :-)

Agreed, if others want to check this is Piece 702 / folio 53/page 57

Boo

[Milliepede]

Yes I agree too 

[silicondale]

Thanks all - I hadn't thought of that, but it makes sense. A pity the enumerator didn't confine comments to the correct row!

[Tickettyboo]

you probably already know this but none of the children listed were registered at birth with the surname of Button. Having searched I believe they were registered as follows:

1897, Q2 Faversham 2a 827 Hilda May NORRIS mmn WILSON
1898, Q1 Faversham 2a 861 Beatrice Florence NORRIS mmn WILSON
1900, Q1 Faversham 2a 923, Maud Mary NORRIS mmn WILSON

and there is a possible marriage for a Frances Emily Wilson and a Charles Henry Norris in Q4 1894, Faversham

Boo

[silicondale]

Thanks, indeed so. Not only that - he and Frances did have 3 children later, but never married. If it's the same person (and the 1901 census is the only evidence we've found for this), he returned to his home town, Brighton, had an unlawful marriage in 1901 (the sister of his first wife who had died in 1898), and another, this time legal marriage in 1904, three more children, but died in 1908. In 1901 he had just returned from 9 years in Australia where he had run a successful hotel business. If it was the same person, then for about 4 years he must have had a complicated life commuting between Dartford (later Faversham) and Brighton where he had become the licensee of the Black Horse in Church Street.