I don’t suppose anyone but me has wondered what happened to Richard Archibald Farquharson after he published his book ‘A History of Honiton’ in 1868 and moved away shortly after. You could say he had a tough life. His father (named Archibald or William Stuart or Frederick William) was a prolific forger and was sentenced to twelve years penal servitude and transported to Bermuda. He returned to die in Dartmoor Prison in 1864 and is buried in Princetown. Three years previously Richard’s brother Francis was killed in a pistol accident in Honiton High Street.

Richard became a Captain in the 24th Regiment of Foot and married Henrietta Buckley, the daughter of Reverend Henry Buckley in London in 1859. They had a baby girl who only lived two weeks. Two years later Henrietta obtained a rare divorce for cruelty and adultery. There was a huge scandal, he was declared bankrupt and resigned his commission from the regiment. Next, he married Jessie Hooper from Exeter and in 1871 they were living in Honiton High Street with their three sons and his widowed mother Sarah.

Sarah’s allowance was cut by her trustees, so in reduced circumstances she rented a cottage in North Bradley near Trowbridge. Richard (now calling himself Roderick Francis Archibald) Jessie and children lived there too. They featured in a court case about damaged crockery at their furnished lodgings. Meanwhile the landlord of a Devises Hotel had received a letter from Mrs Farquharson of Stepney making enquiries about her husband. He did not know Mr Farquharson but sent her the newspaper containing the court report.

The mother of Alice Bertha Henrietta Vizer Benest, who married Richard in Hackney in 1871, arrived in North Bradley. She met him in the street and escorted him to the police station where he was charged with bigamy and stealing a ring which he had pawned. He was sentenced at the Wiltshire Assises to fifteen month's imprisonment with hard labour. Both wives were given permission to visit him in the cells. The next time ‘Roderick’ was in court he was charged with stealing a gold ring from a landlord which he pawned in Bath using the name Arthur Forrester.

Sarah died in 1890 and by then Jessie had given birth to eleven children. Richard moved the Farquharson family to London. He died in there 1912 of gastritis and cardiac syncope.