Who was the mother of Tobias, May, George and James Hunter?

In 2014 I received an answer to a post I’d put on an Ancestry.com/UK message board.

Ancestry.com/UK Message Board Post, April 2014.The gist of the exchanged messages is as follows:

Subject: Re: William Leyland /Hunter

Author: Antony Marr

Date: 01 April 2014

Classification: Biography

Surnames: COUTES, HUNTER, JOHNSTON

 These posts are getting a bit confusing, but I think your family is pretty straightforward:

 William Leyland HUNTER is baptised in Manchester 15/12/1844 – son of John Hunter a tea merchant and his wife was Alice.  John HUNTER married Alice SOUTHAM in 1839.

 He had at least 2 brothers – Edmund (sometimes recorded as Edward) Southam HUNTER (1842) and Samuel Southam HUNTER (1848)

 The family don’t seem to be on UK census after that, so maybe they are in Hong Kong.

 Tobias Hunter is born in Hong Kong on 18th Sept 1877 – on his death record in British Columbia in 1970, his parents are named as William Leyland HUNTER , a tea dealer born in Manchester and Catherine COUTES, born in Hong Kong.

 There is no marriage record for William and Catherine in the UK, so they may have married in Hong Kong.

 William Leyland HUNTER married Ellen JOHNSTON in London (Holborn) in 1887. Ellen/Helen & Eleanor are often interchangeable names. Ellen was born about 1855 in Carlisle. The marriage certificate will say whether William describes himself as a widower (if he claimed Catherine had died).

 2 more children arrive – Evelyn Ellen HUNTER in 1887, and William Lethbridge HUNTER in 1891.

 In the 1891 census the family (William, Ellen & 2 young children) are living in Bloomsbury, London – he is described as a China Dealer. There is no sign of his other children (did he leave them and their mother? behind in Hong Kong)

 In 1893 William Leyland HUNTER goes bankrupt – with debts of £7,306 and assets of only £40. He is described (in The Times newspaper) as a commission merchant dealing in tea.

 William Leyland HUNTER dies on 8th March 1894 in Tooting , London and leaves his wife Ellen £18.

 In 1901 & 1911 Ellen HUNTER, a widow, is a lodging/boarding house keeper in Bloomsbury. She dies in 1924, and her death is registered (in the name Eleanor) by her son William Lethbridge HUNTER.

 I hope that helps sort things out.

 Antony

 * Note: Up until recently the only mention of a mother to Tobias, George, May and James is on that death certificate of Tobias in 1970. The information was given by his daughter (my mother) Iris Maud Beesley (nee Hunter) the name given under mother of deceased’s maiden name, was: CATHERINE COUTES

Other spellings were also tried but all searches under this name have proven unsuccessful.