Nine children in all were born before William's mother Emma passed away
in August 1846 from heart failure, aged just 42. William Senior married again
in early 1847 to Elizabeth Mary or Mary Elizabeth, and had a further three
children.
In the 1851 census, William is found in his uncle John's household, training
as a butcher.
William Senior passed away in early December 1857, and less than three weeks later, William Junior was married to Sophia TOMPKINS in Lamberhurst, near Tunbridge Wells. When or why he moved here isn't known.
William and Sophia had their first child William in March 1859, shortly
before William (now Senior)'s brother George married
and left for the goldfields of Melbourne together with their other brother,
Edward. George wasn't gone long however, and
returned in 1865 to take up the position on Innkeeper in nearby Hook Green.
George and William became involved in the local parish administration, with William appointed constable from 1865 to 1871.
Brother Edward returned in 1868 (having journeyed in New Zealand as well
as Australia), and claimed Sophia's little sister Esther as his bride before
returning with her to New Zealand later that year.
Shortly after, George was appointed Assistant Overseer in 1868, and then in 1869 both William and George were appointed "Assessors of the Queen's Taxes". William was listed in the 1871 census as "Butcher, Farmer and Hop Grower", continuing the trade of his father. William and his family lived in an early Tudor house known as "Village Manorden", which still stands today.
In 1873, a few months before the reappointment of George and William as Tax Assessors was due, the following entry appears in the Vestry minutes:
At a meeting held in the Vestry Room of this Parish on Friday 21st February 1873 (pursuant to notice duly published) for the purpose of nominating two fit and proper persons as Collectors of the Queen's Taxes in the place of Messrs William and George Gurr (whose appointments had been revoked by the Commisionners) for the remainder of the current financial year.It's not known what caused their appointments to be revoked, but a year later on 27th May 1874 brother George and his family had moved to Harrow, Middlesex.
William and Sophia had three more sons (Charles, John, and Arthur) before
Sophia's untimely death in 1884. However, it was only nine months later that
William wed again (now aged 55), this time to Anne Eliza NOAKES, almost 30
years his junior.
William and Anne's first child, Ernest, was
born a year later. They had a further seven children (making 12 in total)
before William's death from influenza in 1903, aged 73.
Despite his surviving wife, William was buried in the same plot as his
first wife, Sophia, in the churchyard at St. Mary's.