Archdale Vere QUILTER [1201]

   Another name for Archdale was Frank.

  General Notes:

Archdale lived in California, in 1936 aged 77 years he applied for naturalisation having lived in the United States since 1895

  Research Notes:

Family History by R Cunningham 2017
The Quilter Family
Tasmania Yorkshire California
Charles Poulett Harris's second daughter Anna Maria (named after her mother) was baptised at St James's, Taunton, on May 4, 1827. On November 12, 1856, at Clifton, Bristol, she married the Rev. Frederick William Quilter, MA, DD, second master of Hobart High School (where her elder brother Richard was to be Headmaster). Their only child Archdale Vere was born there on September 21, 1857. Anna Maria died at Hobart on October 26 1857; Quilter re-married within two years (to a daughter of the Bishop of Tasmania) and had eleven more children.
The young Archdale was sent to England to be cared for by his father's family. At the time of the 1871 census Archdale was living with his uncle Henry King Quilter, vicar of Bilton-in-Holderness on the outskirts of Hull.
In 1881 he was a farmer at Catwick, about ten miles north of Bilton, with 177 acres and employing five men. Archdale married Sarah Ann Hodge at St. Ives, Cornwall, on October 16, 1882. Sarah had been born on March 26, 1860 to John Hain Hodge, a sailmaker, and his wife Jane (née Williams). Their only child Maria Vere was born in Catwick on June 1, 1884. In 1888 Archdale seems to have gone to Australia and rented a property in the suburbs of Melbourne, claiming to be a veterinarian.
At the time of the 1891 census he was back at the home of his uncle Henry, living together with and his wife and daughter, and was a hay and straw dealer. In 1892 he was at 55 Wheeler St., Hull, a hay, straw, and corn merchant & wholesale forage contractor. On November 11 1895 he, claiming on the passenger list now to be an engineer, arrived in New York with his wife and daughter. In 1899 Sarah was working in Los Angeles as a cook, and Maria was at the same address as a "domestic". Maria is generally shown in the Californian records as "Marie", occasionally "Mary", and "Vere" usually becomes "Vera".
In 1900 the Los Angeles city directory shows Archdale as a landscape gardener living in Los Angeles at the address where Sarah and Maria had been; Sarah was now at 1115 East 22^nd St., but they do not appear in the census taken that year. On February 25 1903, Maria married Harry Benninger, who appears in the directory that year as a driver for the S F Trans Co. On the next day the Los Angeles Times announced the granting of their marriage licence, describing Benninger as a 21-year-old native of Germany. However Maria's troubles now began. On June 14, 1904, the Los Angeles Herald reported that Benninger and an accomplice had been sentenced to four years' imprisonment after pleading guilty to three burglaries. This pair was known as the "sockless burglars", and had stolen a pair of field glasses, $20, a smoking jacket, and a revolver. The newspaper report added that Benninger had "left his wife about two months ago". In the directory for that year Archdale is listed as "Frank", which is perhaps how he was known. From 1905 to 1907 he is shown as working for the Johnson & Musser Seed Company . On September 29 1908 Maria married again, to William Palmer, a miner, Spanish-American War veteran, and widower, originally from Ohio: but he abandoned her before the end of the year. In 1909, the directory shows her living at 1400 El Molino St.
The 1910 census clarifies that this was also the home of her parents. Archdale's time at the seed company had come to an end, and he was now an expressman, i.e. responsible for the safe delivery of gold or currency secured in a train's express car. Very confusingly, Maria seems to appear twice. She is first named as Mary, with the surname Palmer crossed out, married for a year, with a "Trade or profession" stated as "Theatrical - moving pictures stage etc.", but out of work; and then as Marie Benninger, divorced; the profession being the same with the addition of "chorus", and not out of work. Her life was indeed arguably theatrical, but not in the way she would have wanted. Perhaps she was now back with Harry Benninger. Also staying at the same address is one William W. Woodworth. On February 15, 1911, Maria was granted a divorce by the District Court in Reno, Nevada. In the 1916 Los Angeles directory (prepared in 1915) she is still Mrs. Marie V. Benninger, but in the voter registration list the same year she is Mrs. Marie Vere Woodworth. Neither a divorce from Benninger nor a marriage to Woodworth has been found. By 1917 Archdale's career as an expressman was over, and during this decade he worked as a gardener at various addresses in Santa Monica. To return to Benninger: on his draft registration card in 1918 he was living and working at the Albers Hotel in San Francisco as a clerk, having previously worked on the railroad. He is stated as having his "Index finger on right hand missing both legs paralized but able to walk". Despite miraculously being able to walk while paralysed, he seems to have been exempted. Intriguingly, he stated his wife's name as Marie.
The 1920 census shows Archdale & Sarah at 1444 8^th St. Santa Monica. Archdale is still a gardener - "by the day"; what he was doing at night is not divulged. Marie is at 1400 El Molino St. Los Angeles (where the family had been from 1908 to 1911), now with a new husband: William Woodworth, then an electrician in an auto-electric shop, but in 1922 a gardener. Unfortunately this did not last: Woodworth died in November 1922, and three months later Mariel tried husband no. 4: William Rae, a cook. Maria's occupation was still, or once again, "theatrical". Archdale however ventured into a new career: in 1927, at the age of 70, he was a life guard. In 1929, William Palmer was in the Sawtelle Veterans' Hospital.
By 1930 Maria had also moved to Santa Monica and was working, with her husband, as a manager of an apartment house. In 1936, Archdale, Sarah Marie and William were all living at the same address, in Venice, California. In that year, Archdale applied for naturalisation to the Southern District of California - duly declaring that he was (inter alia) neither an anarchist nor a polygamist. Archdale died at the age of 79 on January 31, 1937. Sarah died four days later, aged 76. Both of their deaths were notified to the Department of Public Health by the Bureau of Indigent Relief. In March that year, Maria opened her Social Security account.
Sadly Maria's luck ran out once again as her latest husband died at the age of 58 in 1942. The next year she tried a new tack: rather than find a new one of roughly the same age as herself (as all the others had been) she went for a man 24 years her senior: Peter Thibodeau, a former silver miner originally from New York. William Palmer died in 1942 at the age of 64; he had been disabled. Meanwhile Harry Benninger registered for the draft, again concealing his German origins. Maria died on July 4, 1947, at the age of 63. It does not seem as if she ever had any children.
Peter Thibodeau died in 1953 at the age of about 85. Harry Benninger, having avoided the noose that the 1904 judge warned him might be his fate, died in 1957 at the age of 72.


DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.

Archdale Vere Quilter, who was born on 21 Sep 1857 in Hobart, Tasmania, to Frederick William Quilter and Anna Maria Poulett Harris, and who died on January 31 1937 in Venice, California;

he married on October 16 1882 in St. Ives, Cornwall:

Sarah Ann Hodge, who was born on March 26 1860 in Penzance, Cornwall, to John Hain Hodge and Jane Williams, and who died on February 4th 1937 in Venice, California;

and they had:

Maria Vere Quilter, who was born on June 1 1884 in Catwick, Yorkshire, and who died on 4 Jul 1947 in Los Angeles, California;

she married, firstly, on February 25, 1903, in Los Angeles, California:

Henry Benninger, who was born on February 1884 in Germany to John Benninger and Minnie Müller, and who died on 12 January 1957 in Los Angeles, California;

secondly, on September 29 1908, in Los Angeles, California:

William Palmer, who was born on November 26 1877 in Cincinnati, Ohio to George Palmer and Elizabeth Lenthstrom, and who died on July 12 1942 in San Joaquin, California; they divorced on February 15, 1911;

apparently, thirdly, some time in 1915 or 1916:

William Wallace Woodworth, who was born on May 25 1884 in California to William Woodworth and Lillian Ashby, and who died on November 5 1922 in Los Angeles, California;

presumably fourthly, on February 6 1923 in Santa Ana, California:

William Roger Rae, who was born on April 16 1883 in Johnston, Pennsylvania to John Rae and Mary Brown, and who died on March 16 1942 in Santa Monica, California;

and presumably fifthly, on May 8 1943 in Ocean Park, California:

Peter Thibodeau, who was born in about 1866 in New York to John Thibodeau and Sofia Bachent, and who died on February 17 1953 in Los Angeles, California.

  Other Records

1. Census: England, 3 Apr 1881, Catwick YKS. Archdale is recorded as head of house unmarried aged 23 a farmer of 177 acres employing 5 men born Hobart Town Tasmania

2. Census: England, 5 Apr 1891, Bilton YKS. Archdale is recorded as a nephew married aged 33 a hay and straw dealer born Tasmania.
He was staying at the house of his uncle Rev Henry K Quilter aged 52 and unmarried

Archdale married Sarah Ann HODGE [10898] [MRIN: 3621], daughter of John Hain HODGE [26851] and Jane WILLIAMS [26852], on 16 Oct 1882 in St Ives Cornwall, UK. (Sarah Ann HODGE [10898] was born on 26 Mar 1860 in Cornwall, UK and died on 4 Feb 1937 in Los Angeles CA USA.)

Archdale next married Sarah A [10985] [MRIN: 3652]. (Sarah A [10985] was born about 1861 in St Ives Cornwall.)