Sarah Twyman Milleman, the cousin of my great great grandmother, and daughter of William Milleman, Westminster police constable 95B, married James Starr in St Clement Danes, Westminster on the 5th February 1850, they both give addresses in Vere Street. Sarah however says her father, William Milleman is a bricklayer, so was she a sister to Caroline Augusta Murray (née Milleman), rather than a cousin? The only Sarah Milleman baptised in Margate in or near her birth year of 1826 had as parents William Milleman and Martha (née Ansell), son and daughter-in-law of William the bricklayer who was Caroline's father. Sarah is living with Caroline and her mother and step-father in Margate at the time of the 1841 census, - her parents and younger siblings are already established in London by this time - so it is possible that she was brought up by her grandparents, or even considered them her parents. James Starr is ten years older than Sarah; he gives his occupation as Colourman, and says his father is Matthew Starr, a fishmonger. As a Colourman - the term refers to a house painter's assistant (and not to be confused with an Oil & Colour Man, a dealer in the victualling trade) - he probably met Sarah while working for, or with, her uncle Frederic Milleman, who was a painter and glazier. Their first child, James Matthew Starr was born just three weeks after their wedding, and baptised at St Stephen's, Westminster on the 10th August 1850. Their address is 10 Poole Place, and James is still a Colourman. The 1851 census finds the family at 9 New Street, Westminster St John, with James surprisingly described as an Engineer; living with them are his mother and sister, both called Ann, and both born in St Clement Danes. His birthplace is given as St Pancras for his parents were living in Somers Town at the time; however like the rest of the Starrs he was baptised at St Clement Danes on the 30th October 1814. James and Sarah went on to have a further four children over the next six years: William Henry (1851), Sarah Jane (1853), John Robert (1855), and Stephen (1857). The first three of these were all baptised together on the 4th May 1856 at St Stephen's in Westminster. Then family life took a turn for the worse, and when Stephen was two weeks old the family made their first appearance in the Westminster Cleveland Street Workhouse. Had James become too ill to work? He died at the beginning of 1858, and received a parish burial at Victoria Park Cemetery in Hackney on the 6th April. By the 29th September 1860 all five children had been sent to the Strand Union Infant Establishment in Edmonton. At the time of the 1861 census Sarah is living with her parents at 7 Green Court Row, Westminster, and James and William both appear as scholars in Edmonton. Sarah Jane seems to disappear from the records. In 1871 William is living with his mother and her new husband Isaac Johnson, and their daughter Caroline in Westminster, while Stephen is a scholar at Edmonton. There is a Robert Starr of the right age listed in this census on board the training ship Goliath moored at Grays on the Thames, so this is likely to be him. Sarah Twyman Johnson (Milleman, Starr) died in 1877, and later that year on the 24th December William Henry married Ellen Mason in the church of St James the Less in Westminster. James M. Starr is one of the witnesses;  presumably William's brother, this is however the last trace I have found of him so far. On his marriage William Henry gives his occupation as Cook, and that of his father James, mysteriously, as Carver. William Henry and Ellen named their first daughter born in 1879 Ellen Twyman Starr, in memory of both his mother and great grandmother. In fact William Henry Starr seems to be the only one of James and Sarah's children to have left a lasting record, and he appears in the 1901 and 1911 censuses running a lodging house, and calling himself a caterer, at 70-71 Shoe Lane in the City of London, with his three daughters in their early twenties - Hetty, Minnie & Lilly (properly Ethel Maud Caroline, Elizabeth May and Grace Lilian!) - working as barmaids. Probably much to everyone's surprise, after his wife Ellen's death in 1923, William Henry married again one year later; his new wife May Clarry at age 52, was 20 years younger than he was. William Henry died on the 10th September 1925 in Clapham, and probate was granted to his widow May, his effects being over £3500. So who were the Starrs? Matthew Starr, the fishmonger, who was William Henry Starr's grandfather, died in Westminster, St Clement Danes parish, in 1837, and was buried on the 5th June aged 48, which puts his birth to around 1789. With his wife Ann he had five more children after the birth of James in 1814, Matilda, George, Sarah, John and Ann; they were all baptised at St Clement Danes, but George and John - and perhaps Sarah - did not survive infancy. Matilda married Thomas Upton in 1857, and Ann married James McDonnell in 1858. When James was baptised on the 30th October 1814 at St Clement Danes, his parents were living in Somers Town, and his father Matthew was a Waiter. By the time of George's baptism in 1818 they'd moved to Blackmoor Street in Westminster, and Matthew has adopted the occupation of fishmonger. This move is explained by the existence of a James Starr trading as a fishmonger in Blackmoor Street from at least 1795; thirty years older than Matthew, he died in 1835 and was buried in St Clement Danes on the 1st March, aged 74, so born around 1761. Married twice, he had nine children, all baptised at St Clement Danes. This James, and Matthew are both listed as outdoor pensioners, and in receipt of casual relief in the Westminster Poor Law Records and rate books in the 1830s, so the business wasn't doing well enough to provide for their expanding families. It would be easy to assume that they were father and son, but James had all his children baptised at St Clement Danes, and there is no Matthew among them. As they must be related, they are probably uncle and nephew, and originally from Knapton and Mundesley in Norfolk. This is not just a leap of faith: the name Matthew Starr, however you search for it, takes you to Norfolk, and seems unique to an area to the north east of Norwich. A Matthew Starr married a Mary Hammond on the 6th April 1755 in Knapton; they had seven children including another Matthew born in 1758 and James in 1764. I have managed to trace local marriages (or burials) for all of their children except James, which makes him the prime candidate for the fishmonger in Blackmoor Street. Matthew, born in 1758, married twice. He had a son William born in 1783 with his first wife, Hannah Newland. She died in 1789 and Matthew married again in 1791 to Mary Burks of Mundesley; and while keeping his connections to Knapton he moved to Mundesley. A Mary Starr married James Townrow in Mundesley in 1810; she must be Matthew’s daughter, and probably from his first marriage, judging from the date of her marriage. So did he also have a son Matthew from his marriage to Hannah Newland? The Matthew Starr in London has an age that suggests a birth year of 1789, the year Hannah died: was it in childbirth? Unfortunately there doesn’t appear to be a will for Matthew Starr, and Mary Starr’s will written in 1855 doesn’t mention any children, step or otherwise, and instead she leaves what arose from the sale of her belongings and properties to the children of various deceased cousins. So while I’m sure this is the right family for the Matthew Starr in London, I haven’t yet found out definitely how he fits into it! Mundesley of course, might provide another connection; according to the History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Norfolk, and the City and County of the City of Norwich, published by White in 1836: “Here are four large and seven small fishing boats: the former are employed chiefly in catching herrings, and the others bring in crabs, lobsters, cod, &c.”  In a Pigot's London directory from the 1830s (only in snippet view on GoogleBooks unfortunately), James Starr of 4 Vere Street, Clare Market is described as a shell fishmonger. Vere Street is the address given by James Starr on his marriage to Sarah Twyman Milleman, so it seems likely that during the 1830s there were three generations of Starrs living there.