Hallo, my father was William Wastell who was born in Bethnal Green. I have been interested in a William Wastell and to distinguish him, I will call him 'Z'. Z lived in London. His first wife was Louisa Miles, daughter of St. Jonathan Miles whose family owned the Hoxton Madhouse in the East End. Z was the proprietor of the Hoxton Madhouse in 1829 (possibly from 1821 when Sir J.M. died until 1836 or so (when Z died). Possible because of the proximity of Hoxton to Bethnal Green (both in East End of London), people researching Z's family have linked him to my family. My ancestor (we don't currently know his father) was John Wastell who married Ann Mayhew in 1730. Some descendants of Z think that Z was one of John Wastell's grandchildren, born in 1788. When Louisa, Z's first wife died, Z married Agatha Whalley who also came from a noble family. Her brother Sir Samuel St. Swithins Burden Whalley was the MP for Marylebone somewhere around that time. Z and Louisa had three children, and Z and Agatha had 9. One of the sons went to Canada (Charles A.) and three came to Australia (William Henry, Octavius and Samuel Decimus). I have followed all of the children through at least several censuses. Agatha the wife, I have found in all but the 1851 (she is Agatha Haslett in 1841 living in Jersey). From 1871 approx to her death in 1886, she lived in Cookham, Berks. Her daughters Agatha and Julia lived with her. Daughter Agatha died in 1871 shortly after they moved there, and Julie lived in the area until c.1920, when she died in her nineties. Now I come to who Z really was. Thank you for your patience so far! My main clue was that the widow of Z, Agatha Wastell, lived next door to a John Wastell b. 1806, Maidenhead, Berks. Maidenhead, Cookham, and Hungerford seem to be used alternatively for roughly the same area. So I figured John might have been a cousin of Z. I went back and looked in other censuses for him and everywhere else John was a Westall. So I wondered was Z originally a Westall who changed to Wastell for whatever reason. Afterwards, these Westalls remained Westalls and the Z Wastells stayed Wastells. There was a William Westall b. in 1796 in Cookham, Berks, and I presumed this was Z (Agatha was b. in 1798, so that seems right, though not conclusive). So I tried to put together all the Hungerford Westalls to see what relationship Z would have been to John (the one who lived next door to Agatha). Looking for all the Hungerford Wastells on IGI, it seems there was only the one seed family about 1630 and probably all the Hungerford Wastells came from him. Can't exactly prove it, but a weight of evidence. If anyone would like charts, I have put them in various charts (size A3). I have not done gedcom files yet as I wanted to know that what I had done was fairly accurate. If this William is Z, he has a number of cousins. One would Samuel Westall, b. 1791, gentleman and attorney, who lived in St. Clement Danes and St. Pancras, and married Frederica Jane Maling. Another would be Richard Westall, court? Clerk, b. 1798, married Caroline Lumley, who lived in St. Pancras. John Westall who lived in High Street, Cookham much of his adult life was a surgeon and apothecary who trained at Guys Hospital in London. His father and Z's father, James, were plumbers, and so was James, John's brother. So though they came from a trade background, this new generation were highly educated. This explains to me how William could marry into two noble families or at least upper class and why his signature on both marriage allegations is that of an educated man. I think this theory works, partly because I can find most of the cousins in the 1841, 1851 and 1861 censuses, but not William (Z), maybe because he died in the 1830s. If you put William Wastell and Sir Jonathan Miles into google, you will come up with a site where you can read about the Hoxton Madhouse and Z, who was the proprietor, as mentioned. Is anyone related to those London families? I would be interested. Gillian Ford