In 1812 their son George signed an apprenticeship to become a butcher. This probably, but not certainly, means that William was a butcher or a farmer as son's tended to follow their father's occupation. He was able to sign his name on the marriage allegation so was probably educated and earning a living.
William's wife died in 1833 and he followed, less than a year later.
Anyway, it's always nice to learn something new when writing these blogs and today the subject I learnt about "The Battle of the Nile". The reason for this is that I found a newspaper article from 1802 listing a William Wareham as being one of the wounded during the Battle, which took place during the night of 1st August 1798 off Egypt, when my William would have been 34 years old.
At this battle, Horatio Nelson successfully destroyed Napoleon Bonaparte's fleet and thus his bid to develop a direct trade route to India ...... he was helped in this by the fact that most of the French navy were ashore at the time, probably enjoying the nightlife, and he caught their fleet by surprise, at anchor, in a sheltered bay at the mouth of the Nile.
I was slightly disheartened to read that Nelson's ships, captained by the newly named 'Band of Brothers', had been at sea chasing Napoleon for many months before the battle and I thought, "what if one of the many children William had was conceived during a time when he would have been at sea ?" I was relieved to note that there was actually a convenient gap between child 4 born in February 1796 and child 5 born in April 1799. At a pinch, and I do agree it is highly implausible, this just about fits in with my William being at sea until the beginning of August 1798 when he was injured and his fifth child's birth nine months later.
Obviously at this stage any connection with my 4 x great grandfather on my adopted tree is purely speculative but it's an interesting working theory which I quite like and which has broadened my knowledge of the late 18th century !