Notes from Catherine Dickens:

(Summary of first email)
He was bought up by Sarah Brickland. My grandmother does recall that there was no mother and a mistery surrounding his birth. His step father was John Southard who worked as head coachman at Prinknash Abbey in Gloucestershire, and there were apparently two daughters. Whilst searching through the 1881 census I discovered that an Alice Southard age 3, granddaughter to William Suddons was staying/living with them, in Chester.

John (Jack) Southard worked in Bricklands Fish Shop until he married Elizabeth Newman Richards in 1900 and was given money by his father-in-law to open his own Fish Shop in Northgate Street, opposite the Town Hall - Southards Fish Shop.

(Second email)
John Suddones was actually the son of Mary Suddones (Sarah's older sister) and Margaret/William Suddones grandson. His birth certificate does not state a fathers name. John's Baptism on 27th December 1874 show his parents as William & Elizabeth Suddones (Mary's Brother and Sister in Law). William died in April 1879 and Elizabeth remarried so John was brought up by his grandparents. Mary married Edwin Thomas Southard in Aldershot in May 1877, then a soldier in the 19th reg. Daughters Alice and Ethel followed. John remained with his grandmother until her death in 1897. He registered her death but by this time he had changed his name to "Southard". John married Elizabeth Newman Richards on 10th September 1900. Elizabeth's father T N Richards financed John Southard's fish shop in Northgate Street. I attach a photo of John with his wife and three of their four children. My Grandmother (Grishilda) is standing next to John. Unfortunately she died early this month (Oct 2004) aged 101.