69 was Richard only appears in the 1881 Census aged 12 which gives a birth year of 1869. It is therfore reasonable to suppose that he should have been recorded in the 1871 Census. However no trace of a Richard Luscombe born in or around 1869 can be found in that census. A search of birth registrations from January 1868 to March 1871 also failed to find a Richard Luscombe who could be the son of John Luscombe born in this period.

Richard is also absent from the 1891 Census. So who was he? One possibility is that it was an error in the 1881 Census and the name Richard was recorded instead of Fredrick who was born two years earlier in 1867 but cannot be found in the 1881 Census records. The main problem with this hypothesis is that the 1881 Census record is very clearly written and there is no possibility of mistaking the name Richard for Fredrick or the recorded age 12 for 14 which Fredrick would have been at the time.

Another possibility is that Richard was a visitor. However, although another Richard Luscombe born in 1869 to John and Maria Luscombe who lived near Totnes was found in the 1871 and 1891 Censuses he was also living at home in the 1881 Census, which rules him out as a visitor to the household in Stoke Damerel in 1881.

The final possibility is that his birth was not entered in the CRI for England and Wales: that he was not recorded in the 1871 Census; and that he died sometime between the 1881 and 1891 Censuses. A search of the CRI(E&W) between thse two dates did not produce the death of Richard Luscombe of the correct age.

It is therefore concluded that Richard Luscombe did not exist