George E Belcombe: Who Do You Think You Are?

 Recently I began dabbling in family history and have become a bit obsessed. Much of my Dad's side is well documented but Mum's side less so. In the few weeks I have been delving into our ancestry I have uncovered some great stories and some desperately sad ones. If one online tree linked to my family is to be believed there is even some German nobility deep in the 17th century branches  Like many Scottish families there are the fair share of emigrations, placing descendants in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and USA and there are lives cut short in childbirth, poverty and disease. Mostly they are farming families from either Orkney or Aberdeenshire living their lives as best they could.

I will get around to telling some of those stories but today I got side tracked and followed a name that is not a family member but who appears in Orkney firstly on the census of 1881 as a 21 year old 'visitor' in the family home. His name is George Edward Belcombe. In the 1891 and 1901 census he is listed as a 'boarder' and was 'living of his own means'. In the 1911 census he is still listed as a boarder and living on 'private means'. He died in the family home in 1916 with 'No occupation (single)' recorded on the certificate in the place of profession and marital status.

So, who was he? Well, he was born in 1859 in Edinburgh to Frances, a 'cleric in holy orders' and Francis Belcombe (m.s. Leigh). Their address is recorded as a parsonage in Cheshire which begs the question why they were in Edinburgh at the time of the birth. I have found George as an infant and as a child at the Cheshire address in the 1861 and 1871 censuses. There doesn't appear to be a family connection to Orkney or indeed to Aberdeenshire where the Orkney family originally lived. George moved to Orkney as a young man and his 2 brothers continued to live, marry and die in England. Going back in time, Frances, George's father was born in York and died in Cheshire and Francis, his mother, was born and died in Cheshire giving no clue to a Scottish/Orkney connection.
He is not a blood ancestor (as far as I can make out) but I would really like to know how George come to be living as a 'visitor' and stay as a 'boarder' with my family in Orkney? And where did his 'private means' came from? I don't suppose 19th century parsons in Cheshire earned a huge sum of money but George was able to live without employment for more than 30 years in Orkney. He is intriguing enough for me to want to follow his trail but at the same time not a family member and there are hundreds of them I need to find out more about.