20. Richard Walter and Harriet Brown - Strawhat Manufacturers

While the information in the preceding post is slim, a few assumptions and conclusions can be made or drawn. 

Its worth noting the social and economic conditions from 1870s to 1900. 
The Long Depression (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Depression) was significant though just one of a long line of financial crises "The United Kingdom, which had previously experienced crises every decade since the 1820s, was unusually insulated from the effects of this financial crisis, even though the Bank of England kept interest rates as high as 9 percent in the 1870s"

Strawhat manufacturing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_plaiting) "The plaiting of straw in the counties of Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Berkshire and Hertfordshire formerly gave employment to many thousands of women and young children; but this had largely ended by the beginning of the 20th century: the number of English plaiters, all told, was not more than a few hundreds in 1907, as compared with 30,000 in 1871.^...The English industry was eventually killed by free trade from 1860 which allowed cheap imports of plait from Italy and later China and Japan."

Richard Walter Brown changed his trade from Baker to Strawhat manufacturer in the 1860s.  In the 1861 census, Richard is by trade a Baker.  By 1865, he has ceased his partnership with Betsy Rudd as strawhat manufacturer.  In 1866 Richard is described in the birth certificate record of his son as a strawhat maker.  By 1881 Richard is back working as a "journeyman" baker.

Without having any specific information about what happened - it was a bad time to start working in the strawhat industry.  Not only was the overall economy in England poor through out the 1870s, but competition was intense from 1860.  Richard and Harriet would have struggled to have any success.