The son of a watchmaker, Walton was born in British North America, but it was in England on 19 July 1851 that he was convicted of burglary and sentenced to ten years' penal servitude.
Over the next few years he worked in the Avon and Greenough districts; his wife did not accompany him and the fact that he was married was not known.
In the late 1860s and early 1870s Greenough suffered severely from flood, bushfire, wheat rust and sheep scab.
Correctly anticipating a recession, Walton sold his hotel in 1872, and purchased a small coastal trading boat, Alexandra.
Eventually Georgina Roe discovered her husband's bigamy, and in 1876 Walton left Singapore for Hong Kong.