Hello Liz My best guess is that the John WATTS you seek is the son of John WATTS & Jane PRITCHARD christened Oct 7 1821 at Hawkesbury. In 1851 he is unmarried, living with his widowed father, a Butcher, in Upton. In 1881 John would appear to be widowed living at Kilcott with his housekeeper/Laundress Eunice STINCHCOMB and some HOULTON lodgers. he is shown as an ag lab on all the censuses that I have seen. FreeBMD has a John WATTS died March Qtr 1900 age 78 in Chipping Sodbury district 6a 178. His age would match this John WATTS. Do you know when he died? Best wishes Carole

Hello Carole Thank you for your 2 very helpful messages - and thank you Martin for yours to confirm John WATTS later appearance in the 1881 census. I agree with your guess that John is the son of the butcher John WATTS in the 1851 census. He had always been my favorite candidate and the ages tally nicely. I'm not sure of the best way to pin him down definitively. I have no other information about him. Your 1861 entry for PAINTER is interesting. George isn't mentioned in 1851, so I presume he is the son of a sibling of Hannah's who has left home rather than an illegitimate son of Hannah. I would be interested to know if there were any other children of her marriage to John WATTS. Looking at the 1871 census looks a good first step. By 1881 Sarah Jane WATTS was married to James TOPPS and living in Great Badminton with 2 of the 4 children they eventually had. I have great hopes that James will turn out to be part of the Tetbury TOPPS 's, but he is slightly odd in having been born in Paddington London with no traces of other TOPPS's in the area that I can locate. I have been waiting nearly a month for his birth certificate. I think Paddington is one of the 'difficult' areas to track documentation. James was a carpenter / wheelwright and there is a logic to him returning to his family's region with those skills. Thank you so much for your help Liz Fisher (nee TOPPS) On Thursday, August 28, 2003, at 10:43 PM, anthony sharp wrote: > Hello Liz > > My best guess is that the John WATTS you seek is the son of John WATTS > & > Jane PRITCHARD christened Oct 7 1821 at Hawkesbury. In 1851 he is > unmarried, living with his widowed father, a Butcher, in Upton. In > 1881 John > would appear to be widowed living at Kilcott with his > housekeeper/Laundress > Eunice STINCHCOMB and some HOULTON lodgers. he is shown as an ag lab > on all > the censuses that I have seen. > > FreeBMD has a John WATTS died March Qtr 1900 age 78 in Chipping Sodbury > district 6a 178. His age would match this John WATTS. > > Do you know when he died? > > Best wishes > Carole > > > >

Hi Liz You said: > Your 1861 entry for PAINTER is interesting. George isn't mentioned in > 1851, so I presume he is the son of a sibling of Hannah's who has left > home rather than an illegitimate son of Hannah. I would be interested > to know if there were any other children of her marriage to John > WATTS. Looking at the 1871 census looks a good first step. Looking at the 1851 census I see that there are a couple of other children who may not be all they seem! The parents John & Sarah PAINTER are age 61 & 60 but they appear to have a daughter Emma age 7 and son William age 2. They seem a bit young to be the children of John & Sarah. Perhaps a trawl of the baptism registers would reveal who their parents were. Hannah age 27.is also there and I do wonder whether she is involved! Cheers Carole