Some of the new Findmypast records have reopened a very puzzling question for me, and I wonder whether anyone is inclined to offer advice. These new records are the Marylebone censuses for 1821 and 1831, from which I discover that a LIPSCOMBE and a CHEW were living next door to each other in 3 and 4 Rock Row respectively, in the vicinity of Lisson Grove, north of Oxford Street, in 1821. This is well enough attested, as a Sophia CHEW born about 1800 was found guilty at the Old Bailey on 12 Jan 1820 of stealing silver, the property of Elizabeth LIPSCOMBE, who says at the trial that she lodges in Rock Row next door to Sophia’s parents. Sophia is probably the Sophia who marries Joseph STANDERWICK at St Leonard Shoreditch, 2 Jun 1823, and dies in the workhouse aged 31 a few years later. But there are curious problems. In 1857 a William James Ross CHEW, “grainer” and painter, marries Mary LIPSCOMB (St Luke Chelsea, 26 Sept 1857). He apparently comes from nowhere, and his father, named in the marriage register as James Ross CHEW, clerk, also seems not to be attested by any other evidence. (He might of course be the father of Sophia above.) WJR and Mary have a son, William James CHEW, b. 7 Aug 1858 at Great Stanmore, d. 1895, whose marriage, family, and later career as a licensed victualler, are well attested. But I don’t find births, baptisms or deaths for either WJR CHEW or his father. “Ross” is a name unknown in any CHEW family in the 19th century, as far as I know; there are no CHEW/ROSS marriages. But Mary LIPSCOMB is married again, almost past childbearing age, to a George TAYLOR, at Holy Trinity, Marylebone, 26 Jan 1865. She claims to be a spinster, and her signature in the register seems reliably the same handwriting as her signature in the 1857 register. He is another licensed victualler, but seems to have died by the 1871 census, when Mary, with her son WJ CHEW, is in charge of the Load of Hay, Watford Heath. A rather peculiar detail, in all this, is the fact that the pawnbroker to whom the stolen silver was offered by Sophia CHEW in 1820 was a James ROSS..... Best wishes Geoff -- Geoff Chew [email protected]