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Where did you get the witnesses from?Have you viewed the marriage records.Banns just give Batch.and Spinster.

Is this your Frederick
Name: Frederick Smith
Spouse Name: Elizabeth Rigby
Record Type: Banns
Event Date: 20 Aug 1820
Parish: St Dunstan and All Saints, Stepney
County: Middlesex
Borough: Tower Hamlets

No, the witness was SARAH SMITH.

Frederic was married to Elizabeth Rigby in 1820, Stepney.
Sarah was one of the witnesses.

I thought about perhaps his mother may have been near him, and found 1 possible Susannah.

1841 census
Name Susannah Smith
Age 65
Estimated Year of Birth 1776
Relationship to Head of Household
Occupation Independant
Address Ashford Street
District Shoreditch, Hoxton Old Town
Parish St Leonard Shoreditch
Administrative County Middlesex
Birth Place *not in census area (ws)

County Norfolk
Place East Dereham
Church St Nicholas
RegisterNumber
DateOfBirth 13 Jun 1800
BaptismDate 13 Jul 1800
Forename Frederic Leake
Sex M
FatherForename
MotherForename Susannah
FatherSurname
MotherSurname SMITH
Abode
FatherOccupation
Notes Base-born; publicly
FileNumber 2027

I am going to see if i can find a marriage of a William Smith to a Sarah that might fit in with Frederic's marriage.....do you think this might be worth doing?

Exactly when was Frederick Bapts.I can't see Susannah Smith being in London 1n 1799 and then in Norfolk in 1800. Smith is so common a name

Ellen

At this time without Census you can only surmise on babes born in same place.

Ellen

Is there any way to see if any of them can be found together at the same place?
I know the census didn't begin until 1841, but I have read that some parishes or communities kept records before that.

Liz, that is the strongest evidence that I have been working on also. As I stated in Frederic's thread, there is no use of the letter L or name Leake in any of the census, or records, so I wonder if he actually knew he was baptised that name.

This may not have any bearing, but as I mentioned, Frederic's witness at his 1820 marriage was a Sarah Smith. There are no Smith's on his wife's side, so I am working on the theory she is his sister, or perhaps sister in law.
Just a wild guess but found this...

SARAH SMITH
Female
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Event(s):
Birth: 26 FEB 1799

Christening: 13 MAR 1799 Saint Leonards, Shoreditch, London, England
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Parents:
Mother: SUSANNA SMITH


This of course would negate William 1 if correct...all guessing at the moment.

Scots base born babes are sometime given fathers surname as their middle name.

If the 1st William was 'my' Susannah's, he could well have been born late 1798. And again, if it is her son, he most likely died young (before 1803), and she named William 2 after him.

And of course, he may not have been her's at all.

We have an ancestor who gave a baseborn baby the father's surname as his second christian name, but the baby was registered in her maiden name
Liz

Oh dear, just had a look at the transcript, and it isn't East Dereham

County Norfolk
Place Fundenhall
Church St Nicholas At
RegisterNumber
DateOfBirth
BaptismDate 03 Mar 1799
Forename William
Sex M
FatherForename
MotherForename Susannah
FatherSurname
MotherSurname SMITH
Abode
FatherOccupation
Notes Illegitimate Son
FileNumber 6534

County Norfolk
Place East Dereham
Church St Nicholas
RegisterNumber
DateOfBirth 20 Jul 1803
BaptismDate 22 Jul 1803
Forename William
Sex M
FatherForename
MotherForename Susannah
FatherSurname
MotherSurname SMITH
Abode
FatherOccupation
Notes Base-born
FileNumber 2027

Though of course, it is quite possible that Susannah moved around, and there could well be a daughter Sarah in the london area.

I have 1 Mary and she has about 4 illigit children.
There is an old 18c Yorkshire ballad about"You'll never be a wife if you always say no."

No she would not have been a prostitute.Just circumstance.

Looks to me as same Susannah Smith mother of all 3.Fredrick and William's birth years are close.Have you checked dates that same mother is possible for Frederick and William.

Ellen

TY Liz, that would be very useful, but I have seen the parish entry, and the only clue to the father may lay in Frederic's second name..Leake.
Can you suggest, if this is the same mother in question, why she would have been in that position of having base babies? Could she have been a prostitute?
Are there any other cases of multiple illegitimate births known by members?

We have found baseborn children in the parish registers, it gives the mother's name and occasionally the Vicar will have written in the margin "reputed father is" and name given
Liz

Yes Ellen. I added the link to the thread regarding my known ancestor..Frederic Smith 1800 East Dereham, Norfolk, because of the information found there.
His mother was Susannah Smith.
I have sighted the image from the original, and can confirm him as correct.
The other children I found were William, born 1799, East Dereham, mother Susannah Smith.
And also William, born 1803...same details again.

I will say here that I am working on a hunch, and to find 3 base babies, all born at the same place, same mother's name and within a matter of 4 years...just too interesting to dismiss.
I will also add, as per the thread on Frederic, that his witness at his marriage was a Sarah Smith...but there are no Sarah Smith's born in East Dereham, but I did find one, base born, to Susanna Smith, in the Shoreditch area...Frederick married in that general area in 1820.

Hi Wendy,without seeing the Parish records,you could search for another person born in that parish around the same time.Can you give names and parish ?

Ellen