Suggestions welcome

Findem

Findem

The Fearless One. Rest in Peace.
The following events all took place at Holywell cum Needingworth (HcN) Huntingdonshire.

20 Nov 1787 William Moody married Elizabeth Peaton, info from two sources, sourced from transcripts held at Huntingdon Record Office by a member of Hunts F H S, secondly sourced by me from the online Holywell cum Needingworth transcripts, which were transcribed from the HcN PRs.

20 Nov 1787 William Moody married Elizabeth Peaton by banns.

29 Jun 1788 Mary the natural daughter of Elizabeth Peaton was baptised.

29 Jun 1788 Jane daughter of William & Elizabeth Moody was baptised.

I'm not sure what went on with Elizabeth Peaton so I'm wondering.

1) Could there have been two Elizabeth Peatons in HcN in the same period.

2) Or was there only one Elizabeth Peaton, Mary having been born prior to 29 Jun 1787 illegitimately and William being the father "did the right thing" and married Elizabeth.

3) Perhaps not so likely, an Elizabeth Peaton (widowed or single) and her daughter Elizabeth moved to HcN some time prior to the marriage in 1787, daughter Elizabeth married William, her mother Elizabeth being still able to bear children dallied with one of the locals and oops.

I have searched the baptism, marriage and burial transcripts from 1677 to well past 1788 and no other Peatons are to be found, come to that no Moodys prior to 1787 either.

I can only find three children of William and Elizabeth Moody baptised at HcN:
Jane 29 Jun 1788.
Elizabeth 28 Nov 1790.
Thomas 8 Sep 1793, Thomas in my wife's ancestor.

I didn't find a burial for William (senior) and Elizabeth (senior) Moody so it's possible they moved elsewhere although son Thomas married there.

I would be grateful for any opinions
 
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In the Frampton, Dorset parish registers I have seen similar, luckily for me the vicar was young and enthusiastic and made note

The scenario would seem to be that Miss X had illegitimate child, and later married Mr Y, once safely married and having had her first legitimate child happy couple get said child baptised along with the first child

My vicar would write for the elder child something like
"Mary the illegitimate daughter of Jane Smith (now the wife of William Brown)"

I often wondered whether the couple knew they had been 'outed' in the PRs, or whether they believed they had 'legitimated' the first child by baptising it after marriage
 
On reflection I think you are both right, certainly it looks as though they tried to pull a fast one by baptising Mary after Elizabeth married William Moody. if that was their intention they would have to be naive to think they could pull it off, judging by the entries in the HcN registers it was a small village and everyone would know everyone else's business.

Mind you there's no evidence of Moody or Peaton families in HcN prior to the marriage of William and Elizabeth in 1787, so perhaps they had only been in HcN long enough to be married by banns and thought the Vicar wouldn't have any knowledge of them.

If anyone can think of anything else I'd be grateful to know of it.
 
I have nothing more to add to this thread at the moment but I am looking forward to hearing any other conclusions. I live in Needingworth, and have been researching the story of Holywell-cum-Needingworth and its people for four years. Findem has mentioned my website (www.hcnhistory.org.uk) and the Parish Register transcriptions (under menu Sources) that I worked on last year. I am currently trying to unravel all the different people and families mentioned in them, and link them into people I know about from Censuses etc. I hope to publish this in an update the website in the next 3 months.
 
Well it looks as though there are no more suggestions forthcoming so i think I will go with my option 2, it is I think more logical that Mary Peaton is the daughter of William Moody and Elizabeth Peaton.

One thing I realise is that I need to check the transcripts to see if Mary married as a Peaton or a Moody, on second thoughts better find my notes first, I may have already seen her marriage and recorded it but being single minded at the time not registered it in my mind.
 
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