Daniel Wilson - Two surnames???

[ATGoldsmith]

Hello RootsChatters,

I am confused about one of my ancestors' parents.  This is going to be quite complicated so bear with me!

My 5x great grandfather was John Wilson.  He was baptised on 14th June 1817 in Sheringham, Norfolk.  On the baptism records it says his parents were Daniel and Sophia Wilson late Goodwin.  Daniel was a Fisherman/Fish Curer and he doesn't seem to be making much sense.

On the 1861 my 5x great grandfather John is living with his family and his mother Sophia Wilson who was a widow.

On the 1841 Daniel is living with Sophia, John and his other child Rebecca in Hevingham.  Sophia was born in Suffolk however on the 1841 it does say she was born in Norfolk but I think this is a simple mistake and shouldn't be trusted as a citation for her birthplace.

I could not find them on the 1851 though.  However, I kept getting hints on my tree for Sophia, John's mother.  One was a death in Q1 1867 for a Sophia Devonshire which, at first, seemed completely unrelated. And the other was an 1851 census for a Daniel and Sophia Devonshire.

I then tried to find Daniel's death between 1841 and 1851 (as I couldn't find him on the 1851) and a death for a Daniel Devonshire WILSON came up in 1850.  This reminded me of the hints for Sophia and I looked at the 1851 that was hinted.  This came up with Daniel Devonshire born in Beeston in 1776 and Sophia his wife born in Suffolk in 1794.  This looked like it completely fit my Daniel and Sophia except for the surname.  This left me intrigued!

I then searched for a death of a Daniel Wilson between 1851 and 1861 (when Sophia was a widow) assuming that this 1851 census was right and another Daniel Devonshire WILSON came up who died in 1856.  There is also a burial for this person on 9th March 1856 in St Maragret's, Lynn which is where Daniel and Sophia Devonshire were living in 1851.

Then I decided to try to find all the baptisms of Daniel and Sophia Wilson's children and here's what came up:
Daniel Wilson: b. 9 Oct 1813, bap. 10 Oct 1813
John Wilson (my direct ancestor): bap. 14 Jun 1817
Rebecca Wilson: b 17 Jan 1825, bap. 3 Apr 1825
Henry Wilson: bap. 20 Sep 1829
Martha Maria Wilson: bap. 7 May 1832

Most of these baptisms showed the mother's maiden name of Goodwin.

Then I changed the surname of the parents to Devonshire and found children born in between the children above to a Daniel Devonshire and Sophia Goodwin.

So my theory is that Daniel has two surnames.  However there is a baptism for a Daniel Wilson to a single mother which could mean that his father was a Devonshire and he wanted to carry on the name.

Thanks for reading all that! Can you help?

ATGoldsmith

[Duodecem]

Phew -confusing aren't they! I did a search on Freereg, looking for Goodwin and came up with the following: Devonshire to Daniel and Sophia Goodwin-Beeston Regis -1808 Harriett, 1810 Elizabeth,1816 Sophia, father a fisherman.
Wilson there is a marriage on 20th April 1807 between Daniel Wilson and Sophia Goodwin St Martin at Oak, Norwich. Children born to  Daniel Wilson and Sophia Goodwin-Daniel 1813- father a farmer, Rebecca 1825 St James with Pockthorpe Norwich,  1829 Henry and 1832 Martha, both in Hevingham.
No marraige between Daniel Devonshire and Sophia Goodwin but there is a marriage in South Lynn 1869  for John William Wilson Devonshire a fishmonger -father Daniel Devonshire. John married Sophia Curtis.
No more time now but I'll look again tomorrow.

[Duodecem]

This really is intriguing ATGoldsmith-I've checked Freereg http://www.freereg.org.uk/cgi/Search.pl for Daniel's birth and I found a birth in Beeston Regis. Born 2nd June 1780, baptised All Saints 18th June that year, mother Elizabeth Wilson, no father mentioned-nor is there a sniffy reference to illegitimacy.

[Duodecem]

I found the original marriage between Daniel and Sophia on Familysearch https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-266-11688-102714-86?cc=1416598&wc=M66T-566:29945101,29373001,29463101

I had hoped that it would give a clue to Daniel's father who you suspect was probably Devonshire. Sadly not.
My great grandfather was illegitimate -the baptismal record stated-"illegitimate-mother is a widow" He was given his mother's married surname but his middle name was Miller. The significance of this only dawned on me when I found his original marriage record on Familysearch which gave his father's name-Robert Miller.
I tried searching for Devonshire births hoping for clues as to Daniel's father,but the earliest I've found so far is in Sheringham, where John Devonshire and Mary Harrabin had children-Elizabeth 1780 and 1786,Martha 1785 and Daniel 1788.
It is possible that you have two separate Daniels who coincidently married Sophia Goodwins, particularly since the children's births were scattered in time and place. Though that doesn't explain John William Wilson Devonshire -Is his marriage that of your 5x g. grandfather?
There are more Wilson Devonshire/Devonshire Wilsons from a later generation.
I also found a baptism 29 May 1825 for Jemima Wilson  St James with Pockthorpe, born 16th May 1825 to Harriet Devonshire and Stephen Wilson. So possibly Daniel's daughter Harriet was living with her parents in Norwich and there married either a cousin or an unrelated Wilson. So many questions but, as yet, no clear answers!

[ATGoldsmith]

Hi janfurness,

Thanks for your research, I've seen the illegitimate baptism before and I think it is the right one.  My theory is that he was told that his father was a 'Mr Devonshire' or something like that so he wanted to carry on the name, or hide his illegitimacy.  I'm thinking maybe tax/land/occupational records may hold more clues about his secrets!  The 'phantom name', Devonshire, does provide a challenge when trying to research some of his children though!

ATG

[SusanKG]

I have a problem with this Wilson / Devonshire surname as well.

My g x 2 grandmother was christened 30/4/1820 in Sheringham, and shown as being the daughter of Daniel Wilson and Sophia.

On her marriage certificate (dated 14/2/1840 in Gaywood to Thomas Whiteman), her father is shown as Daniel Wilson and one of the witnesses as John Wilson (I think this my be your relative) and is possibly her brother.

She and Thomas then had various children who show up on the various census. For the christenings record of just one of them (Harriet)  Shopia shows her name as Sophia Whiteman nee Devonshire.

[ATGoldsmith]

Hi SusanKG,

It's good to see other people are researching this unique family!

I haven't been researching this family for a while now so I will take another look at it soon.

ATG

[Toban]

Being intrigued by this, I decided to look into it, and may have come up with a very probable answer for you!

Given that 'Daniel Devonshire' is a fairly distinctive name, I assumed Elizabeth Wilson would've named her child after his father, a common practice with illegitimacy. Seeing as John Devonshire & Mary Harrabin baptised a child, Daniel, in Sheringham I decided to look into their family - assuming a familial connection.

If you had any doubt, the Daniel Devonshire born in Sheringham in 1788 is not your Daniel Devonshire Wilson, as he died an infant in Sheringham in 1788. John & Mary had four children in Sheringham: Elizabeth (1780-1781), Martha (1785-?), Elizabeth (1786-1796), and Daniel (1788-1788). This Devonshire family moved to King's Lynn in the mid-1790s, as this is where Elizabeth is buried. John and Mary were buried in St. Nicholas', Lynn in 1803 and 1808 respectively. John's age was given as 53, giving him a birth year of c.1750. A marriage for John Devonshire and Mary Harrabin is recorded on the IGI as occurring 28 Aug 1775 in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. John is noted as being 'of Northamptonshire'.

Another marriage in Wisbech caught my attention, that of Daniel Devonshire (of Peterborough, Northamptonshire) to Sarah Walter on 8 Sep 1785. The name Daniel and the fact that both of them came from Northamptonshire led me to think they were brothers. Checking the entries on FreeREG I found that John Devonshire was of Oundle, Northants. when he married Mary.

Northamptonshire appears to be sparsely represented on the IGI, but FreeREG has a much better coverage. There I found John Devonshire, baptised 3 Nov 1747, and Daniel Devonshire, baptised 2 Sep 1753, in Oundle with parents Daniel and Martha. This clinched it!

John and Daniel were brothers, and, given that John moved to the north of Norfolk, it is probable that Daniel at least came to visit him, and maybe wooed a local girl, Miss Wilson...

Daniel did not stick around Norfolk or Cambridge, but went back home to Oundle, where he was buried on 21 Oct 1789, age 36. I do not know what happened to Sarah Walter or whether they had any children together (if they have a surviving direct male line, DNA testing would prove whether Daniel Devonshire was the father of Daniel Wilson).

Hopefully this all makes logical sense. I think it's quite reasonable to assume that Daniel Devonshire was the father of Daniel Wilson, and therefore responsible for all the Devonshire/Wilson confusion in later generations. All the information above can be checked at FreeREG.

Cheers!

P.S. I also came across the will of William Goodwin of Hevingham, who names his son William and son-in-law Daniel Wilson as executors. It's available at http://www.norfolksources.norfolk.gov.uk/DserveNS/ - just click the probate button and search. (I searched for Daniel Wilson, which brings up fewer results than searching for William Goodwin, and it was the 10th entry, from 1834).

[ATGoldsmith]

WOW

I think you may have got it!  Thank you so much for all this information and all of the different websites!

I am now going to try to trace the Devonshire name back, hopefully to Devon!

Thanks again!

ATG