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Thanks again all - I have a lot to go through. Looks like I need to do a whole generation analysis for Richard and the other siblings.

Before that though - Bookbox: where did you find those records? I can only get the LMA catalogue online, and there's nothing in Ancestry or FindMyPast.

Milliepede - I ordered the death certificate and you were right - the perennial problem of Hawking/Hawkins that I get almost every week was rearing its head even in 1868: http://imgur.com/a/97E6B. Thanks all for your help.

Before I close this off, can anyone suggest another way to verify this person and the one born in Cornwall are one and the same, without the census records I can't find. I just need something, other than a census, that states his place of birth as St Dominick, or Cornwall at least?

Thank you to all - the help has been phenomenal.

The Ancestry family trees, which I have never trusted without source citations, have given me a helpful tip - the first William Hawking was buried in St Dominick in 1790: http://bit.ly/2joi7Pv. I have also ordered the death certificate for the William Hawkins who died in Holborn in the right year with the right age, so helpfully that will shed some light.

The two issues I have left are the changes in William's occupation, from Schoolmaster to Collector and then back and forth once more, and the lack of corroborative census evidence for his place of birth.

Can anyone help with the following questions:
Are the changes in occupations very odd?
Is the lack of census data particularly strange or suspicious, or par for the course in London in this time period?
Can anyone suggest any records of teachers in this period? I know the SoG has some records, but I'm not quite ready to spend £50 on a subscription.

Thank you all so much.

That's William's son and his wife - William and Jane's marriage entry here: http://imgur.com/a/VieTt.
Thanks all for the continued help, by the way - I love this community already!

Milliepede - thanks for the death entry; I might have to bite the bullet and order that!

Mair - well that's put a spanner in the works, but good to know! In answer to your question, there's an Elizabeth Hitchins Hawking, but the rest, bar the two Williams, bear no middle name: http://bit.ly/2iNNkx3. I also kind find a burial in St Dominick for the first William, so perhaps he didn't die in childhood, which was my first thought. Also, the second William seems to have a fairly consistent spelling of the "Hutchings", with the "s" at the end being the only change, except for his baptism in the name of "Hutchins". On his second marriage entry, his father is listed as Samuel Hawking, which fits with the gentleman in St Dominick because Samuel's occupation is given as "Hosier", and he was a "Taylor" in his will, dying not long after William's birth (although William's marriage entry does not say that Samuel is deceased).

To corroborate things, as you can see in the table, I contacted the Charterhouse School, as he died at the Charterhouse and was a schoolmaster, so I thought he might have taught there. He didn't, but he was a "poor brother", so I have two more consistent entries of his name and something to corroborate the 1868 death. I have written off to the actual Charterhouse almshouse, still in London, to see if they have more detailed records than the school kept, as the school moved just after William's death.

I suppose I won't get any further without something from the Charterhouse or the death certificate now.