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« on: Thursday 10 August 23 09:27 BST (UK) »
Capetown, your posts help immensely, as they've either confirmed or strengthened evidence gathered by David and Ciderdrinker. It's beginning to look very much as if Esther was a Browne before her marriage, rather than a Collier/Carpenter. I had a look at the 1841 census this morning and, as you said, it has an "N" in the "Born in County" column and then the tick in the other column, which is definitely a bit confusing. Does it indicate that she was born in Scotland or Ireland, or was the chap who went through the census forms afterwards just noting the "N" so he could run his eye down the page and tot up how many people were born elsewhere? I would have expected either an "S," an "I" or an "F" (as was done further up the page) there, rather than a tick, if it was the former case.
I've found a marriage for Esther's daughter Esther (b. March 1795) to one Robert Fletcher in 1813, and most helpfully it lists the witnesses: John Wall (could be either father or brother, but I would guess father, given that Esther was only 18), M.A. Wall (which would be her elder sister Mary Ann, b. Sep 1785), and Sophia Walls [sic] (b. Dec 1798), another sister who is, of course, living with Esther in 1841.
I'd kill for an obituary for John Wall, the tea dealer, because they usually provide a lot of helpful details, but so far I've drawn a blank, though not for lack of looking. David, do you have any idea how much it costs to order wills online from Bristol Archives. The website itself doesn't give any idea of prices, but I suppose that's because it depends on how many pages the copy runs to.