Help required solving James Brown marriage mystery

[imt]

Can anyone out there help me find the first marriage of my great grandfather, James Brown?  He was born in Porlock, Somerset in 1836, the illegitimate son of Ann Brown.  I have his baptism 25 Dec 1836 in Porlock.  I have him on the 1841 and 1851 censuses when he was living with his grandparents in Porlock.  He then disappears.  I have spent hours, days, weeks searching the 1871 census to no avail.  I have a copy of his second marriage certificate (to my biological g grandmother) which shows him as a widower, a stone mason aged 29, living in St James's Parish in Bristol on 22 April 1866.  James declared his father to be William Brown on this marriage certificate but I suspect he was covering up the fact that he was baseborn.

Because James Brown is such a common name I have had great difficulty in discovering his first marriage.  I have found a James Brown marrying in 1861 (in St James' Parish, Bristol), an Elizabeth Marten but have ruled this couple out by extensive searches of the censuses.

My hope now is to find someone who has a female relation who married a James Brown between the relevant years (1852ish to 1865) but died within a short time of marriage.  Clues: James was from a long line of Somerset stone masons who all lived in and around Porlock.  The family was staunchly Methodist, although James was baptised CofE. 

I really would like to know where James was between 1851 and 1866 and who he married.  I may have half relations out there yet to be discovered.

I would be really grateful for any help or tips.

Thanks in anticipation.

imt

[Arranroots]

Hi imt

Have you thought about his mother marrying & him living under his step-father's name?

Do the marriage witnesses names help at all?

Perhaps you could post the refs for the censuses you do have and his wife's name - we like challenges!

kind regards, Arranroots 

[alf]

Hi

James, could he have been in the navy for the period you are looking for

I have found this chap, James Brown, age 28 married , Able Seaman at Exmouth  gave his place of birth, Somerset  (1861 census) just a stab in the dark

Alf

[imt]

Thanks, Alf.  It is a possibility but my problem is that James Brown is such a common name and Somerset produced many men of that name as I've discovered when trawling through the censuses looking for him!  I'll bear your find in mind.  Could you let me have the census reference, please.  I can then store this for future reference.

Thanks again,

Imt

[Arranroots]

Hello all

Imt asked me to post this on their behalf - from a PM

Hi Arranroots

Thanks for your suggestions with regards to finding my missing James Brown between 1851 and 1866.

I have indeed thought about his mother marrying.  However, Ann Brown is such a common name I would have to buy a stack of certificates to find out the right one.  Also, she could have moved away from Porlock as I can't find any marriages of an Ann Brown in her home parish.  I did find a death of an Ann Brown registered in Williton 10 361 (correct reg district) in Dec qtr 1850 but I haven't sent for a certificate.  Not sure how the credit system works at ONS if it's the wrong person (I could put in John Brown as her father as a check but again it's such a common name it wouldn't necessarily find "my" Ann Brown).

I haven't been able to find the right Ann Brown on the 1851 census so it could have been her death in 1850 or she could have married.

The census refs for James Brown are as follows:

1841 : HO 107/936/10
1851 : HO 107/1920/16
1861 missing
1871 :
1881: RG 11/2504/39

James' second wife was called Emma Elizabeth Cowley and the witnesses at the wedding were the parish clerk and his wife.  Sounds like her family may not have approved and he didn't have any family at the ceremony.  It's on this certificate that he gives his father as William Brown (I've found 10 so far related to me).  Unless James's mother Ann had an incestuous relationship with her brother William, I can't find another William Brown in Porlock who could have been the father.  I like to think that he just gave this common name to cover up his baseborn status.  I definitely have a James Brown being baptised on 25 Dec 1836 whose mother was Ann Brown, singlewoman in the Porlock Parish Register.

I will get back myself later - if you lot haven't sorted it by then! 

A 

[osprey]

1871 Canford Lane, Westbury on Trym RG10/2470 folio 16 pg 23
James Brown head mar 34 mason b. Somerset, Porlock
Emma wife 26 b. Gloster, Westbury
John E son 3 b. Westbury
Annie dau 1 b. Westbury
Sarah A Jenkins lodger unm 23 laundress b. Westbury
Annie Jenkins dau 4 b. Westbury
George H Jenkins son 8 months b. Westbury

[imt]

Thanks, Osprey

This is my g grandfather James Brown living with his second wife Emma Elizabeth and young family.  The John Edward shown is my grandfather.

I can follow James Brown in the 1841 and 1851 censuses still living in Porlock where he was baptised.  However, I would really like to trace James Brown between the years of 1851 (after the census when he was living with his grandparents in Porlock) and 1866 when he turned up in Bristol and married Emma Elizabeth Cowley.  On his second marriage certificate he declared himself a widower but I can't trace his first marriage.  I don't know where he was between those years - could still have been in Somerset or he may have moved to Bristol or anywhere else in the 1850's early 1860's.  It's very tricky to pin him down because of his common name.  I have access to Ancestry.co.uk and have searched until I'm cross-eyed all through the 1861 censuses to no avail.  I'm hoping that someone at Rootschat has come across a stray James Brown, b Porlock 1836 who may have married one of their ancestors.  Perhaps as Alf suggests he went to sea and married a girl he met in port before moving to Bristol.  I've searched marriages of a James Brown between 1851 and 1865 but there are so many all over the country that I couldn't afford to buy all the certificates in the hope of finding the right one.  I couldn't be certain to get the right James Brown because he was illegitimate and no father's name was mentioned in the baptism register.  He did declare his father to be William Brown on his second marriage certificate but I can't prove this is correct.

Thanks again for your efforts.  These are much appreciated.

IMT

[osprey]

Does his marriage certificate have a house address for him or for Emma?

I've been searching 1861 for him with no joy. I've just looked along Canford Lane just in case but no luck. Only thing that vaguely ties in was a quarryman called Charles Jenkins with a 13 year old daughter called Sarah who could well be the family's lodger on the 1871.

Have you found Emma on any previous census? Possible sighting of her in 1851 living with her grandparents in Westbury on Trym. Vaguely possible sighting of her in 1861 as a servant in Granby Hill, Clifton transcribed as Corsley. Just trying to find where she was in case James was nearby.

I have my doubts that a mason would have gone to sea - it was a skilled job and usually one for life. Having said that, I've got a mason who was a ship's carpenter for a while before he went back to the family firm but all the males in the family were either masons or carpenters.

[imt]

Hi Osprey

Both James Brown and Emma Cowley were living in Eugene Street, St James's Parish in Bristol at the time of their marriage (Living in sin??! or just neighbours?)  I have visited Bristol Records Office and looked at the 1861 census for James Brown all around this area but without success.  It may be as simple as he was out on the tiles on the night of the census and I'll just have to live with that.

Emma's parents lived in Chock Lane, Westbury on Trym in 1861.  I've looked at the 1851 census and I agree this looks like Emma in Clifton.  She could have moved further into the centre of Bristol (St James's) before their marriage in 1866.  This is more than a possibility as she was a housemaid and there would have been plenty of opportunities to change employers in these areas of Bristol.  After their marriage they moved to Westbury on Trym.

Your help is much appreciated.  Any hints that may lead me to James and his first wife will be greatly valued.

IMT