Hi,
I'm not sure if it helps but I found this marriage which might be of interest,
Southampton, Holy Rood
1782
William GANDY
Elizabeth BLOWMASTERS
Regards,
Daisy
I tell you what Daisy, you might have potentially stumbled on to something here. We know there were many Masters blacksmiths from the New Forest... We were at the Hampshire Record Office today and having seen all these different Masters, we stumbled across, right at the end of our session, something from the Brockenhurst parish records, which read:
1763: Nicholas Masters, blacksmith: Born in Brockenhurst; at 15 hired himself for a year to farmer George Etheridge and served him 2 to 3 years; has a wife Christian and children Elizabeth Blow ( 8 ), John (7) and Nicholas (4)
Elizabeth Blow Masters?
And we also found in baptisms:
1.8.1779 William baseborn son of Betty Blowmaster
Now, if Betty Blowmaster is in fact Elizabeth Blow Masters, and she had a son in Brockenhurst in 1779 aged 20, than that fits in with our William Masters, the blacksmith, who we know was born in Hampshire around 1777-1779? It, if true, also provides us with the missing link between Brockenhurst and Southampton, where William married in 1802 and lived for the rest of his life.