I do have a record of Samuel Fasham's baptism in the Parish Church of Deal, which I found through ancestry.com. Likewise his sister, Frances Roby, who was baptized in the same church. Thank you for locating the marriages, these are indeed SF Roby's parents and grandparents. My opinion of SF Roby is seemingly confirmed by his mother's will (she died in 1808) in which she appointed her daughter Frances Roby as her executrix and left her entire estate to her. This despite the fact that SF was an attorney, as was his father.
I have finished transcribing SF Roby's will, apart from a section that is so badly damaged I can't read the words. Henry Wright and Edward Thompson were appointed executors, and had absolute control over his estate until Anna Maria turned 21. Thereafter, they had to hand over the estate to Anna Maria. I'm waiting for a quotation to get the transcript of the court case, because I'm sure it was related to the inheritance.
Your comment about Roby's being "gentry" is interesting - SF's conduct is anything but gentlemanly. Elizabeth Hammond, who was the mother of his first illegitimate child Frances Roby Hammond, was registered as a pauper in 1851. Frances Roby Hammond herself became housekeeper to a "gentleman" - Jacob Mills Davey - and had two illegitimate sons fathered by him. She baptized them at Ash in 1820, giving her name as Frances Roby and their names as Frederick Roby and Norris Fasham Roby. Her strategy (and her mother's strategy) of naming the children so as to identify them clearly as "Roby" did not work. She married Jacob Mills Davey in 1829, and the boys then took the surname Davey. They were very bright boys, both King's Scholars in Canterbury. Jacob, on the other hand, failed in business and was a declared insolvent. He spent time in jail early in the 1840's, and died in 1845, leaving all his possessions to Marianne Marshall, presumably his mistress. A year later, his elder son, Frederick, shot himself, leaving a suicide note with phrases scribbled on the outside including "Memories of childhood". I guess he grew up witnessing his mother's struggles. Norris Fasham Davey became a doctor in Romford, and had 10 children. The eldest, Norris Edward Davey, came to South Africa in the early 1870's after a furious row with his father. NE Davey's five children stayed in South Africa, and his eldest son, Norris Lewis Davey was my grandfather.
In the end, Frances Roby Hammond succeeded in breaking through the barrier between working class and professional class, and I admire her for her fortitude.
