How did Sarah Mountford become Sarah Ball?

[Pheno]

Wow, I only went for dinner and so many replies.

Have really only skim read but I can't, at the moment, see that any of the possible scenario's fit as she was Sarah Baker upon marriage to Enoch so her father at any other marriage can't have turned into a Mountford I don't think.

Will digest overnight (the ideas not the food) and see what else turns up, having looked at the Bale/Bake 1851 census.

Thanks for your efforts,  Pheno

[Millmoor]

Hamlet Peake also left a will (letters of admin and will)- you can find it on FindMyPast. Ezra Ball appears to have died in 1860 - entry for him in the probate calendar.

I note that Sarah Ball in the 1851 census is aged 41 (the Peake children and Betsy Jane Ball all have Mountford as mother's maiden name in the new gro indexes). However in the 1861 the Sarah Ball with Hugh and Nathaniel is said to be 70 and a retired potter - to add to the mix she has been transcribed as Sarah Bale on one site in that year.

[groom]

note that Sarah Ball in the 1851 census is aged 41 (the Peake children and Betsy Jane Ball all have Mountford as mother's maiden name in the new gro indexes

So we have a problem because ( as Pheno says) her maiden name wasn't Mountford.

[Pheno]

25 September 1847 - St Margaret, Wolstanton - by Licence

Ezra Ball (x) - full age, widower of Burslem.  Engineer.  Father:  Andrew, Bookbinder
Sarah Peake - full age of Chatterley.  Father:  George Mountford, Potter.
Witnesses:  Enoch Mountford and Eliza Mountford (x)

Bond does not give any further information.

Could this be the second marriage

Marriages Jun 1852   

Mountford    Sarah       
Peake    John       
Newcastle under Lyme    6b   63

John dies and she married Ezra Ball?

Except the Peake / Ball marriage occurs in 1848 -- so before the Mountford / Peake marriage in 1852

This really does look like the right kind of scenario if only, as Marmalady pointed out, the marriages had been in a different order.  However, even that doesn't fit the timeline for these marriages to be for Sarah, Hugh's mother.

What about the possibility that Hugh had a sister Sarah Mountford, daughter of Enoch (not inconceivable that Enoch and his wife Sarah would have named a daughter after her mother) and then the age in the 1851 which Millmoor has pointed out would fit with the Peake children being born to a Mountford mother and the 70 old Sarah Ball in 1861 could be right?

Pheno

[wrjones]

25 September 1847 - St Margaret, Wolstanton - by Licence

Ezra Ball (x) - full age, widower of Burslem.  Engineer.  Father:  Andrew, Bookbinder
Sarah Peake - full age of Chatterley.  Father:  George Mountford, Potter.
Witnesses:  Enoch Mountford and Eliza Mountford (x)

Bond does not give any further information.

Could this be the second marriage

Marriages Jun 1852   

Mountford    Sarah       
Peake    John       
Newcastle under Lyme    6b   63

John dies and she married Ezra Ball?

Except the Peake / Ball marriage occurs in 1848 -- so before the Mountford / Peake marriage in 1852

This really does look like the right kind of scenario if only, as Marmalady pointed out, the marriages had been in a different order.  However, even that doesn't fit the timeline for these marriages to be for Sarah, Hugh's mother.

What about the possibility that Hugh had a sister Sarah Mountford, daughter of Enoch (not inconceivable that Enoch and his wife Sarah would have named a daughter after her mother) and then the age in the 1851 which Millmoor has pointed out would fit with the Peake children being born to a Mountford mother and the 70 old Sarah Ball in 1861 could be right?

Pheno

We might speculate but as ever we have to go by the given records.The Father of the Sarah who married Ezra Ball is given as George Mountford.

Regards
William Russell Jones.

[Millmoor]

I have just noticed that on the marriage of Hugh Mountford and Maria Colclough the witnesses were Thomas Ball and Ann Ball. This may, of course, be a coincidence and a complete red herring. It might, however,  be worth exploring Maria further - just a thought, might Sarah Ball/ Bale in fact be his mother in law?

William

[Marmalady]

Maybe Sarah Mountford merely lived with someone called Ball after the death of her first husband -- took his name but never legally married him

Have you looked for a will for Sarah that might give some clues as to her life after her first husband's death?

[Marmalady]

How about this one?  (from staffsBMD)

John BELL married Sarah Barker at Newcastle St Giles, 1845

Name:   Sarah Barker
Gender:   Female
Marriage Date:   1 Dec 1845
Marriage Place:   Saint Giles,Newcastle Under Lyme,Stafford,England
Father:   James Barker
Spouse:   John Bell
FHL Film Number:   1040776

[groom]

We might speculate but as ever we have to go by the given records.The Father of the Sarah who married Ezra Ball is given as George Mountford.

Regards
William Russell Jones..

But surely that doesn't fit as Sarah's father wasn't a Mountford? However, if Sarah was Hugh's sister then her father would be a Mountford.