Hi - I am researching this family and have a tree on Ancestry. I am descended from John Brown & Susannah's daughter Elizabeth Brown who married Joseph James Richards - their son was William Richards who married his cousin Eliza Susanna Brown (as if it wasn't complicated enough!)
I think that Eliza Susanna Brown was the daughter of John Brown's son John Brown and a short-lived marriage to Sarah (nee Spencer) who died before 1841. He could possibly have been a mariner like his father, but later became a blacksmith. He is shown as unmarried on the 1851 census, but he could have been a widower. This may account for him and his (possible) daughter Eliza Susanna living with his mother Susannah and sister Mary Ann in 1841 and subsequently Mary Ann and her second husband Clement Johnson. - however, this is only a theory!!
It does not help matters that there seems to have been 2 'John Brown & Susannah' couples living in close proximity - with baptisms at Stepney and Poplar - all that distinguishes them are the occupations of mariner and labourer - but the entries are inconsistent.
Happy to share info with anyone interested in the Richards & Brown families.
Kind regards and Season's Greetings!
