Two directions I can go, can't decide which one to pick.

[JAKnighton]

My 7x great grandparents were Samuel Knighton and Elizabeth Whaples who were married on 29 November 1773 in Winwick, Huntingdonshire.

When it comes to looking for a birth/baptism for Samuel, there are two possibilities.

The first and most obvious is a baptism for a Samuel Knighton on 30 May 1757 in Great Gidding. Great Gidding is just a short trip down the road from Winwick. This would make Samuel 16 years old at his marriage to Elizabeth, which is young but possible.

If this is the right Samuel, then his parents are Samuel Knighton and Rose Edis.

However, there is a curiosity in the Winwick parish records. On 21 Nov 1773, just days before Samuel married Elizabeth, there is a baptism for a Samuel Knighton, son of John and Mary.

I immediately considered the possibility of an adult baptism for Samuel just before he got married.

To support this, there are also marriages for a John Knighton and Mary Knighton in Winwick in 1774, and they both have corresponding baptisms days before their marriage with parents given as John and Mary.

Like my Samuel, this John Knighton and Mary Knighton also make a move to the nearby village of Holme where their children are born and baptised. So I believe that they are siblings of Samuel.

Obviously this second option is far more convoluted and reliant on guesswork, but the mere possibility of this being true makes me reluctant to choose the easy route.

What do you think? Have I explained this well?

[Jomot]

My instinct would be that the latter option seems the most likely, but some additional corroborating evidence would obviously be helpful.   Did Samuel, John & Mary follow similar naming patterns for their own children?

[Jomot]

Have you investigated the John Knighton, Quaker, of Winwick?  Perhaps this could account for the adult baptisms of Samuel, John & Mary.

http://www.rootschat.com/links/01jiw/

[JAKnighton]

My instinct would be that the latter option seems the most likely, but some additional corroborating evidence would obviously be helpful.   Did Samuel, John & Mary follow similar naming patterns for their own children?

All three had children called John and Mary, Samuel and Mary both had children named Samuel also.

Have you investigated the John Knighton, Quaker, of Winwick?  Perhaps this could account for the adult baptisms of Samuel, John & Mary.

http://www.rootschat.com/links/01jiw/

I had not seen this, but it says Northamptonshire so it's probably referring to the other Winwick in that county. They aren't that far away from each other which complicates things even further! But thank you for the link, I'll keep it just in case.

[LizzieL]

There's a Mary Knighton buried in Winwick, Hunts on 14 Dec 1773, no age given.

[mgeneas]

The Quaker suggestion seems very promising to me. I have a Quaker family where in ones and twos all the children were baptised in their late teens or early twenties.

It is likely that Quakers from Winwick, Hunts would be part of the Oundle meeting and therefore events may be recorded as Northamptonshire.

[seahall]

Hi.

There is a tree on Anc********** stating Samuel was born in 1750 in Holme.

Sandy

[Jomot]

Sorry, I hadn't spotted that there were two!   It might still be worth investigating the Quaker angle though as there is an earlier mention in the Quaker Sufferings of a John Knighton of an un-named Northamptonshire parish:  http://www.rootschat.com/links/01jj1/

The below link also states "Northants Quaker Digest has children of a John Knighton in Winwick 1717-1734" and also mentions a Henry Knighton who was baptised in 1717 at Great Gidding but recorded in the register as "a quaker of Winwick" and was believed to be an adult when baptised. 

http://www.rootschat.com/links/01jj2/

It seems possible that both of the potential fathers of your Samuel descend from the same line.

[JAKnighton]

This is some interesting news about Quakers. I did know about the Henry Knighton who was baptised in 1717, as he would be the grandfather of Samuel Knighton baptised in 1757. So a potential ancestor for definite.

I found a collection of Quaker BMDs on Ancestry, and many Knightons from Winwick (Northamptonshire) come up but frustratingly there is not a single Samuel Knighton among them! Plenty of John Knighton's, though.