Thank you everyone for your contributions. It is time I gave you some information. I am the author of the articles on John Tout/Towt in the Balwyn Historical Society newsletter (the website was quoted). I thought I had researched John thoroughly as being born to John and Johanna (nee Welch) Tout and baptised in St Giles-in-the-Wood. His listing on the 1841 census bothered me as you can imagine and at the time of writing the article I came to the conclusion (probably erroneously) that somehow his mother as head of household had given her son's name to the census scribe.
A short time ago the historical society received an email from a descendant of the youngest child of John Towt and Eliza Ford (they had about 13 children) and this person sent me a copy of the birth certificate of Henrietta Florence Towt born July 15, 1866 in the parish of Boroondara, Victoria. Balwyn is in the parish of Boroondara. On this certificate it states that her father was from Down St. Mary.
There is no information on John's death certificate as to his father or mother's name as his son who gave the information to the registrar apparently did not know the name of his grandfather (this information came from the descendant).
The descendant is convinced that John was related in some way to William Towt from Down St Mary mentioned in the messages above. In fact she visited Down St Mary some years ago and met with descendants of William. However, she found no evidence of John only of Towts living in the village.
Having received her email , I felt that I had to undertake more research as I had possibly/probably made an error. I have searched for John's baptismal records in Down St. Mary and found none. I also began to wonder whether the Non-Conformist records should be considered. I am UK born and have both NC and Quakers in my ancestry so am aware that these records are not always readily available.
So thank you all! Do you think it would be worth while emailing the Devon Record Office for information?
