RootsChat.Com

I have just received a marriage certificate for a marriage at St Mary's Nottingham which I couldn't find online. The rank or profession of father is given as F.W.R. (or just possibly F.W.N) for the father of the groom and F.W.K on the rank or profession of the bride's father. Maybe I am in a post-Christmas fog,but I cannot for the life of me make out what this is supposed to be. I've never come across it before. Rest of the certificate is as expected.

No, that St Mary's is this one:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mary%27s_Church,_Pembroke

He was 86! wow. 

I would assume it might be because the father wasn't present? I guess the vicar would only put the father on record if the father were present and consented, like registration, but I don't know. Charles appears to take responsibility for all the children and certainly has them to live with him after the mother dies or moves, and makes arrangements for them to be supported, but I guess it's possible he may not have attended due to other commitments, or maybe he didn't think they were his?  None of it seems to make sense. 

I did wonder about the class prejudice thing... it just seems very strange to have multiple children with a woman and still not to marry her - even after both his parents had died.  Ann Jones is my 3x great grandmother, and Charles Henry Hughes my 3x great grandfather.  I have no hang ups about the children out of wedlock thing, just a great curiosity to know why they did this.

There were tales that Sir Lewis Morris was made to marry his partner despite her class being inferior to his, in order to be knighted and not embarrass the queen, but I am not sure the tale is true, as his children seem to be well within his marriage.

I'm confused about your information on Ann Jones.  I had assumed due to the relative ages, that Mary Jones (50) was the mother of Ann Jones, and Lettice Jones who is 75 years old on the census for 1841 might be Mary Jones's mother in law?  I am assuming you have misread the census to say 15 instead of 75 may be?  I have always assumed that she would have the married name of Jones and an unknown maiden name. There is another Lettice Jones next door or in the same house (hard to tell) but from a different family grouping, aged 55. I cannot know if that Lettice Jones is related to the other. Jones is a very common name, of course, and while Lettice isn't common, I have often found that an unusual name can become common in a specific area, because it has been used by other families in that area.

I have collected all the information I can gather in my Jones and Hughes and Spence disambiguation file, but they are families full of brick walls I feel I have little hope of demolishing because of the impossibility of knowing if that Jones over there has any relation to this Jones over here!