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People didn't always keep the same profession for all of their lives, he could have changed it a some point, maybe because of his age or  availability of  work in the area etc.

Jean Brown was his wife, so on her death certificate where it gives Thomas as son witness,  would  the father named as Alexander  been  Jeans father not Thomas's   

Women often put down "widow" on census's if their  husband had deserted them , this of course may not be the case but worth remembering.

As Andrew was born in 1811 by 1883 he would be 70 so may have died outside of England if a death cannot be found.

Danone,

You need to split your post into sentences and paragraphs, to make it more readable, maybe get some help to do it.      its so jumbled.

I agree that its more likely 2 separate deaths.   Both mother and daughter may well have died of some contagious disease that was prevalent at that time.