West Mersea Parish Lookup - Shepherd Marriage

[rgeldard]

Hi,

I'm wondering if someone could be kind enough to assist me with some conflicting information.

According to the various census returns, Susanna Shepherd (Born West Mersea 1801) had 4 children, although she was listed as 'unmarried' on each census.

I've obtained a marriage cert for one of her children, William Shepherd, who has a father recorded on the certificate as 'William Mayer' (or that is how it appears anyway)

According to the IGI - William Shepherd's parentage is listed as father being 'Unknown Shepherd' and mother being 'Susannah (Surname not listed); however the father information has a year of birth - and there is also a marriage date for the pair of them listed as 1824.

I was hoping that someone may be able to assist me with some clarification on this issue, by way of checking relevant parish records for West Mersea?

As an additional, I have recently ordered a copy of Susannah's death certificate, in the hope that some light may be shed on the conundrum.

Many Thanks

[Clincher]

Essex Record Office ref: West Mersea D/P 77/1/6 baptisms:
Page   Year  M & day Child's name    Parent(s)               Occ
5        1814 July 31  Sarah           Willm and Mary    Cooper
                                                      SHEPHERD
36      1825 Jan 30  William         Susan SHEPHARD BB  born 29 Aug
                                                                                               1824

They were the only SHEPHERD baptisms I saw between 1814-1825. I went to look at marriages in West Mersea. I did not have time to look at the primary documents. Instead I went to a very reliable modern transcript - Essex Marriage Register Vol. 84
page   Year  M & day
5379  1823  Oct 29 COOKE James m SHEPPARD Sarah (SHEPPERD
                                                                     in place for signature)
5373   1803  Mar 7 SHEPARD William m HOWARD Mary widow

They were the only SHEPHERD marriages in West Mersea that I saw and I think I searched that Volume from 1782-1851. I also searched East Mersea marriages Vol 84 pp 5361-5363 (a much smaller population) 1801-1837 and saw none at all there.

So I went back to West Mersea baptisms looking for COOKs and found these
45   1828  May 18 Rebecca of James and Sarah COOK mariner
48   1829  Sep 6   Willm      of James and Sarah COOK mariner
55   1831  May 21 Eliza Longstaff of Willm* and Sarah COOKE mariner
60   1833  May 26 Sarah of Willm* and Sarah COOKE mariner
63   1834 Aug 3   Mary Ann of Willm* and Sarah COOKE mariner
68   1836 May 22 George of Willm* and Sarah COOKE mariner

I finished searching at page 73 (1837).

One more thing - the asterisks above indicate that written above father William's name was another name. It looked like 'Eliza' but I suppose it must be intended to be 'Elija'? Unless you know differently

[rgeldard]

I'm extremely grateful for the trouble you've gone to to pull this information together for me.

At first glance, the only area which seems to marry up with what I've had confirmed so far is this element:

36      1825 Jan 30  William         Susan SHEPHARD BB  born 29 Aug
                                                                                               1824

However, this does indicate an alternative spelling of the surname - so this is an interesting avenue to persue.

Thanks very much indeed.
Richard