Thanks for the thanks: nothing to it, really: the difficult we do every day; the impossible takes a little longer (except when we hit lucky, as in this instance).
Or perhaps not: I notice that there is a marriage of an Elizabeth Huggins to Benjamin Darby, at St Andrew, Enfield, 11 April 1793, which would take that lady out of the equation: unless it is your Elizabeth's mother remarrying. That may be possible, because the church record seems not to specify parents for Elizabeth (more likely for a widow than a maiden-marriage? Need an expert here.)
By the way (and in view of the above, probably irrelevant), I felt the same about "Huggins": not a common name, which made me look a little further.
If you go to the Old Bailey site [specifically
http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/html_units/1770s/t17750111-13.html], we turn up one particular William Huggins. Huggins is a "helpful by-stander" in a case of highway robbery. A certain John Head, a wagon driver from Enfield, is coming to London. At ten-past-six on a late December morning, Head is mugged of sixpence by a William Morley. Morley, shortly after, is nabbed at a blacksmith's shop, when he draws one of a pair of pistols (which he later claims he 'found ... on Stamford Hill' --
tout change mais rien ne change). Huggins is called as a witness, and gives evidence that he "drew the charge of the pistol that the prisoner attempted to fire, it was loaded with swan shot". Verdict: "Guilty Death".
The case does not give us a precise location, but Ponder's End is mentioned, which suggests close enough to Enfield. The point of this is:
- Huggins knows firearms well enough to be a credible 'Expert' witness, so gentry or military?
- Huggins is on the road early in the morning, so does that imply a possible reason for him and his family to connect with Bassingbourne?
Ah, the sweet mysteries of past lives!
Author
Topic: Bassingbourne Baptisms (Read 2476 times)