I'm clutching at straws, Nutkin.
The gravestone of Thomas Faulkner, in Binsted W. Sussex, states that he died at Bethlehem Green on April 3rd 1741, aged 76. There is no mention of him in the parish burial records of Binsted, Slindon or Yapton.
So far, no-one has found a Bethlehem Green in West Sussex (myself and other descendants, Chichester RO, Ordnance Survey, other Rootschat members...). Chichester RO informs me that the inscription actually reads "Bethleham Green."
A Thomas Faulkner died on April 4th 1742 in Bethnal Green Asylum (it would seem that this private asylum served the southern counties including West Sussex) - he died of exhaustion and his age was approximated at 65. The only Thomas Faulkner whose death was registered in the April - June quarter of 1741 was in St Albans (I am awaiting a death certificate) - again, no Bethlehem Green located in that area.
There is a Bethlehem Green Welsh Presbyterian chapel in Neath, near Swansea; a Bethlehem in Camarthenshire; two Bedlam Greens in the West Country; a few Bethlehems in the US; an Atlantic Canadian folksong entitled, "The Lass in Bethlehem Green."
Thomas had a brother, John, a "tailor of Littlehampton". Thomas married Philly Chatfield (a widow, nee Lock) in Yapton in 1799. In some documents he was recorded as a higgler or huckster "of Slindon". Two of his children were born in Slindon, and one - Reuben Chatfield, my gggg grandfather - in Yapton, in 1798. I don't know where Thomas and John were born. John's will was proved in 1855 (as was that of his wife, Sarah, nee Weller), but I have yet to trace him on a census. The executors of both wills I have traced: all in Littlehampton. The estates were left mainly to Thomas and Philly's grandchildren (ie. John and Sarah's nephews and nieces).
Philly died in 1726 and is buried in Binsted. She shares a gravestone with Thomas. Her inscription is after his so, either a space was left for him, or the gravestone was erected posthumously. Third on the gravestone is one of their grandsons, Henry, who died in 1850.
I have just bought the Sussex 1841 Census on Ebay and hope to find John Faulkner when it arrives. CHRISin 1066LAND had looked for me before and couldn't find him actually in Littlehampton. Hopefully he is somewhere nearby.
Deborah
