Michael
James Pipe's
marriage licence allegation (sworn before a local clergyman acting as a surrogate for the Consistory Court of Norwich) proves that Hephzibah was a daughter of the tailor Charles Cracknell of Laxfield and that she was 18 years old in 1827.
The forename Hephzibah was often used by Nonconformist families, so it's no surprise to see Jonathan, a son of Charles and Elizabeth Cracknell of Laxfield, in the records of the Independent church at Cratfield (RG 4/2128 folio 33). Born in 1815 (two years after the foundation of that church), he was listed on one of several supplementary pages deposited with the Registrar General by the middle of 1838, shortly after the register of births and baptisms was surrendered. The date of Jonathan's baptism is not given, which suggests that it could have been several years earlier. (Many people born before the introduction of civil registration in 1837 but not entered in the parish registers of the Church of England were keen to ensure that their births would be officially documented in this way.)
Transcripts published by the Suffolk FHS indicate that Charles and Elizabeth (née Baldry) were members of the Anglican church when their daughter Myra or Mira Cracknell was received in 1805 at Laxfield, where she had been baptized in 1800 (not 1799, as stated in 1805). Whether Hephzibah was ever baptized is unclear.
Two adjacent gravestones at Laxfield noted by Charles Partridge in 1928 commemorate Mary, wife of John Cracknall (d. 23 June 1781 aged 97) and John Cracknall (d. 29 March 1783 aged 60). These inscriptions have probably now eroded beyond legibility and may have been misinterpreted in 1928. The surname is Crapnell in the burial register (SFHS index + SRO microfiche 9):
1781 June 25 Mary Crapnell widow
1783 March 25 [
sic] John Crapnell single man
David