Thank you for all the fantastic information and suggestions!
I made a mistake on Richard's birthdate - just notpaying attention to my typing! - he was born in Newport in 1790 and was 14 years Mary's junior.
I did not know about the son Richard or the tomb stones, so that is really helpful.
Thomas Morris married Hannah Hickman on Portsea Island in 1840; the census of 41 shows him as a groom. My guess is that is because he was sent to family friends from Southampton, the family of Moses Hickman (Hannah's father), mariner. The addresses for both families are right near one another. And, in that brief marriage record, he is identifed as thomas boice morriss....that reference shows up again in his children's marriage bans father deceased, "Thomas Boyce Morris, master mariner." That is why, with that unusual middle name, I am sure this is the same person. I had hoped the Boice/Boyce would help find his mother mary - maybe - but have never been able to find anything about it!
Hannah seems to have been deserted by Thomas, going by the censuses over the decades. She is a mariner's wife in 51', head of household after that...she ends up following her son Charles Morris to London - Rotherhithe - where my grandfather, Charles Morris, was born.
I think Moses Hickman's wife might be the Welsh connection between the Hickmans and Morris', as she was Mary Davies, born in Poole, Dorset, I cannot find her family and somehow, she ends up with a Southampton mariner. Davies is Welsh AND richard Morris's daughter Elizabeth married a mariner called Davies (she lived with her father in newport in the 1861 census, indicating husband away. the following census, she is a mariner's widow.)
Mary Davies Hickman is an inigma, showing up as a widow and living with Hannah and her children in London, so her husband has no doubt died at sea (which is what happened to Capt Thomas Morris, who died on his way back from Quebec to Cardiff). She is "just" a widow, I cannot find death records for Moses.
Mariners everywhere, but finding their connections and parents is proving very difficult!
(the monmouthshire query was mine; in some reports, the surrounding area of Newport had a fluid border, sometimes Pembrokeshire, sometimes Monmouthshire).
Thank you again, I hope I can continue to find answers!
