Why would a young man move about in the C18?

[Leah-WW]

My 6xG-Grandfather - Thomas - was born in Tuxford, Nottinghamshire and lived either there or in Marnham, Nottinghamshire for most of his life from what I can tell. Inexplicably though, in 1778 he has moved to Saxilby, Lincolnshire and married my 6xG-Grandmother - Ann.

I can find no local birth record for Ann, so I can't confidently assume that she was a resident of Saxilby. Their marriage doesn't appear to have been a 'hasty' one (their first child didn't come along until 11 months after the marriage), so I also can't assume that they 'had' to go off and get married. Saxilby isn't/wasn't exactly a hub of any sort (except that it's on the Fossdyke Canal), and even though Saxilby and Marnham are only 10 miles apart I just can't think why Thomas (and Ann, possibly) would up-sticks and move there when his family was established in Nottinghamshire.

Does anyone have any ideas? And are there any records which might help me?

[KGarrad]

Better question is why wouldn't he move?

10 miles is no great distance, and can be walked in 2 to 3 hours; quicker by horse.
What was his occupation?
That might give a clue.

[jim1]

Do you know he moved there or just married there.
It was tradition to marry in the bride's Parish.
Most people's movement was work related & 10 miles is no distance really.
jim

[JenB]

What evidence, apart from the marriage, do you have that he had 'moved' to Saxilby?

As Kevin and Jim have said, 10 miles or so is no distance at all. People were far more mobile even then than we give them credit for.

[sallyyorks]

Have you looked into wether there were any Churches in the Tuxford and Saxilby area at that time ? In rural areas  sometimes there just wernt any Churches . For example .  I have ancestors from the Haworth/ Keighley and Wadsworth Moor areas of Yorkshire . But because there wasnt a Church until later (early 1800s)  people had to walk some distances. To keighley ,Haworth, Heptonstall and even Colne (in Lancashire) . I have a marriage in Bradford and they are of " Haw" (Haworth) but they were probably  from the  Haworth Moor/Wadsworth Moor area like other family and not the actual village of Haworth  . Living on the moors they might just have easily have chosen Halifax !  Does it say where they are "of" in the register ?  . This can be hard to read or easy to miss sometimes in all  the scribbly writing.   

[toastbutler]

Hello Leah-WW

Walking from Tuxford to Thaxilby is about 12 miles which would take about 4 hours.
That is just down the road in those days I would think.

When was he born and when did they marry? 

[stanmapstone]

Have you looked into whether there were any Churches in the Tuxford and Saxilby area at that time

Tuxford was a parish and the parish church  was St. Nicholas, the registers date from 1624. Saxilby was a parish and the parish church was St. Botolph, the registers date from 1563.

Stan

[Alexander.]

If you are relying on parish registers to work out where people 'moved', keep in mind that parish records are only snapshots of people's lives. Lots of things happened between the events in the parish registers, they just didn't make it onto paper. For that reason it's difficult to say why they were married in Saxilby if neither were from there - though I'm sure they had a good reason.

As others have said, 10 miles is nothing really. I mean, I walked 9 miles home today and it only took a couple of hours.

Alexander

[KGarrad]

Walking from Tuxford to Thaxilby is about 12 miles which would take about 4 hours.

3 hours at the usual average walking pace of 4 miles per hour!