William Shimeld & Martha's marriage help?

[Rich78]

Hi

Wonder if someon can help me with this?

One of my ancestors was William Shimeld (or Shemeld). He was born in Sheffield. He married a woman named Martha but i can't find his marriage.
Their first child was born in Sheffield in 1800 and they had another 9 children all born in Sheffield.
William died in Sheffield in 1821 and Martha died in Sheffield in 1852. The 1851 census shows Martha being from Sheffield.
I did find aa marriage in 1801 in London between a William Shimeld and Martha but this is a year after the birth of their first child. No children are recorded for the couple from London.

Any help much appreciated

Thankyou
Rich

[lemur41]

Hi Rich,

In my Baptisms records I can find William, son of William (occ Scissorsmith) & Martha,  baptised on the 26th September 1800,

and then John born 13th September 1802, son of William (occ Razorsmith) & Martha, baptised on the 17th October 1802.

Are these the 2 eldest children of your above William.?

And do you think it's possible that the London marriage is correct, they could have married out of Sheffield because it was already assumed that they were married when their first child was born

[Rich78]

Yes these are the two eldest children of William & Martha. I looked at the orignal record for the marriage in London at it does state that both William and Martha were from the parish in London. There doesn't seem to be any other children born to a William & Martha anywhere in the country which would lead you to believe that this could be them.
The only other problem is that if this was the right marriage, Martha' s maiden name would be Kershaw and there is no baptism record in Sheffield for a Martha Kershaw born around 1775 (this is around the time she would have been born according to death certificate).

Thanks again

[lemur41]

Hi Rich

Martha Kershaw could have been born elsewhere and the enumerator assumed Sheffield on the census.

Have seen that happen a few times, in my own family records and other research I have done.

Good luck with the search

[Rich78]

You are right, he could have just presumed it was Sheffield. I would take a punt at somewhere in Yorkshire though because she is classed as being born in Yorkshire also on the 1841 census.

It just seems strange why there only ever seems to be children for William and Martha born in Sheffield, But only one mariage for the couple but in London. It's not even close!!!

[lemur41]

Hi

sorry about delay in reply, watching Olympics action!!!

I think the London marriage could be correct because they went as far away from people who knew them as was  possible.

A Scissorsmith/Razorsmith wouldn't really have been looking for work in London.

2 or 3 things occured to me about that, either  Martha was more under age ,than over the age of consent,  one of them had been married previously and a partner was still alive , or  they didn't want to present themselves at the Parish Church for marriage, having baptised infant William there in Sept 1800.