A bit of information about the John Halbert who is the possible parent of James Halbert & Mary Carrott. You probably already have much of this, but thought I would set it out for others who may have pieces to contribute to the puzzle.
John Halbert of this parish & Dorothy Gibson of this parish married by banns 13 January 1814, witnesses James Reed (a frequent witness) & William Appleby. Bride made her mark.
Marriages, St Mary’s Gateshead, image no 66 in on-line Gateshead BTs 1812-1823
Dorothy Halbert buried 1819 aged 27 years (so born abt 1792)
Burials, Gateshead
John Halbert of this parish & Barbara Charlton of this parish were married by Banns 16 January 1820, both signed, witnesses George Halbert & Thomas Cummin (a frequent witness)
Marriages, Gateshead Bishop’s Transcripts image no 412 1812-1823
1841 Census HO107/296/14 folio 39 p18
Gateshead, Bottle Bank
[this is a couple of houses away from the David & Mary Carrit household]
John Halbert 41 Cork Cutter No[t born in county]
Barbara 25 Y
Isabella 16 Y
Ann 14 Y
Sarah 8 Y
Elizabeth 6 Y
Michael 3 Y
Barbara 1 Y
28 July 1844 Isaac Anderson of full age, Bachelor, Shoemaker, Oakwellgate, son of Robert Anderson, Shoemaker, & Ann Halbert, Spinster, Minor [i.e. aged under 21 years], Bottlebank, daughter of John Halbert, Cork Cutter, both bride & groom made their marks, married by Banns, witnesses John Halbert & Barbara Halbert
Marriages, St Mary’s, Gateshead
1851 Census Ho107/2402 Gateshead St Mary’s
Back? Lane
John Halbert Hd Mar 56 Cork Cutter Newcastle
Barbara do wife 49 DUR Gateshead
Sarah do dau 18 at home born do
Elizabeth do dau 16 dressmaker do
Michael do son Smith helper do
Thomas do son 8 Scholar do
Barbara do nurse child 4 mo do
You may well have the baptisms for these children from your researcher. If not you can locate them in the indexed records on
www.familysearch.org and use these index entries to help you find them on the on-line but unindexed Bishops' Transcripts also on
www.familysearch.orgFor example - the baptism of James Charlton Halbert s/o John & Barbara Halbert baptised 5 Jan 1828, St John, Newcastle upon Tyne.
There are some difficulties with seeing this particular John Halbert as the father of your Thomas Halbert (assuming that the parent details on the Gateshead baptism that you have were mixed up somehow):
1)
www.familysearch.org for the Thomas Halbert in 1814 in Gateshead gives a birth date of 8 July 1806, too early for John to be a likely parent and some years prior to his first marriage; and
2)John & Barbara Halbert have an 8 year old son Thomas in the 1851 census. Of course, they could have thought the first one had died, if they had not heard from him in a very long time.
I have some thoughts about other options which will have to wait until I have more time, but generally I think you are on the right track if you continue to pull together all the info you can on the Tyneside Halberts and draw up a bit of a tree to sort out the John Potts, to see if and how Tame Poto fits into this large family. These are possibly the descendants of William Halbert & Alice/Alison Potts who married in Kelso, Roxburgh 21 August 1763.
The actual parish registers for C of E entries in the period 1798-1812 are more detailed in Durham & NBL than before or after, so these are worth tracking down on film or through the on-line BTs (watch out for gaps, sometimes days or years). I appreciate many of the Halberts were baptised as non-conformists, particularly the earlier ones.