Baptism of Sarah Abbot, circa 1800

[jbml]

I am looking for the baptism of Sarah Abbot (or Abbott, or Abbotts).

Later census entries have her born in Benson in about 1800; but it is possible that she was not baptized as an infant (her daughter was not baptized until the age of 14). According to the marriage certificate for her second marriage, in 1844, her father was a Wine Cooper called William Abbot

There was a Sarah Abbot, daughter of William and Mary, baptized at Aston Rowant in 1795; but I am not happy with this as (a) Aston Rowant and Benson are too far apart for my liking, and (b) her only known child was born in 1839. Whilst it is not impossible that she was 44 when she gave birth, I think it likelier that she was a bit younger.

I am therefore looking for plausible alternatives, and any assistance would be very much appreciated.


I am also trying to identify her first marriage, which was to a man whose family name was Herman. This might have been in Oxfordshire, or it might have been after she came to London. It was presumably before 1839 when their daughter was born (frustratingly, though, I've not yet managed to identify the registration of the daughter's birth - there are several plausible candidates, and it is also possible that she was one of the ones who "slipped through the net" and whose birth was not registered!). It looks as though it was before the start of registration.

[Pennie]

There's no record of a Sarah ABBOT(T)(S) marrying an (unknown) HERMAN on the OFHS's Oxfordshire Marriage Index (1538-1837), the GRO indexes or the London marriage records on Ancestry.

However, there is a Public Member Tree on Ancestry which lists a "Sarah Abbot HERMAN", born c1805 in Oxfordshire, the daughter of William and Hannah ABBOT.  Checking the OMI again, the only marriage I can find is for a William ABBOT to a Hannah HUNT in 1803 in Swalcliffe.  Unfortunately, Swalcliffe is at the opposite end of the county to Benson!

Just something to bear in mind ... Benson is very close to the old Oxfordshire/Berkshire county boundary.  Those counties which were previously in Berkshire and were transferred to Oxfordshire in the early 1970s are NOT included on the above OMI.  They constitute a separate "N. Berkshire Marriage Index" and you can request a look-up of this by contacting the Oxfordshire Family History Society at www.ofhs.org.uk.  This could be where you will find the marriage of Sarah's parents, or her marriage to Mr. HERMAN!

Pennie

[jbml]

Pennie -

Thanks for that - it is very helpful. I was unaware about the Berkshire point (I grew up in Cambridgeshire, so Oxfordshire is terra incognita to me. Not exactly here be dragons - but certainly here be car manufactories!)

The idea that Sarah was the daughter of William & Hannah Abbots is a spurious connection which has been suggested to me, but on no better evidence than that it is a William Abbots born in Oxfordshire who appears in the 1851 census, age 72 so old enough to be Sarah's father. However, he is an army pensioner not a retired wine cooper, and his wife Hannah is only 62 so too young to have been Sarah's mother.

They are in fact the William Abbotts and Hannah Holland who married in Evenley, Northants on 25 November 1823 (he a bachelor, so this was not a second marriage); and they are then to be seen living in Evenley in both the 1841 census (HO107 Piece 804 Book 7 Folio 9 Page 12) and the 1851 census (HO107 Piece 1735 Folio 197 Page 22).