I've spent a long time trying to trace the wife of John Young of Withington in Gloucestershire. I knew she was called Eleanor and that the marriage took place c.1700 in Gloucestershire. I finally found it:
"John Young of Withington & Elioner Gutheridge of Northleach by Licence"
The marriage took place in Gloucester at the church of St Mary de Crypt. Withington is some 15 miles from Gloucester and Northleach, the bride's alleged parish, is around 20 miles from Gloucester, so the couple had to travel some distance to get married at St Mary de Crypt. Almost every marriage on the same page (30 or so) was by licence but I don't think that's significant.
I've struggled to find Elioner Gutheridge's baptism though. It's an unusual name (Gotheridge and Goodrich are alternative spellings that I've come across) and the only one I can find is this:
"Elianora fil: Thoma et Elizabetha Gotheridge: 12 August 1680"
And yes, the baptism took place at St Mary de Crypt in Gloucester, the exact same church where John Young and Eleanor Gutheridge were married in 1702. The location, the name and the year or birth dovetail perfectly with marriage in 1702.
I'd love to claim that the child baptised in 1680 and the bride of 1702 are the same but the fact that she claimed Northleach as her parish, so far from Gloucester, bothers me. And I'm always aware, the further you go back, of the increasingly poor coverage of the records. Just because it's the right name doesn't mean it's necessarily the right person. I've checked the St Mary de Crypt register and it doesn't appear that the child called Eleanor Gutheridge died in infancy.
Given these names and dates and the shared location, if you were me, would you assume that the two Eleanor Gutheridges are one and the same person?
Rich