Bigamist in my tree?

[Jomot]

Looking at the will again, I see he mentions the land being near the Bucks Head, Drysdale. 

The inquest on Joseph Stevens son of George & Lydia was held at Drysdale. 

If some clever person can put the two signatures together I think we'll have an answer.  The change from ph to v is obvious, but the rest looks pretty much the same to my untrained eye.

[iolaus]

Found a copy of Mary Ann Stevens birth certificate (5th July 1859) which some helpful person had scanned in online - wow Oz certificates are detailed!

Mother Lydia Stevens, maiden name Parker aged 48 born Somerset
Father George Stevens, farmer, aged 60, born Somerset

Married 1848 Newport, Monmouthshire (children Joseph, Peter Parker and Mary Ann)

Think I've attached his signature from her birth certificate - thoughts is it the same as his will?

[Jomot]

There are differences between the marriage, birth cert and the will - the signature is less looping on the birth cert - but there are a lot of similarities too, particularly the crossing of the letter "t" which cuts across the S of Stevens/Stephens on all three.   

For my money they are all the same person, but I'd be interested in what others think.

[iolaus]

With regard to the v vs ph
1798 SteVens (baptism 2nd Dec)
1817 StePHens (marriage to Mary)
1819 SteVens (Sarah's baptism)
1826 SteVens (George's baptism)
1832 SteVens (Barrow Gurney Poll Books)
1833 SteVens (James's baptism)
1835 SteVens (John's baptism)
1837 SteVens (Hester's baptism)
1841 SteVens (census with Mary)
1841 SteVens (Samuel's marriage
1848 StePHens (marriage to Lydia)
1849 StePHens (Joseph's birth)
1851 StePHens ( census with Lydia)
1854 SteVens (Immigration Index)
1857 SteVens (Matilda's marriage)
1857 SteVens (Hester's marriage)
1857 SteVens (Peter's birth)
1875 SteVens (death certificate and will)

[Rosinish]

Have put the Marriage signature & Will signature together but couldn't do the Birth one (can't work with pdf) but the others were jpeg.

Annie

EDITED...To include Birth signature (jpeg) from reply #23 from Jomot

[Jomot]

Not sure how well this will work, but Ive had a go at transferring the signature from the birth certificate PDF into JPEG.
 

[Rosinish]

Thanks Jomot,

Have edited reply #22 to include Birth signature

Annie

[Jomot]

Thanks Annie - I was in the middle of adding a smaller image if you want to use that instead.

[..claire..]

Well I think some great detective work has been done here ~ I think they are the same guy

Well done all