Looking through parish records I'm really curious about what seem to be a series of untimely deaths in Kencot. My research indicates William Shayler of Langford (born 1741/2) married Sarah Dyer of Kencot on 15th October 1774. The couple had four children, all of which died in infancy except the last - Ann Shayler (born & died 1775), Sarah Shayler (born 1776, died the following year 1777), Richard Shayler (born & died 1778), and William (born 1781, who thankfully survived until 1865). Infant mortality isn't unusual, but the curious thing is that mother Sarah seems to have died in 1782, the year after William's birth, and her husband in 1783, being buried on 23rd March that year.
Now, I could be making the wrong assumptions, but if this is correct baby William's entire family died in a 7 year period, leaving him a 2-year old orphan. I know he stayed in the area, as his two sons were later born in Langford, but who would have raised the child in the 1780's? I've not traced any other Shayler's in Langford at that time.
I'm wondering if there might simply be gaps in the parish records and that the birth-death connections I'm assuming may be wrong. Does anyone know of any particular cause for so many deaths in the area at that time?