Advise needed for potential brickwall breaker

[Silverhawk]

Who registered the Henry's death?  If he wasn't married, then maybe a parent? That would prove your theory of it was Christiana. William was of course dead by then.

I haven't bought Henry's death certificate yet, maybe that's the next step for me to take.

I ordered the PDF of Henry's entry. Don't need the info for legal reasons, so a little bit cheaper for me to get the PDF than a cert. Anyway, this looks promising. The informant of Henry's death was a John Muckle of New Pandon Street. After William Lewis died, his widow Christiana remarried to... a John Muckle in March 1841. They were living at Stock Bridge on the 1841 census and Pandon Bank on the 1851 census. All three streets are very close to each other on the old maps of Newcastle. This has to tie Henry in, right?

[fiddlerslass]

Some more coincidences with LEWIS from familysearch.org

Bapt Berwick
4 Aug 1817 John Bowen LEWIS son of John LEWIS & Henrietta

Bapt Edinburgh Scotland

4 June 1818 Robert Frederick LEWIS son of John Bower Captain LEWIS & Henrietta JONES (available on Scotlands people pay per view)

Bapt Rochdale st Chad's
22 May 1820 Henryetta Susanna LEWIS dau of John Bowers LEWIS & Henryetta

So there was a millitary connection and he was in similar places to your William  - Berwick & Rochdale. I think they may have been brothers. Was Susanna therefore a family name?

John seems to have emigrated to Canada - here is a link to his grave - he was born in Somerset 1785 and was Captain in the 88th. His son John went on to have an illustrious career .

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/130779937

[Silverhawk]

The name Susanna(h) hasn't appeared in the Lewis family, except for the possible daughter brought up on the previous page. But I've been dubious about that as it requires the family to be in Newcastle for a year or two up to William Jr's christening in 1826, randomly move to Liverpool for Susanna's christening in 1827 (11 Nov), rush back to Newcastle where James dies and is buried 12 days later (23 Nov), stay for a few years until after Peter is christened in 1832, then move back to Liverpool conveniently in time for Susanna to die in the city she was born in, then back to Newcastle again. The movements seem strange to me given William was out of the army in 1822 (assuming that's the right William) and there's no other reason I can see for him to keep flitting between the cities.

I suppose there could be another William and Christiana in Lancashire and Henry and Susanna are both theirs, but if that's so there'd need to be another Henry of the same age born/christened in the north-east to account for the one who died in 1846 with my Christiana's second husband as informant. Again I'm dubious. Henry fits into the narrative, but Susanna throws a big spanner into it.

So there was another Lewis in both Berwick and Rochdale, and born in Somerset? And you say this John Bowen Lewis was Captain of the 88th? The same regiment William was in? This is getting weird, the coincidences are piling up to surreal levels now.

Many thanks for the info, fiddlerslass. I just have no idea how I'm going to sort it all out

[emeltom]

John Bower Lewis was baptised Somerton 1 January 1785 parents Thomas and Sarah. I can find other siblings on FreeReg but no William. The baptism I have seen in Edinburgh for John Bower's son Robert Frederick gives mmn as Jones.

Emeltom

[Silverhawk]

Hmm, his headstone says born April 1785, so it looks like whoever had the stone done got his age wrong. Born April 1784 perhaps?

[Silverhawk]

John Bower Lewis was baptised Somerton 1 January 1785 parents Thomas and Sarah. I can find other siblings on FreeReg but no William. The baptism I have seen in Edinburgh for John Bower's son Robert Frederick gives mmn as Jones.

I just looked at FreeReg. There's a burial at St Michael's, Somerton, 6th March 1785 for a John Bower Lewis, age: infant. And another one in January for a John Bower Lewis, son of Thomas and Sarah

[Silverhawk]

A little update to this. I just found a record in Ancestry's "Canada, British Regimental Registers of Service" collection for the William Lewis who served in the 88th Foot Regt (he's still the most likely candidate for my great(x3)grandfather for now). It gives his birthplace as "Somerset St James". This has left me more confused than ever though as I can't find a place by that name there, and if it's referring to a parish, there are loads of churches dedicated to St James, so... am I missing something? Is being from St James an obvious place to someone from Somerset that me being a daft northerner just isn't getting? Or is the info really as frustratingly vague as it appears to me?

I've duplicated this question on the Somerset sub-board to see if they have any ideas there.