Brick wall after illegitimacy (UK)

[PennineAcute]

Thanks for all your replies.  Interesting reading.

Yes, I have thought about Wright being the surname of John Wright's father.  It appears (but in no way confirmed) that this is the first appearance of the name John Wright Gar(t)side. although John Wright has been used to name children since (on both John Wright's and Frederick Edward's side).

I think what also surprised me was that Spinster was written under John Wright's mother's name on his birth certificate.   Was this to underline that Mary (his mother) was unmarried?

[cristeen]

I have one instance of a young lady having two illegitimate children (there are probably more but this is the one I have briefly investigated. The first child, a son, gave a full name & occupation for his father (deceased) and I have found a likely candidate living locally who dies before this marriage. The second child, a daughter, was baptised in the nearest large town (instead of the village church) under her grandparents names although her grandfather had died nearly 8 years previously. On her marriage certificate she states 'born out of wedlock'
There are no bastardy bonds or similar records for either child. They both seem to have lived with their grandmother and then other relatives until their marriages. Their mother is living at her place of work on each relevant census. It has helped that the lady concerned lived to be over a hundred so there are several newspaper articles about her life and children. This is not my direct line so I'm not too concerned about the identity of those fathers.
My gg grandmother was illegitimate (her mother may have had another illegitimate child also) but sadly there are no clues regarding her father except a surname my grandmother used to mention. She was born in the workhouse, no father on marriage cert, no bastardy records or newspaper articles I can find. Again seems to have been raised by grandparents while mother lived at her place of work.

[ThrelfallYorky]

Weren't our ancestors terribly inconsiderate about leaving accurate records? Anyone'd think they didn't want to tell us.....

[Maiden Stone]

I've had at least two who were illegitimate, who, although their birth certs showed no name for father, when they were married quoted their GRANDFATHER's name as father - and I can't believe it was incest! Sometimes it seemed that they named the person who had brought them up as father.

I also have this. The boy followed his grandfather's occupation. Mother was in her late teens when he was born. She had a daughter a few years later who died when a baby. Mum came to notice of authorities when pregnant with daughter. She married about 3 years after the daughter's birth. The boy was with his grandparents, aunts & uncles, some younger than him, on each census until his marriage. He may have believed he was his grandparents' son. His mother was elsewhere with her husband at each census.
There was a mystery 2 year-old girl on 1841 census. She may have been another child belonging to a daughter of the house and born out of wedlock. 

The aforesaid woman's younger sister, my 3xGGM, also had a baby when she was 18. The father was her future husband. The baby was christened James after his paternal grandfather. His father was named on birth certificate and the birth is indexed under both father's and mother's surnames on Lancashire BMD and under father's surname on GRO. The baby was baptised and buried 5 months later with his mother's surname. No mention of his father in church registers.

Eldest daughter of my 3xGGM, above, had her first son when she was 17/18, then 2 more pregnancies with no official father. She married at age 27 to a man who was too young to be father of her elder children. Her surviving children seem to have been brought up by her mother. They are on one census as children with surname of step-grandfather and their relationship to him is son and daughter. When they married they both gave a made-up father's name: step-grandfather's forename and their own surname. It's possible that the forename was really the forename of their real father or paternal grandfather since the boy had it as his middle name. They both continued the fiction by calling a son after their made-up father.

[Maiden Stone]

I think what also surprised me was that Spinster was written under John Wright's mother's name on his birth certificate.   Was this to underline that Mary (his mother) was unmarried?

That's normal. Sometimes it's "Singlewoman" in parish registers.
Spinster used to be an occupation. When textile production was a cottage-industry, female members of a family did the spinning and men did weaving.