Please can you help with Benjamin Bolton's (b OCT 1744 • Thatcham) father Ruben

[emjsw]

Hi Emma,

Son Joseph was baptised a couple of months after Thomas’s burial with Thomas named as the father, Ruben was baptised 3 years later, no father named, only noting Ann as a widow, safe to assume that he was illegitimate.

Jo 

Ahh I see, that makes sense, thank you for your help Jo

[Sloe Gin]

I can see from the marriage record that Thomas married Ann bentford 1698 easy Ilsley but can find no baptism of Ann so maybe she came from outside the county.

That marriage was at Compton, not East Ilsley.  No other records there for Bentford, and no baptisms there to the couple.

The marriage is after the first two baptisms to Thomas & Anne Bolton in East Ilsley, so make of that what you will 

[emjsw]

I can see from the marriage record that Thomas married Ann bentford 1698 easy Ilsley but can find no baptism of Ann so maybe she came from outside the county.

That marriage was at Compton, not East Ilsley.  No other records there for Bentford, and no baptisms there to the couple.

The marriage is after the first two baptisms to Thomas & Anne Bolton in East Ilsley, so make of that what you will 

Thanks for spotting that. I wonder if Thomas and Ann were just passing through compton and got married and went else where or if they moved 2 miles up the road from compton and settled in east Ilsley. Maybe they did that in order to baptise Ann's (and possibly Thomas's) children born out of wedlock to legitimise them in the parish records.
I guess there was alot of migration to the area as the sheep market took off (they were granted a charter for the sheep fair in 1620 and by the 19th it was the second largest in the country next to Smithfields London). Maybe Ann Brentford came from else where and moved to Compton, there were a couple born in London but sadly I can't add any of them to my tree as I can't prove it!!! So frustrating, I hate it when you get to someone and can't go back further. There is a brick wall for most wives in the Bolton family tree!!
Thanks for all of your help everyone

[kensent]

Hi Emma , Were you still looking for details for Benjamin Bolton b1744 of Thatcham line  ? . I have his father as Ruben b 1712, his father as Thomas born 1699, his father also as Thomas b 1645, his father as William born 1621 and his father as John , unknown birth date.