I'm looking for the parents of Teresa Gallet (or a marriage, or anything else, really).
The only source information I have is that she was the mother of Benjamin Gallet, who was baptised in August 1806 at Our Blessed Lady & St Alphonsus, Blackmore Park, Hanley Castle. This was the private Roman Catholic chapel of the Horneyold family. The Hanley Castle area had a large Catholic community, and the Gallet/t family are found in St Alphonsus' baptismal register from the late 1700s when public RC services became legal.
Benjamin Gallet's father is also a mystery: The Register of his baptism reads at first as if his father is 'N' Lane, but it looks different to the other writing; it could it be only a surname, with 'N' a reminder to add a 'Name'? It does look as though gaps were left for the date and for Mr Lane's first name. If Benjamin was christened at home, the the register may have been completed later from memory. This entry is also an exception to the rest of the register in not giving precise dates and it seems surprising that the priest hasn't entered these. There are no other Lanes in this register, suggesting that he wasn't RC?
There was a John Lane of Hanley Castle, a well-to do farmer and an overseer of the poor (and 'the poor' included the James Gallett b. abt. 1772 who may have been Teresa's brother). John Lane was baptised in 1769 at Hanley Castle. He married Mary Eliza Washbourne in 1837 when he would have been 68 and she 39 - perhaps this was a second marriage? If he was Benjamin's father, it may have been while he was a widower before marrying Mary Eliza? All a bit speculative of course.
There are other Galletts not yet placed around Hanley Castle in the 1700s, and my best guess at the moment is that Teresa may have been the daughter of James & Constance (Wynn) Gallet. If so, Teresa was probably born after they married in 1771, and if we say that she was 16 or over when Benjamin was baptised in 1806, then she was likely born between 1771 and 1790. Her son Benjamin's godparents Mary (Gallet) Harris and John Gallet would have been Teresa's sister and brother.
I also have a record of the death of a Theresa Gallet in 1821, and if she remained unmarried this could be her. Her executor was James Gallet of Hanley Castle. If this Death Duty register entry is hers, this was probably her brother James b. 1772, and Teresa would have been between 30 and 50 when she died.
The 'other' Theresa in Hanley Castle was the daughter of George Gallett and Elizabeth (Jones). She was bap. 18 Jan 1823, also at St Alphonsus, Hanley Castle, and in May 1844 married James Lyppyatt (or Lippit or Lippett). James d. 1861 and Theresa d. 1865. Various mistranscriptions including Gippett make them hard to find, and even 'Theresa' gets transcribed as Tereas and Tresian. If the Teresa I'm looking for was indeed the daughter of James & Constance, then George would have been her brother and Theresa her neice.
Establishing who Teresa's parents were would be the final piece to link all the Gallet/ts from Hanley Castle to a common ancestor, one of the line of James Gallet/ts, and any help with this would be welcome!
