I would very much like to find out who were the parents of William Bowers Fitch.
The certificate of his marriage to Jessie Belbin Barton in 1882 says that he was 30 years old, born in Ealing (West London), and that his father was William Fitch, a stonemason. I cannot find a record of his birth around 1852 and I cannot find a William Fitch who was a stonemason.
WBF’s name suggests a marriage between a Mr Fitch and a Miss Bowers but the only one that I have found is a 20th century one. I have however found two other Fitch/Bowers links with some surprising overlaps.
One is an 1851 marriage between Charles Bowers of Hundon, Suffolk and Elizabeth Cross Fitch (the daughter of Joseph Fitch and Elizabeth Cross). I cannot find evidence of any children from the marriage and it seems to have been short-lived, as a Charles Bowers of Hundon (presumably the same one) married Lucy Ling in 1853.
The other is another Charles Bowers - of Burwell, Cambridgeshire this time - who had one son, called Fitch W Bowers (1853-1871). The W probably stands for William, because a “Fitzwilliam” Bowers (presumably a mistranscription of Fitch William) is recorded as being born in the same district. It is not obvious to me why he was given the first name of Fitch. Charles’s wife, also an Elizabeth, remarried and her second husband was Richard Freeman.
Apart from the fact that the two Charles Bowerses were born only two years apart and both married Elizabeths, they both had fathers called William who were shoemakers. Moreover, Charles Bowers of Hundon was shown on his marriage certificate as resident in Burwell.
Is it possible that the two Charles Bowerses are in fact one person?
Another puzzling fact is that the father-in-law of Charles Bowers of Hundon, Joseph Fitch, is recorded in the 1861 census as having his 8-year-old grandson, John Short, staying with him. John’s birth year was 1852/3 and his birth place was given as Ealing – exactly matching William Bowers Fitch’s birth date and place. I cannot find any record of a John Short and wonder if it might be a nickname. The only other resident in Joseph’s house was his unmarried daughter Mary Ann Fitch. Ancestry actually states her to be John Short’s mother although it is not obvious why this conclusion has been drawn. Nevertheless, could John Short be a lovechild of Charles Bowers and his sister-in-law, Mary Ann Fitch? This would explain the failure of the marriage with Elizabeth. John Short could have been renamed William (after his grandfather) Bowers (after his natural father, Charles) Fitch (after his mother). It does not explain Ealing as a birthplace but it could be a fabrication that the child was told. “Stonemason” could be a transcription error for “shoemaker”.
My feeling is that William Bowers Fitch is from the Hundon family because there are photographs of his descendants with descendants of Elizabeth Cross Fitch’s parents and they obviously all considered themselves “family”.
I would be delighted if someone could place WBF and his parents.
