Elizabeth Browning - who is she?

[zumaro]

My ancestors are William Thornhill and Elizabeth Browning, who married in West Malling on 11 August 1755. In the marriage record it says that Elizabeth is a widow.  At this time is it usual for a person to be remarried with their married name or maiden name? In short who is Elizabeth likely to be originally, and who was she married to before?

Trees on ancestry are all giving what is probably wrong, that Elizabeth was born in 1737 in Stourmouth, daughter of Thomas Browning and Jane May, but I am thinking this is unlikely for an 18 year old to already be a widow, but possible I suppose.

[rosie99]

It would normally be her married surname that she used when remarrying.  Someone on Ancestry has probably not seen that she was widowed and everyone else has copied it 

[DCB]

There was a James Browning who married Elizabeth Tomset in West Malling on 14th September 1746.

The only baptism of a child was of Anne, in 1748, but no burial of a James that fits.

David

[grandarog]

Transcription of Burial of a James Browning at West Malling 5 Febuary 1749 that Fits until you check the actual registry entries.
It is actually a burial of a James Browning son of William and Frances.Buried same Day as Frances Widow of William Browning (presume she died in childbirth) on the 5 feb 1750. There were no burials in Feb 1749.

[trish1120]

Although WILLIAM/FRANCES bapt West Malling;
JOHN  04 Aug 1723
EDWARD 19 Dec 1725

So maybe unlikely she was pregnant c 1748

William was buried 24 Apr 1748 and Frances 1 Feb 1750/51

[zumaro]

Thanks for the help everyone. Everything fits together almost so tidily, except for the death of James Browning. I am looking at the page of West Malling burial records, which Findmypast doesn't help by mistranscribing the dates. So indeed William was buried almost 2 years before Frances and James, so presumably their deaths were not due to childbirth. Odd to be buried on the same day however.  I have only seen children being buried as "the son of", so the implication is that James is a child.

I can't find any record for the baptism of a James, but if he was born in the early 1720s as the other Browning birth records suggest, then he would be the ideal age for marrying Elizabeth Tomset in 1746. 

[zumaro]

Added these details to my tree on ancestry to see what happened, and 3 other people have come to the same conclusion.  They all have trees with parents William Browning (-1748) and Frances (-1750), and their 3 children John (1723-), Edward (1725-) and James (-1750). In all their trees Edward marries Ann Crittenden in 1764, and dies in 1789.

Is this really a likely scenario, given the burial entries for James and Frances?

[trish1120]

I agree I have seen burials for an adult with Parents names added.

[zumaro]

Thanks again for all the advice. This is a typical genealogical situation, where it looks like you have bits of a jigsaw puzzle that belong together, but you can't be quite sure because of the missing bits! I think I will put this as a possibility in my family tree, but marked as a hypothesis. 


The one thing I can be reasonably sure is that it is a better hypothesis than the other 20 or so trees on ancestry that have Elizabeth Browning descended from lords and ladies. Alas my one dissenting tree will be ignored totally, in the prevalent crowd sourcing method of tree generation!