I’m trying to find the marriage of my ancestors John Gardiner and Ann Meck, and I’m a bit stuck. (I’m a relative beginner. Any help, or knowledge of this family, would be greatly appreciated!)
This is what I tentatively THINK is correct so far.
Ann Meck was born in Great Ryburgh, Norfolk in 1764, the child of William Meck and Susannah Cornish.
I think John Gardiner may have been born around 1765. (There is a John Gardiner who was buried in Great Ryburgh in 1816 at the age of 51.) I can’t find a birth for him in that area, but other Ancestry trees suggest he might have been born in South Elmham, Suffolk.
I think John and Ann had at least 8 children between 1792 and 1807.
I cannot find a plausible marriage in Norfolk or Suffolk.
However, there was a marriage between a John Gardiner and an Ann Meck at St George’s Church, Hanover Square in London on 15 March 1792. The marriage was by licence. (No clue with the witnesses – one is a Caleb Greville, who appears to be rent-a-witness, appearing on several other marriage records. The other is Francis (cannot read the surname) but I think he appears on other records too.)
Back in Great Ryburgh, I think John Gardiner's and Ann Meck’s first child was Mary, born 8 April 1792. If the London wedding is correct, that would mean Mary was born just a month after the wedding. The baptism record gives the baptism date at St Andrew’s Church, Great Ryburgh as 5 May 1793 (a year after the birth). It also states that Mary had been privately baptised on 17 April 1792.
At first I thought it implausible that the London couple are correct… but then I wondered whether it was possible that Ann was pregnant and they went to another area to marry and then had their child baptised back in Great Ryburgh much later.
Is this plausible? If a Norfolk couple wanted to marry elsewhere, would they go all the way to London? Would that not be difficult to arrange? Would they have married so late on in the bride's pregnancy? Would they not choose somewhere closer? (I haven’t yet found a London connection for the family, but there may be one somewhere.)
Is there a much, much simpler explanation, with a local marriage I have somehow failed to find? Does anyone know this family?
Any advice or insight from more experienced researchers would be a great help! Thank you so much.