Charles BEST - born 1852? Wareham Dorset

[Neale1961]

There is a marriage (Banns) - 3 weeks up to 24 Oct 1836 Wareham
for Jane WATTS to Henery BEST
Both of the same parish of St Martins Wareham

Maybe for some reason, they did not actually marry in 1836…..

Because …….
11 Sept 1837 at Morden a marriage for Henry BEST and Jane OATS
Both Henry and Jane are full age, she is a spinster, and he is a bachelor. Both sign with X
Residence for both is Morden. Henry is a sawyer, son of Samuel Best a sawyer
Jane is daughter of John OATS a labourer.

[Neale1961]

This doesn’t help with the mystery but …..

There is a baptism 17 Feb 1811 in St Martin, Wareham for a Jane WATTS.
Parents John and Sarah

There is a marriage 4 Apr 1800 in Lady St Mary, Wareham for John WATTS (from Lytchett Matravers) and Jane RANDALL

[LizzieL]

Charles's mother is Jane Oats or Watts - she went by both names.   Part of the reason I would like to find his birth record is to check her name again.

Quite common in local dialect to stick a phantom W in front of a word beginning with "O".
e.g oak (the tree) pronounced as woak, also home pronounced woam. I lived a few miles from Wareham as a child in the 60's and the older people in the village still used this pronunciation. So Oats would sound like Woats. An official not familiar with the local ways of pronunciation might try and make a more familiar surname out of it and come up with Watts.
Another common one: F (ferry) would be pronounced as V (verry).

A bit of an aside:  "S" as in Sunday would be pronounced as a Z - Zunday. Got a bit confusing in chemistry lessons when burning splints got out of control - does the teacher really mean "throw it in the Zinc" - we'll set that alight too and have a much bigger fire! Luckily the Zodium was kept locked away.!

added
link to pomes by Willum Baarnes

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Poems_of_Rural_Life_in_the_Dorset_Dialect

[ellenmaggie]

HI LizzieL - love the link to the Rural Poems - thank you!   I have plumped for Watts as her surname for now, but I would love to find some birth record for Charles apart from his baptism.  I shall try a search on BMD just with the surname Best for the years before 1852 and see what I can find - maybe he was registered under a different name from Charles.....

Ellenmaggie

[ellenmaggie]

Hi Neale1961,

Just reread the posts and realised I had missed your suggestion of Charles Brett in 1852 Wareham.   I shall look into this as a possible.  Thank you.

Ellenmaggie

[ellenmaggie]

Following on from Charles Brett - there is a Charles Brett baptised in Corfe Castle in November 1852, son of Sarah Brett a single woman.   So I am ruling him out sadly, thought it might have solved the mystery.  The search continues....