Is this enough evidence to prove a connection?

[Richard Knott]

I am hoping to prove that George Knott and his brother William were part of the well-researched NOTT family based around Sible Hedingham; in particular, that they were the children of William (1722-1780) and Ann (nee Theobald, died 1782). Apologies for the long entry.

George KNOTT was a gardener in Barking and had the following children there: Mary Anne (1783), Joseph Alexander (1784-1849), George (1787- 88), George Alexander (1789-1865), William (1792-1821), Robert (1794-1858) and John (Alexander) (1797-1820). He probably married Elizabeth Beal in Whitechapel in 1782 (she was born in Barking and one of their grandchildren was called Elizabeth Beale Knott). He left a will, including money invested in a bank and a gold watch when he died in 1831, aged 73.

I cannot find any George (K)NOTTs born in Middlesex at the right time. For many years I had focused my attention on SE Essex because another of George’s grandchildren was called James Pullen Knott and there is a marriage in 1742 between a William Nott and Martha Pullen in Great Stambridge. I have a letter from William Camp, written in 1981 when he was Director of the Society of Genealogists, saying that the connection was ‘quite likely’. There is an extensive land owning family around Foulness but, for various reasons, I now think it isn’t the right one.

There are two possible Elizabeth Beale baptisms, both with father Joseph. One, a gardener with connections to Barking, proved not to be connected ;and the other one, based in Barking and probably the right one, has provided no useful information.

The only other Knott entries at Barking are for a baptism of George, son of William and Martha Knott, in 1779; and four burials: an unnamed child in 1783 (possibly another of William and Martha’s children); Martha (1798); Joseph (1799) and William (1800). No ages are given.

William is almost certainly the same as the William, a gardener, who married Martha House in Finchingfield in 1770. They had two children baptised in Wethersfield (Joseph, 1771 and Edy, 1772) and one in Bocking (William, 1774). There is a removal order, dated 20 Apr 1775, requiring William and Martha to move back from Bocking back to Finchingfield, together with their children Joseph (4), Henrietta (2) – presumably this is Edy - and William (7m).

Gosfield is 6 miles from Wethersfield (and 9 from Finchingfield). William and Ann Nott had the following children there: Hannah (1746-46), William (1747), Richard (1750-51), Hannah (1752-53), Elizabeth (1754-54), John (1755-56), Susanna (1759-59) and George (1760). Only two children survived infancy: William and George. Their parents died in 1780 (William) and 1782 (Ann).

So, did William join his brother in Barking around the time their father died? The coincidence of dates and places makes it a possibility. However, this doesn’t explain why both William and George both named their eldest sons Joseph (George’s case can be explained by his father-in-law, who might have helped them given that George’s own father was dead). It also doesn’t explain why George gave three of his sons the middle name Alexander.

Richard