Who were Elizabeth Crocker's parents?

Question

or: is William Crocker-4585 a duplicate of William Crocker-3750?

Elizabeth (Betsey) Crocker was born in 1810 in South Brent, Devon. Her baptism record shows that her parents were William and Mary Crocker. The census records give South Brent and Ugborough (a neighbouring parish) as possible birth places, but the baptism record is in South Brent.

However - these is no marriage of a William Crocker and a Mary anywhere nearby within a plausible timeframe before 1810 for them to be her parents. But there is a family of William and Elizabeth Crocker at the same time, who had at least nine children baptised in South Brent and Ugborough. The pattern of the baptism records strongly suggests that this family moved from South Brent to Ugborough around 1810-11, when the young Betsey would have been about a year old.

My hypothesis is that Betsey's baptism record has an incorrectly recorded mother, and that she could in fact belong to the family of William and Elizabeth Crocker. This would explain why there is no marriage of William and Mary, as well as why she is later unsure which parish she was born in - because if she were part of this family, she would have been born in South Brent but her earliest memories would have been of Ugborough. Certainly if the baptism record had only specified a father's name, I would have little hesitation in assigning her to this family with very reasonable confidence - but the conflicting mother's name is obviously a problem.

My question therefore is: can this hypothesis be proven or disproven?

Unfortunately by the time of the census, she is already married and living with her husband, so there is no census record matching her to her birth family. I also haven't been able to find out much information about William's life, other than his marriage to Elizabeth and the baptisms of his children, showing that his occupation was a mason or a mason's labourer. I've tried to find information about his death and a possible will, but as yet haven't found anything.

Any suggestions would be very welcome please!

Answer 1

Perhaps, the following is worth researching further. South Brent is fairly close to Plymouth, Devon

Betsey's birth was recorded in South Brent, Devon  in 1810, the daughter of William Croker & Mary; perhaps the William Croker & Mary Lang who were married on 6 October 1798, Stoke Dameral, Devon.  

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N2GC-HXV

This marriage is also recorded generally in Devon Parish records and notes William was a rigger in the 'Dockyard'.

This William Croker & Mary Lang had a number of children born Stoke Dameral & Devonport between 1799 & 1804. No further entries until a Betsey in 1810, South Brent.

But, of particular interest & perhaps more than a coincidence, the couples first born was a Betsey Crocker in 1799. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N5SQ-XBJ. Unfortunately I cannot find any death record for the first born that would fully support this theory.

Comments

Thanks - I hadn't spotted that William and Mary, but I've had a good look at them today and I've ruled them out as a possible match.

It looks like FamilySearch might have an incomplete set of the Stoke Damerel baptism registers, because when I looked on FindMyPast I found a whole string of their children in Stoke Damerel up until 1813 - and the last one is certainly one of theirs, because it's late enough for the father's occupation to be recorded and it matches the one shown on the marriage. As they had children baptised in Stoke Damerel in 1809 and 1811, it's more or less impossible that they could also be the parents of Betsey baptised in South Brent in 1810. So we can rule them out as a match, but I've added their family to the tree - William is here.

The 1799 baptism of Betsey Crocker is interesting, although I think probably a red herring - it was in Dartmouth, over 30 miles from Plymouth, which in 18th-century Devon may as well be the other end of the earth. I haven't yet been able to work out who the parents were and where they married.

There is also another, slightly earlier, William and Mary Crocker in Tavistock; similarly they seem to have stayed in their home parish and don't seem to be related to any of the others.

I did manage to find some more information about William Crocker and Elizabeth Brooking - I've found and added their 1841 and 1851 census records and their death and burial records. No will though, which is a shame but not unexpected.

Thank you again for your help!