Is this the same man?

[Phoenix]

Twelve years separate these signatures:



https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/1623/images/31281_a101836-00064?pId=1005504

John Joseph Hanham was born in Morden, Dorset, found a niche in the fledgling railway industry as a coachmaker, took Sarah Bryant with him up to Preston in Lancashire and they had several children together before they married in 1850.

Susan Moors and Sarah Bryant were first cousins, but after their father and mother respectively died, their parents attempted to marry and, when this was forbidden, shacked up together anyway.

But was the witness to Susan Moors' wedding John Joseph Hanham? The signatures don't look very similar to me.

[kiterunner]

Your first link is taking me to Susanna Moore in a family tree, not to a signature.

[Phoenix]

Right, let's see if this works: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/2241/images/32435_240344-00072?backlabel=ReturnSearchResults&queryId=19dbc761c2ba6679415312d123b5b252&pId=9546908


It's Sarah's sister, Jane

[kiterunner]

The John parts don't look anything like each other, nor the H, but the rest of Hanham looks fairly similar. Doesn't help, I know!

[Phoenix]

Thanks for looking, Kite. Sarah Bryant had an illegitimate daughter the following year, who subsequently (out of area!) took the surname Hanham. Life would have been so much easier had John Hanham made an honest woman of her in good time, but I suspect that they had little respect for the clergy.