Please help me tidy this Spalding family

[Merry]

BK6 updated from this thread

William Fyson Spalding was b abt 1826 in Bedford, the son of William and Emma nee Smith.

In 1841 he's a male servant in Bedford

By 1850 he's in London where he marries Elizabeth Mary Clark (spinster) in August 1850. She was b abt 1827 in Ireland.

In 1851 he and Elizabeth Mary are living in Marylebone. They have two visitors; one is his sister from Bedford and the other is his mother-in-law, Jemima Clark b Quebec Canada.

According to the LMA baptisms Wm and Elizabeth had a son on 28th May 1851 who they baptised William Fyson Spalding at Holy Trinity Brompton on 29th June 1851. I can't see that this baby was registered.

In 1861 I can't find William Spalding b 1826. His son, Wm, is in Bedford living with his great-grandmother and a likely second child, Charles Spalding aged 7 b London Middlesex, is living with his grandparents in Bedford.

In March 1868 banns are read at Christ Church Marylebone for William Fyson Spalding, widower, and Eliza Emma Cable, spinster. There's no sign of a marriage at the same church or elsewhere (by the look of it, the vicar wrote the marriage dates alongside the marriages that took place at the same church, but some people married elsewhere and there's no dates in the book for those, but the marriages appear in the GRO index. Nothing for Spalding/Cable in the GRO records as far as I could see though)

No obvious death for the first Mrs Spalding, Elizabeth Mary.

Despite possibly not marrying, Wm and Eliza Emily appear on all censuses together until 1911 (she is sometimes Emma Eliza, bap Aldeburgh, Suffolk in 1835). I have a possible death for Wm in 1911 but no death for Eliza.

So, why didn't Wm and Eliza Emma marry and what happened to Elizabeth Mary and Eliza Emma? Also where is Wm in 1861?

[Phoenix]

The obvious answer for no second marriage would be that since he attempted marriage in the area where he was living, someone pointed out the small difficulty of a first wife. With a name like Elizabeth, born Ireland, she could be shacked up with anyone, or even back in Canada.

Wm was probably keeping very low in 1861. At least it sounds as if the boys are his.

[Merry]

I found the Canadian mother on the following census, but instead of consoling her ditched daughter, she is off visiting some other people, so no help there!

[kiterunner]

Quite a few bits of the London area (and other places) are missing from the 1861 census, as you know, so William and Elizabeth Mary could have been in one of those places.

[kiterunner]

Ooh, I don't know which thread to put this on! The pilot site has a baptism for Charles Alfred Spalding 27 Jan 1861 St Cuthbert, Bedford, parents William Fison Spalding and Elizabeth. I wonder, if you could get someone to look at the parish register entry, maybe it will tell you whether Elizabeth was still alive, and where the parents were living. But maybe his grandparents took him to be baptised and there won't be any useful info.

[Merry]

Oooh, that's really interesting - thank you so much. I would hope they might have said if his mother was dead, though I have another baby baptised in London where both parents were dead, but no one seems to have mentioned it!

I will investigate. Thanks again.

[Merry]

If nothing else, the bap tells me I have the right child with the right parents and that Elizabeth WAS his mother! lol

[Merry]

Well, there's a William F Spalding, widower, b Cambs, aged 30 in 1861. He's a servant in Norfolk.

30 is a bit young, but his age is off on other censuses. Cambs is where his father was born. Maybe he wasn't really a widower, just an escaped husband?

I have tried to eliminate this man without success, so he might be mine.

[Uncle John]

St. Cuthbert's Street is just round the corner from Mill Street and there's a church there which is now a Polish church.