The ELIZABETH Dilemma

William DAWES (1804-1842) married Elizabeth UNKNOWN (1804-1867). More about their family can be found in an earlier post available here. I have not been able to find Elizabeth's surname which leaves a gap in my family tree.

What do I know about her:
1) I have found her on the 1841, 1851 and 1861 censuses and from these I have deduced that she was born about 1804 in East Peckham, Kent.

2) I have her death certificate from 01 Dec 1867 when she died of bronchitis in Uckfield.

3) She and William had five children born between 1828 and 1841.

4) Her first child, Elizabeth, was born in 1828 in East Peckham while the next one, Henry, was born in 1831 in Uckfield so we know the family moved sometime between those dates.

I have looked at the records held by the Centre for Kentish Studies in Maidstone and the International Genealogical Index to find a marriage between William DAW, DAWS or DAWES without success. The reason I am adding to this post is because I have just received CD #27 from the Kent Family History Society that contains baptism and marriage data for East Peckham. Unfortunately, the CD doesn't have a marriage for William and Elizabeth in St. Michael's church however, there is still Holy Trinity Church but their records on the CD start in 1843 which is too late.

My final attempt to solve this riddle was to look at baptisms for Elizabeth's between 1803 and 1804 in the hope that she and William followed the old English naming pattern for their children and using these I could identify her parents. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this, the first son is named after the father's father and the second son after the mother's father. The third son is named after the father with the same pattern applied to the daughters except that it starts with the mother's mother and so on.

Therefore, Elizabeth's parents should have been Elizabeth and Daniel. However, this doesn't hold water because their first son was Henry and William's father was Thomas. Besides, looking at the baptisms for Elizabeth's in East Peckham in the 1803-1804 timeframe here's what I have to choose from:
HODGE, John & Sarah
WATERMAN, Susanna (baseborn)
BARTON, Jane (baseborn)
CHILTON, Thomas & Elizabeth
BATES, John & Ann
MOORE, John & Rebecca
RICHARDS, Thomas & Jane

What did William and Elizabeth name their children? ELIZABETH, HENRY, CATHARINE, CHARLOTTE, and DANIEL. There are some large gaps where other children could have been born but didn't survive such as the five years between Catherine and Charlotte which were before civil registration started. Daniel only survived a few months in 1841 but got picked up by both a birth and death registration.

My choice is Elizabeth CHILTON bap. 12 Feb 1804. Since both sets of parents were Thomas and Elizabeth, they decided to name their children differently after their first daughter was born.

This dosen't mean that I am changing her name from UNKNOWN to CHILTON as I don't really have any proof, however, it does give me a lead to follow as I keep looking for her surname.