concernng Thomas Vincent LT55-JGN
Thomas was christened in1683. He married Charity Clarke in 1713. She was christened in 1684.
Their first child Charity was born in 1687, Their second child Grace was born 1689.
I realize that you can be christened/baptized at any age but usually if the child is 12 yrs old or older ( which they would have to be) it's noted on the baptismal registration.
This is part of my family tree....thomas is my 6 gr grandfather. I'm reluctant to leave it like this since I'm printing copies for family.
Also...I'm so surprised that there's no big red exclamation points bringing attention to this on his page !!
Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated
Answers
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Something is clearly wrong here. You have christenings 26 years before the marriage!!!
The assumption has been made that Thomas was christened as an adult to be consistent with when his first children were christened but that makes him very old to be married in 1713. Note the large gap between Charity in 1687, Grace in 1689 and then George in 1713.
Christenings as older children or adults were more common in the late 1700s onwards but I have not encountered them that early. However, lack of recording the fact does not surprise me back in that time as recording extra information was unusual that far back.
More probable in my view is that Thomas Vincent and Charity Clarke who married in 1713 were christened as infants making a marriage in 1713 more plausible. Charity and Grace almost certainly belong to a different Thomas and Charity.
I accept that it seems unlikely that there should be two couples named Thomas and Charity. However, bear in mind that Thomas is a common name and Charity, although less common, might have been common in that locality.
More digging is needed!
Regards
Graham Buckell
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With only a short time to look at the information on Thomas Vincent's Person Page, it seems at first sight that there are some unusual situations in the information recorded. The page shows Thomas' birth in about 1670 and a christening in 1683, making him about 13 when he was christened, not unusual in itself, but an alert. The data then shows him being married in 1713 when he would have been 43.
According to the data, he and his wife, Charity Clarke, had their first child in 1687, meaning that they would both have been unmarried and only about 17 - again not impossible, but the christening record would normally have shown only the mother and contain a reference to the child being born out of wedlock. Another illegitimate child followed two years later, and then there was a 24 year gap before they finally married and had twins in 1713. This raises a warning flag that maybe some dates or people might not be correct. The couple than had three more children with a 6 year, 1 year and 1 year gap between them, meaning that they were in their early fifties by this time.
The 24 year gap between the children, Grace and George seems to be unusual, and I would suggest a little more investigation is needed, particularly in the light of the other issues.
If Thomas and his wife had been born a little nearer their christening dates, then the marriage and subsequent birth dates would seem to fit in a little better, so it might be worth checking.
Hope this helps a little, but feel free to get back to me if I can be of any further help.
Kind regards,
Barry
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I have done a little digging.
A Thomas Vincent married a Charity Baller in 1686 in Sherborne. So these must almost certainly be the parents of Charity and Grace.
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