I found the 1901 census entry for James William Howell, husband of Margaret Jane Harper, in which he stated that he was born in Upton, Worcestershire.

The Costain building company was set up in the 1860s by Richard Costain b 1838 Arbory IOM, who was an only child. His mother, Elizabeth nee Redhead b 1816 Arbory IOM, almost certainly lived all her life on the island (she was there with her husband in all the censuses, apart from 1871 when husband Richard was away at sea) and if she did go over to the mainland, it would probably have been to visit her son's family in Liverpool from the 1860s onwards. I find it highly implausible that she ever would have travelled as far afield as Worcestershire, and even more implausible that she'd have conceived a child out of wedlock. I'd hazard a guess that she would have been a strict adherent of the Methodist religion.

I can think of no other Elizabeth Costain closely related to this "Costain the Builders" family who'd have been of childbearing age in the mid 1850s.

A tree on Ancestry states that James William Howell's father's name was James Shipway and that James Wm Howell's age was 27 when he married Jane Harper in 1882 in West Malvern.

Jean C