Hi Frances - thanks for this - it's all really useful stuff but, of course, disappointing that there's no mention of a relationship between the two Johns (senior and junior) and William. In your experience of these records, would you expect it to be mentioned if there was a relationship? In other words, is it safe to assume that there isn't a relationship between them?

Thanks for the lead on John senior's second marriage to Jane Collins or Collings. They married at Braddan on 4 October 1845 and Jane seems to have ended up living in poverty in Ramsey. She's described in the 1861 census as a 'Mendicant' - i.e. a beggar; she died just three years later.

John Howland junior was one of the witnesses at the 1845 marriage of his father and he was also a witness at my William's marriage in 1835 - the signatures are unmistakably the same - which is why I suspected that they might be brothers. If William isn't the son of John senior then I'm back to square one...