Hi Nigel,

Yes, I thought about that one too. It was one of the first ideas that came to me, that the old man objected to his son's girlfriend, and said "no way" so they had to wait until he died. There are two problems here. If the old man objected to the girlfriend after one baby, he would be climbing the wall by the time No 4 arrived, but he wasn't around in any case.

William Christian Senior of Ballakey was alive in 1813 when Eliza Cowle became a widow, but he was buried on 2 Aug 1815, four years before the first of the children. Just in case the mother might have had some way to disinherit the son William, so was the stumbling block, I checked her date of burial, which was 23 Jan 1828, which was two months AFTER her son married Eliza. It is hardly likely that she said no for years and then suddenly said "OK".

The father couldn't object and objections from the mother would seem unlikely even if possible.

There has to be an answer, but at present it is a puzzle.

Robert