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Hi Pat,
Regarding Mary Jane Loates. As she was about 4 when orphaned I would assume she went to the nearest Poor Law Union ('workhouse'). They apparently didn't bother chasing up possible relatves in those days. (I have a similar thing in my family - an 11 year-old orphan was packed off to Canada despite having siblings, uncles, aunts, grandparents et al).
In a workhouse she would have been given various tasks from an early age and by the time she was a teenager she would have made an ideal housekeeper, lady's maid, etc. If she was hired by a good family she may have travelled overseas with them, especially if the master was a firebrand Anglican parson intent on converting the pagan world !!!
If she was a resourceful girl sha may have gone overseas by herself. (Again in my family I have an Eliza Loates who was last heard of as a 15 year-old teacher in 1851. She finally turned up in the US 1880 census).
Did she drop the 'Mary' and use 'Jane' as her given name?
Was it changed 'accidently'? (Getting back to my lot, when a birth was registered in Kent either the registrar was hard of hearing or the informant's speech was adrift because Loates became Loakes, a name which he and his  children retained.
Also, in Cambridgeshire there is a case of mis- translation. A family called Toates has been recorded as Loates. Checking the original , a Victorian longhand ' T' hs been transcribed as an 'L'.

These are just a few alternatives you can try

Be lucky

Andy Loates

All the early Loates families in Melbourn were recorded without the 'e'. Parish registers at Melbourn are very concise about this. When young Thomas Loats emigtrated to Australia he appeared on the ships passenger list as 'Looks' but retained 'Loats' when he arrived. Consequently all those in Victoria State were 'Loats', a spelling tjhat survives to this day I believe. Being a Loates I have studied the Loates families in Cambridgeshire and have found over 20 variants, with Lofts and Loughts being the most common. Of course, there was Archer Bell Loates who being slow of speech had his name written as Archer B

A. Loates

Cambridgeshire

6) Broken headstone (Adams Moule) (1806)

7) Illegible headstone (Moule)

Sacred To The Memory Of Stephen Moule (remainder illegible)

1-8 in one family group.

9) In Memory Of Susannah the daughter of Joseph and Mary Moule d. 23 Nov
     1787 aged 57
   
10) In Memory Of Stephen Moule son of Joseph and Mary Moule d. 11 June
      1769 aged 11
      Also Joseph the (son) of Joseph and Mary Moule (remainder illegible)

Judy.
I see what you mean!!
There is a chance he was never baptised/christened and births are only registered after Jul 1 1837. Also if his parents were 'dissenters' i.e Methodists, Wesleyans, Anabaptists etc. his christening may be tucked away and not yet published online. Have you checked the passenger lists for poms? There is a good Oz site for this. Look out for variations. Those who compiled the passenger lists were not fussy. I had trouble finding a Loates that went out there. He turned up listed as Looks !! But again, how many variations of Watson could you get? Going deeper, he may not have been a Watson. If he was a boy convict and smart kid he could have given a wrong name from the outset.

I'll keep digging this end.

Hi Judy
You have the wrong Barnwell. Judging by your info. you need the Barnwell in Northamptonshire. Google 'Barnwell Northants' and see what comes up. I've been onto famiilysearch.org (IGI) but at the moment they are having a sort-out on their site. You mention Brampton also. An ancient shire over a 1000 years old but politics wiped it off the map when it was amalgamated with Cambridgeshire in 1974. Bramptonm and Barnwell would no have been far apart. I'll fish around some to see what turns up.    Be lucky    Andy Loates