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Yes, I have come to the conclusion that Mary Ann Hobbs, daughter of William and Sarah was a single Mother and maybe Charles' father was a watchmaker, just not Henry Edward Hobbs. Who knows who Arthur's father was.
I have followed her, and her parents,  through the census records and there was never any sign of husbands or even permanent partners.
Charles James married my Grandmother, Caroline Clarke, and died in a home for alcoholics. Arthur married Bertha Blyther and severed all contact with his brother.
BTW 1842 was a suggestion from a tree on Ancestry, fantasy I believe.
Search ended I believe.
Thank you all.

Excellent, even better. I can probably eliminate him altogether and save the GBP7. I am working on the assumption that our Henry is actually fictitious to make his son's marriage certificate look better (he certainly doesn't appear on the birth certificate) and Henry in the asylum was the last possible candidate to eliminate.
Cheers and thank you.

Wow! Only one entry. Thanks for that, I wasn't sure which district to look for but only one cert. at $20 delivered is good value. In Queensland it's $30 without delivery and takes forever

A while ago there was a discussion about the Hanwell Asylum records and a member called Tony (sorry I can't remember your user name) had some useful information about the contents of the records.
I think my Great Grandfather was admitted 24th January 1861 and died there 23rd December 1862. The Asylum doesn't seem to be recorded in the 1861 census, at least I couldn't find it.
My question is, would the admission record show the patient's occupation? If so I can either rule him out or apply to the LMA.
Henry Hobbs is a fairly common name and I don't want to order multiple certificates from the GRO if I can rule this guy out straight away. Our Henry Edward Hobbs was, according to his son's birth and marriage certificate, a watchmaker.
I don't have any relatives left in the UK to do lookups so I would be grateful for any information you lovely people can provide.
Cheers, Gwyn

Thank you for your message Christine,
I think my John Thomas was working for Ebenezer in a very humble capacity but its lovely to hear of the connection. At the very beginning of this quest some years ago I was contacted by a lady whose husband, a doctor,  had his general practice on what was Black Birds Nest. Its a very small world.

According to the census records JT was born at Peterstone and, since he put the same place in each one, there is no reason to doubt that. In 1861 he was working at the Coach & Horses, Marshfield which is still there and I have a photo of it. Maybe he didn't share the Baptist views of the Williams family?
JT never remarried after Elizabeth died and appears to have brought John Jnr up himself as no other family member is mentioned in any census. I can't even tell when either of them died as there are just too many John and Elizabeth Thomas' in the GRO death records to order them all.
Another corespondent said that although she had looked at what graves there are in the area John didn't seem to be there. I doubt if he would have had a headstone anyway.

GerryP found a marriage (1837) that could be relevant if Elizabeth was Elizabeth Jones. There is a Cecelia Jones (aged 60) at Michaelstone in the 1841 census who may have been the witness and maybe Elizabeth's mum. I can't yet find an Elizabeth born to (Thomas and) Cecelia (millions of spelling variations) but I'll keep looking.

Cheers, Gwyn