William and Ellen Charlesworth.

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Ardsley Church in Darfield. May 11th or May 16th 1848. Name:William Charlesworth and Ellen Riley. Both full age.  Widower and Spinster.  William's job: Miner. Both from Ardsley. Only father shown: Bernard Riley, who was a Weaver. Both signed with Xs Witness George Pickering signed his name, Caroline Walton put x

[trish1120]

As no Father is named on the 1848 M/C then I think William was the illeg Son of Ann Charlesworth.

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I wonder about this other baptism that said 'illegitimate son of Ann Charlesworth late Senior, widow of illegible', I wonder if her maiden name was Senior or Charlesworth, she obviously was Charlesworth at the time of giving birth to William.  I suppose Senior could be a made up name, but she obviously had told them that William was not of the previous 'marriage'.  I am not sure if there were two Ann Charlesworths in the area who gave birth to two William Charlesworths in the same year, or the same Ann had William baptised twice.  One was C of E, one was non-conformist, did C of E get at her, and tell her the baptism wasn't valid, or something.  Could make up theories forever.

[trish1120]

A JOSHUA Charlesworth married Anne SENIOR 26 December 1803, Darton, York

As William C was christened 04 March 1804, Darton time frame seems tight

What is the date on this Bapt ? "llegitimate son of Ann Charlesworth late Senior, widow of illegible"

[paperwork]

Baptism 1: 04 Mar 1804: Wm illegitimate son Ann Charlesworth late Ann Senior, Widow of
Baptism 2: 12 Aug 1804: William Son of Ann Charlesworth, born 20 July 1804.  (No mention of Senior.)
These are both copperplate handwritten, squashed up, and things from line above and below might be for the actual line, for instance, on Baptism 1, illegitimate might be for the line above and not for Wm, but I doubt it.

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Most first babies were conceived well before marriage, at least in the families I have looked at, My own grandmother was married in July had her first child in October that year.  So if you have a date of marriage of Ann Senior marrying Joshua Charlesworth and her having a baby 3 months later, I think that would be pretty normal.   Perhaps the curate thought it was a lie and wrote illegitimate on the book, or perhaps it was for the previous entry.  Ann couldn't read so wouldn't know what he had written.  But not sure if this Ann Senior is our ancestor if there were two Ann Charlesworths, because father isn't mentioned on that M cert.  It would be interesting to find a burial date for Joshua C.  I'm just thinking, perhaps as Wm had never known his father, he might just have said that he had never had a father, instead of saying his father was dead.  The person writing it down could only go by what they were told.  Still a question mark about this I think.   

[paperwork]

Ha ha, I just found that Ellen Riley's sister, Mary Ann, also got married on the same day as Ellen and William Charlesworth.  Now I know that marriage was definitely 16th May 1848.  Same place, I guess it was a double wedding.  So pleased to find a little bit of joy in their hard lives.