Slafham, Sussex?

[IgorStrav]

Thank you Roy, yes, that is the woman I am trying to find in the 1851, via the indirect method of checking where Peter Lowder was just to see if she's anywhere close.

At present I can't find Peter other than in the 1861 (although his father is shown there as James, and may be the one whose marriage you found in Balcombe).

The Scavenger hunt link will show you the scale of the brick wall that Royd and I are trying to knock down.   

[coombs]

Yes it is Slaugham itself which consists of 4 parishes, Slaugham, Warninglid, Handcross and Pease Pottage. Slaugham was the main parish. Many of my ancestors came from this parish.

[Roy G]

Seen the number of pages on your search and decided not to read every entry.  May be able to help if you put an aproximate birth year and/or birth place on Sarah Cooley or whatever you think her name was.
Roy G

[IgorStrav]

Sarah Cooley was christened in 1837 in Seal, Kent, the daughter of Jane Cooley, traveller.

However, Jane Cooley (1821, Chertsey) married or lived with Richard Cork (1812, Stone, Kent), and there were a number of children, including Richard jnr (1840), Jane (1842 Ightham), possibly Daniel (1845), James (1848 Reigate), Stephen (1851 Wisley), all of whom were baptised Cork.

So Sarah in 1851 might have been called either Cork or Cooley.

Any assistance most gratefully received.

 

[Roy G]

Forgive me but my rather basic logic of 19th century morality SUGGESTS if all her siblings were baptised Cork and she was born before them with the surname Cooley, her mother had yet to marry.  Has anyone looked at the settelment orders or bastardy returns? 
Roy G

[IgorStrav]

Sarah was born in 1837, so she was ahead of the other children. 

So I have theorised that possibly her mother had a child ahead of meeting Richard Cork, with whom she had her other children.

Sarah Cooley married twice.  She was married to Peter Lowder (as you said), and on this marriage her father's name was blank.  When he died, she remarried to James Dalton, and on that certificate her father is shown as Richard Cork.

Perhaps he was her father, or perhaps he was her stepfather.

[Roy G]

Realised that immediately after I sent the message, but you responded before my modified amendment to my last text was posted.  The main point I made was Has anyone looked at the settelment orders or bastardy returns for Seale?

Roy G

[IgorStrav]

No, haven't looked at the Seal settlement returns or bastardy settlements.

[Roy G]

I now gather from what you have written that your main aim is to establish who was your Sarah's father. 

The 1841 census for Igtham and 1851 census for Wisley should give you the name of who her mother and half or full siblings were living with, but not whether he actually was her father.
Her birth in 1837 was prior to certification, but could have taken place in a parish workhouse so perhaps there is something in the local workhouse minutes.
Apart from a possibility of a Bastardy order therefore, the only other way of establishing the PROBABILITY of Richard being Sarah's father is the closeness to her birth of her mother's marriage to her partner if she actually married him.

I have noted that there was a CORKE family living in Seal around the time Sarah was born.  What's Richard's ancestry, was he part of that family?
Roy G