Richard, Thank you for this. I had come to a dead end.
The John Burbidge baptised in 1783 seems to have been buried in Barnack in 23 Aug 1788, but his parents John and Alice baptised another John on 4 Aug 1793.
This 1793 John must surely have been the widower who married Elizabeth Smith, spinster, on 17 Jan 1826, and also the butcher who was father of her son John Burbidge born on 9 Feb 1823.
The most likely previously deceased wife of the butcher seems to be the Ann buried on 6 Jan 1822, aged 32, and. also speculatively, she may have been the Ann Lumby who married a John Burbidge, whose mother is named as Alice, at Stamford on 3 Aug 1813.
John son of John and ELizabeth appears in the 1841 census as a Carpenter aged 18, living in Barnack but not with his parents; in 1851, still a carpenter, he is with his wife Jane (born in Stamford) and two sons in Spalding. He had married Jane Shivers in Thorney in 1847, and the marriage certificate states that John's father was dead.
So it seems that the John Burbidge you discovered to have been buried on 14 Jan 1832 aged 39 must be the butcher. Since the John Burbidge I am seeking was alive in 1861, you have found the final piece of the puzzle which convinces me that the Barnack butcher is not the man I am looking for.
If you are interested in these Burbidges I have a certain amount more information which I could pass on. Meanwhile, I am very grateful for your help.