Death of Edward Piper Sussex

[clr56]

Edward Piper married Lucy Ransome at St Laurence, Catsfield 1st Dec 1818. Lucy had two children Joseph Stephen Piper, Catsfield, Baptised 18 Jan 1824 and Mehali Piper, Catsfield Baptised 7 Oct 1824, both with no father listed. Lucy as widow then marries Richard Smith, Hollington 10 July 1827. I have been unable to establish when Edward died as both Joseph and Mehali were raised having the surname Smith. Is anyone able to help me find Edwards death date please?
Thanks
Chris

[Roy G]

I cannot believe that a a small place like Catasfield had 3 or more LUCY Pipers, so you have some other problems.   
The SFHG list of St Lawrence, Catsfield baptisms also show the baptisms of:
George Piper son of George (a labourer) & LUCY 2/5/1819 (info Henry John Park, the Crowhust Curate) and Elizabeth Ann Piper son of John (a laboureer) & LUCY 15/4/1821.

As these are seqential to the base born births you have to a Lucy Piper, are they all births to the same Lucy but with different partners?, (or was her husband Edward also known as George and John) or is it just some bad record keeping in the Catsfield registers?
Alternatively, could  either of your two 1824 findings with less than 9 months between them, be baseborn births to another Lucy Piper who just happened to also be living in Catsfield?

Lastly, rather than a death, were there any male Pipers from the Catsfield area sent to Australia as transportees?  (there was a Simon Piper in 1820, but I do not know where in Sussex he came from)
As I wrote, "You have some problems to sort?"
Roy G

[clr56]

Thanks you for your reply Roy

I had not considered that Edward might also have been known as George or John or that he may have been a convict. Will look for that.

Someone in the family has a list of births taken from what must be Lucy's Bible with the first two children being George Piper born 27 Feb 1812 and Elizabeth Piper born 26 Feb 1821.

The births of Lucy's two children were actually more than 12 months apart, I made a typo sorry, with Mehali's birth. It should have read 1825.

I do feel I have the right mother Lucy as her second husband Richard Smith brought three children with him to Australia in 1839 after Lucy had died in 1837.

The children were Joseph Stephen, Mahala and James, all with the surname Smith. The family have always been aware that Lucy Piper nee Ransome was their mother. We were not aware that Joseph and Mahala were born with the surname Piper. Another family member has just made us aware of these Baptisms.

As I descend from Joseph, I am now confused as to whether I am a Piper or a Smith?
With thanks
Chris

[Roy G]

I should have spotted your typo, but the name was so unusual I just accepted the date rather than verifing it properly. 
The bible presumably gave birth dates not baptisms, and the '1812' rather than an 1819 in it could be a simple handwriting transcription error.   Was Lucy litterate in her early years?

I can certainly understand the importance of verifying when Mr. ' Piper' dissappeared from the scene, for your entire paternal ancestral line from there on back hinges on that one discovery.  Probability suggests that Mr Smith took his children to OZ, but not those from his spouse' previous husband.  If they survived infancy, the half siblings, George and Elizabeth may have remained in the care of other Piper relatives.
Hopefully some locally based Rootschatter will pick this up and have the resources to put a bit more meat on the basic bones of this interesting dilemour.
Roy G