Thanks for your input everyone! Josey, I also wondered about the accent being to blame. After all, if you say Kelvedon to someone (e.g. an enumerator) who isn't familiar with your accent, quickly, and without putting any emphasis on the "v", it would sound like "Kelden." One woman who married into the Reynolds family was born in Brixham, and her place of birth has been rendered as "Brisham" by the enumerator on at least one occasion. Ideally, I need to be sure as I possibly can that there isn't an actual place called Kelden, so I don't go making wild and inaccurate statements about his place of birth in my family tree!
The fact that Thomas moved about a great deal with his job also makes it difficult to be sure of his origins. His wife, Mary Ann, was born in Great Bromley, Essex, but may well have met him in London while he was there with his employers. As far as I can work out, the couple had three sons: William and Daniel were born in Worksop, Notts, and a note on William's May 1815 baptism says "menial servant at Osberton." A little research revealed that Osberton Hall in Worksop was owned by a landed family called the Foljambes, so it looks very much as if they were Thomas's employers from 1815 to circa 1819, Daniel's approximate birth year. The third son was baptised in Tissington in Oct 1822, but I found an earlier Tissington baptism for a child of theirs dated June 1820 (another Thomas) who presumably died. This means I can roughly date Thomas senior's employment with the FitzHerberts from 1820, but as I said before, I have no idea where he and Mary Ann met or married, or if they had other children prior to 1815.
