Baptism of Edgar Spooner, circa 1815

[jbml]

You wonderful people have given me so much help with Michael Spooner - but I just wonder if I can trespass on your goodwill a little further in relation to his son Edgar. I am a bit reticent asking this, however, because all of the census entries I have for Edgar suggest that he was born in London. Nevertheless, the searchable online databases have no record of an Edgar Spooner baptized in London or Middlesex in about 1815; which makes me wonder whether he mightn't have been born in Colchester which is (we have established) where the his father came from.

Known facts:

Grandparents were Joseph Spooner and Mary [Knopp] Spooner, married by licence (Jospeh being a widower) in 1783.

Father was Michael Thomas Spooner, born 27 September 1785, baptized St Mary at the Walls, Colchester 11 November 1785.

I have not been able to identify a marriage for Michael Spooner using online search tools - I therefore presume that this too may have been in Colchester (or at least in Essex); and I therefore do not have his wife's name.

Edgar is said to have been 24 years old in the 1841 census; 38 years old in the 1851 census; is missing from the 1861 census (or at least, he has eluded my search efforts so far); is said to be 58 in the 1871 census and 68 in the 1881 census. A birth date of about 1815 therefore looks likely, and he is probably not the first child of the marriage.

The missing pieces to the jigsaw, therefore, which I hope will be found in the Colchester parish records, are:-

1. The marriage of Michael Spooner (probably about 1810)
2. The baptism of Edgar Spooner (probably about 1815) and
3. Baptisms of any siblings

I am now building up a sufficient number of Essex enquiries that a trip to ERO is starting to look like a decidedly attractive proposition - so I can certainly live without the answers for the time being. But if there is anyone with access to Essex records who's like to do a lookup for me and put me out of my misery here, I should be most grateful nonetheless.

[essexbird2004]

Hi

I have looked at:-
St Mary at the walls bapt. 1812-1820 = no Spooners
St Runwald bapt. 1813-1822 = no Spooners
St Peter bapt. 1813-1821 = no Spooners
St Nicholas bapt. 1813-1822 = no Spooners
St Michael, Mile End (Myland) bapt. 1813-1821 = no Spooners
St Mary Magdalen bapt. 1813-1821 = no Spooners
St Martin bapt. 1813-1821 = no Spooners
St Margaret with St Michael, BERECHURCH bapt. 1813-1826 = no Spooners
St Leonard, Lexden bapt. 1813-1821 = no Spooners

[jbml]

Wow! Thank you, essexbird ... that's a lot of searching. My misery continues ... but the range of possibilities is narrowing all the time. 

[essexbird2004]

Also checked
St Leonard bapt. 1813-1821 = no Spooners
St James bapt. 1813-1822 = no Spooners
St Giles bapt. 1813-1822 = no Spooners

All Saints (Includes parishioners of Colchester, St Botolph, to 1837.) bapt. 1813-1821
16/09/1820 Harriet daughter of John Rudland (Baker) & Maria Spooner

GREENSTEAD-JUXTA-COLCHESTER, ST. ANDREW bapt. 1813-1822 = no Spooners
Holy Trinity bapt. 1813-1822 = no Spooners

[jonwarrn]

In 1851 Michael Spooner the tailor said he was unmarried.
Have you got his death certificate? If so, who was the informant.

If Edgar Spooner is 38, 58, 68 on the 1851,71,81 census returns, that suggests a birth year around 1813. There is an "Edgar", not a common name then, baptized 4 April 1813, St Botolph Bishopsgate. Absolutely no other details, says went away without being registered.

He later used the name King. Whatever the reason, could that have been his mother's name? Perhaps she wasn't married to his father, who presumably was Michael Spooner.

If Edgar's birth is proving elusive, what about his death, when was that?
John

[lizdb]

because all of the census entries I have for Edgar suggest that he was born in London. Nevertheless, the searchable online databases have no record of an Edgar Spooner baptized in London or Middlesex in about 1815;

Not all "London" parishes are online, though.

[jbml]

If Edgar Spooner is 38, 58, 68 on the 1851,71,81 census returns, that suggests a birth year around 1813.

If that was all there was, I agree.

But in 1841 his age is said to be 24, and in cases of discrepancy I always give greater weight to the evidence of an earlier census to a later (because vagueness increases over time). Ages in 1841 OUGHT to have been rounded down - but this one hasn't been. We can therefore be confident that in 1842 he THOUGHT he was 24 ... implying a birth year of around 1817.

I have taken the later census evidence into account in blurring this to "about 1815"

[jbml]

If Edgar's birth is proving elusive, what about his death, when was that?
John

Good question!

The last confirmed sighting of him is in the 1881 census: Edgar King, 68 year old widower, occupation Tailor, said to have been born in the City of London, living at 5 Fanshaw Street, Shoreditch with his 8 year old son by his third marriage John King. (London, Middlesex; Shoreditch RG11 Piece 394 Folio 113 page 56.) He assumed the name King after his wife abandoned him in 1860, presumably to conceal the fact that his third marriage - in 1863 - was almost certainly bigamous.

I do not have a death for him, but he was definitely dead by 30 October 1907, when his son (originally Thomas Escott Scott Spooner, but now calling himself Thomas King Spooner) remarried at the age of 50. The groom’s father is recorded on the marriage certificate as Edgar King Spooner (deceased) .

[jbml]

In 1851 Michael Spooner the tailor said he was unmarried.
Have you got his death certificate? If so, who was the informant.

Michael Spooner died in 1853. I have not yet obtained the death certificate, but it is beginning to look like a sensible acquisition.