Edward Lazell mystery man

[queencorgi1]

I am wondering whether this should have been posted under Middlesex, but you will appreciate the dilemma!
Edward Lazell was (according to the various dates he gave in censuses) born in 1791, 1792, 1796, or 1797, and gave his birthplace variously as St John's Hackney, or Bethnal Green. (St John's, interestingly, was in process of being built between 1791 and 1797.) No evidence of a birth/baptism in either place. He first married in Runwell, Essex, in 1815, when his parish was given as Wickford. He and his wife Susannah had five children in Wickford, all registered in the Independent nonconformist register. Between 1828 and 1835 they had four more at North Benfleet (poor woman) and she died in 1835. Edward married again the same year and he and his second wife Maria went on to have further children, all born at North Benfleet. He died in 1879 and is buried at North Benfleet. There are a fair few Lazells in Essex (see other threads) but I can't link them with Edward.
I have come across a situation before where someone gave two different parishes for his birthplace in different censuses, and in that case the individual turned out to be illegitimate. His mother lived in one and I eventually found him listed in that as her illegitimate child under her name, but his father evidently paid for his upkeep and he was brought up in the 'paternal' parish, later adopting his father's surname. However, I haven't found anything which would indicate this to be the solution in Edward's case.
Has anyone any suggestions? I feel that the fact that he was a nonconformist might be significant, but without any real reason for this ...

[suffolk*sue]

Not much help, but one of the witnesses at the Runwell marriage was a John Layzell.

[queencorgi1]

Hi Sue, and yes, I have tried to make some use of him (John) without success! Thank you for your reply, however.

[clairec666]

Have you tried searching for different spellings? There's a Layzell family in my tree, and at different points in history it is also spelled as LAZELL and LAZZELL, and there are probably even more variations!

[queencorgi1]

Yes indeed, and that too has not worked! Thank you for your comment.

[Vance Mead]

Have you looked at wills? There are these at Chelmsford:

Thomas LAZELL of Basildon, yeoman 1784
Hannah LAYZEL of Terling, spinster 1802
Judy LAZELL of Hatfield Peverel, widow 1839
Thomas LAZELL of Sible Hedingham, cordwainer 1846

[Vance Mead]

There are also these PCC wills at the National Archives:

Mary Lazell, of Felsted, Essex, widow, 1771
Sarah Layzell, of Paul Street Finsbury, Middx, widow, 1844

[queencorgi1]

Thank you, Vance! Lazell definitely seems to be an Essex name and there are squads (nearly put squids) of them about. However, I can't tie any of them definitely to Edward at present and I am only doing this investigation as a brief exercise. I will however pass these references on to my friend. Many thanks.

[Human51]

Edward Lazell was the son of Samuel Archer, farmer of Wickford (and later Basildon) and Martha Lazell of East Horndon, Essex. Samuel Archer and Martha Lazell married at Bethnal Green, Middlesex on 5 December 1799. Samuel's wife Sarah died in August 1799.  Samuel and Martha had 3 sons (John, William and Edward) and a daughter (Esther) between 1787 and 1799 and 4 children post-marriage. No baptisms found for William, Edward or Esther but John Lazell was baptised 1787 at Basildon, son of Martha Lazell.
The evidence for this comes from Samuel Archer's Will dated 27 March 1813 (he died in 1814) in which he names all of his children. Samuel Archer was a friend of Martha Lazell's father Thomas Lazell and was his executor.
Happy to help further as I understand that several people have been seeking this info for many years.