Hello
I have just been doing some more research into weddings at St Nicholas in Brighton, and something caught my eye which is a bit weird.
I have two weddings during the same year in totally unconnected (at that time) branches of my tree, but at both weddings there is a Thomas Pocock appearing as a witness. One wedding was in May 1826 and the other in November 1826.
It could just be a concidence of name (IGI has at least 5 of them as adults in Brighton at the time), or a massive coincidence that two parts of my family which would not come together for another 120 years should have the same friend, but I was wondering if this Thomas Pocock may have been someone who was a paid witness. Did churches have people who would be on hand for such occasions? And has anyone else got a marriage with this chap witnessing at roughly the same time?
The only thing that even got me thinking about this was that I have just uncovered yet another wedding on another side of the family, five years later which had a John Pocock as a witness, although this may not be too difficult to explain, as the offspring from one of the weddings above eventually married the offspring of this union, so the two families may have know each other.
Glen
