Thank you, an interesting possibility - (and I learned a new occupation, not every smith is a blacksmith..)
The Liverpool link was just a verbal comment by an old relation, when many years ago I first came across this English connection. I should have enquired.
But several of the children of the only son the couple had, Master Engineer Samuel Hikins, were born in Lancashire, so that speaks for a connection. Though it seems no one has been named after Benjamin, Catharine or Edward.
May I also ask, in this forum, about the adress given for Joseph Hikin, circa 1800: Lambeth Street. There is Lambeth Road, of Bedlam and later War Museum fame, and there is Lambeth High Street, more or less leading up to the Arch-bishop's palace. But no Lambeth Street?
And if a couple are living in Lambeth, but choose St. Marys at Whitechapel for the christening, - seemingly not their parish church, - could that be because of grandparents in Aldgate, for instance?
