Oh my goodness, I nipped out to the shop and have come home to all this brilliant information.
The theatrical listing is ringing bells in my brain, i have heard the name Durant before so i need to go and check my notes.
There is no evidence that the parents were actually there at the baptism. It's a complex family, Jane married George Richard Matthews in 1861, Jane already had a baby with no listed father. In 1961 they were living with her family (now with the surname Fish) in Topsham but by 1871 he was in the military and after that I have no idea until I found his death record in Bridgend in 1895. Their son Thomas Leonard was born in 1875 fifteen years into their marriage (your facts are correct Milliepede) and after he left with the army but there are always times when he would have been back on leave. The 1911 census said that Jane and her next partner John Rice married in 1879 and they had a son called John Albert Rice Matthews in 1881. In 1882 they got married in Plymouth and then in 1895 when her first husband died they married again, also in Plymouth. Because that wasn't complicated enough in the 1891 census Jane was living with her son John Rice (they dropped his surname of Matthews) but John Rice senior was living in a different house with Jane's son Thomas!
I have just seen your 'sister' post - that's looks brilliant, especially as one of the witnesses is a Follett - a big name in Topsham
Thank you
