Wow, thank you. I hadn't come across the Ipswitch info before, but will research it further, just in case I have been going down the wrong path.......
All the details I have so far is William Webb born 1852 Ware.
He was my Great Grandfather and was married (although I have been unable to find any record of the marriage) to Alice Elizabeth Scrace in Tonbridge Kent.
In my Grandmother's birthday book, she had his birthday down as 18th April 1852. On all the census records I have for him from 1881 onwards he gives his birth as 1852 in Ware Hertfordshire. That is the only definate info I have for him.
All my research has turned up is the William born illigitimately to Emma Webb in May 1852, but I am struggling to confirm this is the right William.
If it is Emma may have been the daughter of William Webb and Mary Pearce of Great Amwell. Father William died in 1849 and Mother Mary remarried a much younger man John Jeffries in 1850.
It looks like this Emma married a Henry Derby in Dec 1852. On the 1861 census she is listed with him in Hoddesden with their children, one of which was William DERBY, born 1852, but I can find no record of a William DERBY born then, so am wondering if this is really William Webb
I can then find a William Webb born in Ware on the 1871 census living with Emma's widowed sister, Mary Webb (MMN Cakebread) in Poplar London.
By 1881 he was married(?) to Alice Scrace and living in Tonbridge, where he remained for the rest of his life.
