Joseph Mercer b. 1754 Treeton & Thomas Mercer b. c1778 Treeton

[AR.Usher]

I'm trying to find the marriage for Joseph Mercer b. 1754 and Elizabeth. They have about 9 children with the first being baptized in 1778.

I have Thomas Mercer, who I believe is the son of Joseph and Elizabeth because of the fact Joseph and Elizabeth had a son named Barnabas and later Thomas names his son Barnabas. All these events occurred in Treeton.

This makes me wonder if Thomas was born out of marriage and baptized under his alleged mother's maiden name.

[MollyC]

In FindMyPast Nottinghamshire Marriages there is a transcript of a BT of a marriage by licence at Colwick 27 Jan 1779, Joseph Mercer to Elizabeth Horsley, both of Treeton in West Riding.  This is Free to View at present.
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=GBPRS%2FNOTTINGHAMSHIRE%2FMAR%2F000019369%2F1&tab=this

ADDED: Colwick is near Nottingham, so it looks as if they went to the far end of the next county for the marriage.

[LizzieL]

Maybe Elizabeth was from Colwick originally
There is a baptism of an Eliz Horsley in Colwick on 28 Sep 1755 d/o James, no mother recorded

[ciderdrinker]

Hi
A bit of a way away but
Thomas Horsley s of Elizabeth 25.3.1777 at Norton East Yorkshire.
ps the marriage is also transcribed as 1778

Ciderdrinker

[AR.Usher]

Thank you! Guess my hunch was right.

Makes me wonder how they met. As far as I know Joseph, his father, and almost every single one of his sons were Masons. Maybe they met in Norton but she wanted to be married in her hometown.

[MollyC]

You may be interested there is a blog named The Language of Stone written by a geologist and building stone expert who lives in Treeton, so he has explored that local area extensively.  See

https://thelanguageofstone.blogspot.com/2021/10/an-investigation-of-treeton-rock_5.html

There are also a number of items in Nov 2020, Sep 2021 no 3,  and others.

[trish1120]

Brides often married in their hometown

[LizzieL]

Maybe Elizabeth was from Colwick originally
There is a baptism of an Eliz Horsley in Colwick on 28 Sep 1755 d/o James, no mother recorded

Just found another transcript of same event. It names mother as Ann.
There is a marriage in Nottingham for a James  to an Ann Birch in 1753, which is a possibility

[LizzieL]

ps the marriage is also transcribed as 1778

Ciderdrinker

The marriage is in January, maybe the transcriber missed the year change if it happened part way down a page in the register. I have seen 1778 on three transcriptions on FindMyPast. Two acknowledge familySearch, so actually from same source. The third acknowledges the Nottinghamshire FHS. But who knows, maybe FS actually used their transcription. The one that says 1779 references the BT, so would be copied from the PR not too long after the event. Sight of the licence image would settle it. If the marriage was really Jan 1778, then the Thomas baptised in Norton in March 1778 would be to a different Elizabeth H