I have always assumed that Agnes Mary, born April 1861 and registered in Stoke Damerel, was the illegitimate daughter of Mary Ann Bennett, the daughter of Mark & Priscilla Bennett of Nineteen Acres, Roborough. Agnes Mary is recorded in the 1871 & 1881 census with Mary Ann and her grandparents in Roborough.
Significantly, Mary Ann is recorded as visiting her brother Richard in Newton Tracy, nr. Barnstaple, in the 1861 census, just weeks before the birth of Agnes Mary. I haven't downloaded the GRO registration because the index indicates that there is no mother's name on the certificate. I have hunted for a baptismal record on FMP, Ancestry and Family Search without success. NB the latter shows the birth registered in Stoke on Trent instead of Stoke Damerel.
I would be extremely grateful for suggestions of alternative sources which could establish Agnes Mary's parentage.
The mothers full name and address will be on the certificate. You should then be able to find them in the 1871 census. As for the father Good Luck I've been looking for my grandfather's father for years to no avail.
Re: Agnes Mary Bennett
Posted by sally topliss on 25/11/2019, 11:34 am, in reply to "Agnes Mary Bennett"
I presume you have the marriage of Agnes Mary to John Hammett in 1883, Roborough. No father mentioned but four witnesses, three of them are Bennetts, William, Henry and one that could be M A Bennett.
Although no maiden surname is mentioned on the GRO Index, I would still obtain this certificate because I would have thought it must contain the mother's name, as she would surely be registering this birth.
I have now received the GRO birth registration for Agnes Mary. This records her birth in Stoke Damerel on 25th April 1861. Her mother was Priscilla Bennett, daughter of Mark & Priscilla Bennett and sister to Mary Ann Bennett. I was already aware that Priscilla was staying with her married sister Sarah and husband Frederick Blight in April 1961 and the birth is registered as having taken place at their residence. Significantly, Priscilla quotes her own address as the Redcoat School in Stepney, where her future husband James Blight was a master. Although James Blight already had a wife, Eliza and child, I suspect that he was the father of Agnes Mary. Priscilla was acting as house servant to the widowed James Please in 1871, when he had left the Redcoat School, and they married on 1st Feb. 1872 in St Dunstans and All Saints, Stepney. Priscilla became mother to James' daughter and they had 2 children themselves. However, none of the records show Agnes living with them. Agnes lived for at least 20 years with her aunt Mary Ann Bennett and grandparents Mark & Priscilla.
Pleased you have sorted it. I am a little confused, did Priscilla marry James blight or James Please? James Blight must have been her sisters brother in law, or a cousin of sisters husband.