John Cowtley and Mary Pateman

John Cowtley, bachelor, married Mary Pateman spinster, daughter of Thomas Pateman, at the church of St James Duke's Place, Aldgate, City of London on 18 Nov 1691.

Apparently, this tiny little parish church was a very popular place to get wed during the 17th century. Some 40,000 marriages were recorded as having taken place here between 1644 and 1691. Described a "Aldgate’s own version of Gretna Green", it was famous for performing irregular marriages. It's clear that St Dunstan's, Stepney was their home parish, so it's perhaps reasonable to surmise that John and Mary's marriage in this parish was one of the irregular ones, for some reason (that the records don't explain). 

John and Mary had two daughters, both baptised at St Dunstan's:

1. Susanna Cowtley b. 24 Aug 1862, bap. 28 Aug 1692
2. Elizabeth Cowtley bap. 4 Oct 1696, in Stepney

On Susanna's baptism, it notes that the child was 4 days old; that the family lived in Ratcliffe and gives John's occupation as a Brewer's Servant.

Found no further records of John or Mary Cowtley nor of their deaths.

Richard Benbow and Elizabeth Cowtley

St Dunstan & All Saints, Stepney
cc-by-sa/2.0 - © John Salmon - geograph.org.uk/p/3477077
This beautiful church is often spoken of as the Mother Church of the East End. It is, of course, one of the 'Oranges and Lemons' churches, ("When will that be/ Said the bells of Stepney").

Richard Benbow of Ratt. (Ratcliff), Bricklayer, and Elizabeth Cowtley, a pair of my 7th Great-Grandparents, married on 18 Sep 1714 at the parish church of St Dunstan's, Stepney. Elizabeth Cowtley, daughter of John Cowtley and Mary Pateman, was said to be 21, but her baptism in 1696, would suggest that she was a minor, at only around 18, at the time of her marriage.

Less than six months later, on 4 Mar 1715, under Burials in the Parish of Stepney, we find listed the burial of Richard Benbow, Ratt, Bricklayer.

Their only child Elizabeth Benbow, was born in 1715 - one imagines posthumously - and baptised on 5 Aug 1716 at St Dunstan's, Stepney, listed as Elizabeth [daughter] of Richard and Elizabeth Benbow, Ratt, Bricklayer.

I've found no further records for Elizabeth Benbow (née Cowtley), so I cannot [yet] say what happened to her or whether perhaps she remarried.

Richard Benbow's age was listed as 24 at the time of his marriage in 1714, which would take his birth to 1690 and that could be an approximation. It is reputed that his father was John Benbow and suggested that his baptism was that on 7 Nov 1693, at St Paul's, Deptford, which thus makes him the son of then Captain John Benbow. If true, it would make the infamous Admiral my 8x Great-Grandfather.