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| St Mary Ashwell - Chancel cc-by-sa/2.0 - © John Salmon - geograph.org.uk/p/2474397 |
Stephen Wilton (bap. 25 Dec 1777), Bachelor, son of Richard Wilton and Mary Robinson, married Elizabeth Hankin (bap. 28 Aug 1777), Spinster, daughter of Robert Hankin and Elizabeth Edwards, both 'of the parish', at St Mary the Virgin, Ashwell, Hertfordshire on 24 Mar 1803. Both appear to have signed their own names. One of the witnesses was an Elizabeth Abbot.
They had nine children, the first five baptised in Royston, Hertfordshire:
- Mary Wilton b. 1804, bap. 25 Feb 1807
- Elizabeth Wilton b. 1805, bap. 25 Feb 1807
- Martha Wilton b. 25 Feb 1807
- Henry Wilton bap. 15 Jan 1809
- Richard Wilton bap. 20 Mar 1811
- Joseph Wilton b. 1815
- Ann Wilton b. ~1817
- Sarah Wilton b. 1819
- Ellen Wilton b. 1819
One assumes that at some point between 1811 and 1815 they had begun to worship at a Non-Conformist church or meeting (as did their children later in Royston and in Great Dunmow), one that does not practice baptism.
In 1792, at the age of 15, Stephen Wilton had been apprenticed to William Haggis in Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire, as a Collarmaker.
Stephen Wilton died, at 62, in 1839 in Royston.
In 1841, Elizabeth Wilton (60) was living at Lewers Cottages, Royston with Ellen Wilton (22), Ann Wilton (20) (it looks very much that their ages transposed) and a Mary Whitechurch (16), all Dressmakers.
There is then a record of a death and non-conformist burial of an Elizabeth Wilton of the right age (69), born 1777, in Great Dunmow in 1846.
