Stephen & Winifred Brenchley both born abt 1768 in Kent, England

Question

I have an ancestor Stephen Brenchley, Maidstone 28 Feb 1794.
His parents were Stephen & Winifred Brenchley.
However there seems to be TWO sets of Stephen & Winifred Brenchley born about the same years. One Stephen was born in the Maidstone area and the other Stephen was born in the Lenham area. These two places are 25km, 15 miles apart. Both men seem to have married a Winifred.

I have searched the Kent Family History Society transcriptions and also searched online on FamilySearch, Ancestry, FindMyPast and FreeReg.org, but I cannot make heads or tails or this matter.
Has anybody researched these two pairs and can help me to sort them out?

Comments

Do any of the baptism records for the children include abode and father's occupation? You would probably need to see the record images rather than just transcriptions to see if this additional information is there. It can be very useful in sorting out family groups.

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Yes, I usually try to interpret the images myself, because I have found errors in transcriptions far too often to rely on them entierly. Unfortunately, in this case I cannot, since I can only find transcriptions..
There is a tree for this family online, but since I suspect its accuracy, I want to double-check things.
Maybe in this case I just have to travel to the UK ....

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You will need too buy one birth record,from Kent too receive her maiden name

Most Counties are selling records now,Make sure before you buy, a Maiden last name is listed.

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Maidstone Kent has no online parish clerk.They have an add looking for

one.

Answer 1

In England all childrens records are tied too mothers maiden name.The problem you may run into,some records are only sold by the county.What

you can try,go too Ancestry,choose birth and christining.leave name empty

except last name,so you are asking anybody named Brenchly,with father name,and mother Winifrid with whatever her maiden name was.If you have

problems i will help you.

Comments

Yes, tried that too, only comes up with her forename not the surname.
I understand that records can be lost, but since they are transcribed, they obviously exist.

I was hoping somebody has access to images.

Answer 2

Where do you see two Stephen and Winifreds? The Lenham Stephen is married to Elizabeth in the 1841 and 1851 censuses.

This is your ancestors' marriage (no image was available)

First name(s)    Stephen
Last name    Brenchley
Marriage year    1791
Marriage year as transcribed    1791
Marriage date    05 Apr 1791
Church    All Saints
Marriage place    Maidstone
Spouse's first name(s)    Winifred
Spouse's last name    Crowder
Groom's marital status    Bachelor
Groom's residence    Brenchley
Bride's marital status    Spinster
Bride's residence    Otp
Banns or licence    Licence
County    Kent
Country    England
Record source    Maidstone All Saints marriages 1559-1837
Record set    Kent Marriages

Comments

I am sorry, but I seem to have mislead everybody with my badly put question.
My problem is not so much Stephen Brenchley and Winifred Crowder per se.
It is more like:
"Is there more than ONE Stephen Brenchley at this particular time and place, and if so, who were their respective parents?"
The reason that I ask, are the (for me) conflicting transcriptions on various sites, in particular this search (I hope the link works for everybody)

https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?count=20&query=%2Bgivenname%3AStephen%20%2Bsurname%3ABrenchley%20%2Bbirth_place%3AKent%20%2Bbirth_year%3A1750-1775~&https://www.familysearch.org/search/hr/search=undefined

The information in this link gives (1) a Stephen born to Dinah in 1768 and (2) a Stephen married to Elizabeth, also born in 1768.
(And my Stephen married Winifred, I know this because there are plentiful births and census records that show this).
So, is the Stephen born to Dinah the one married to Winifred or the one married to Elizabeth?
And if the Stephen that married Winifred is not the Stephen born to Dinah, whose son was he?
This is where I am stuck...
Anyway, I am grateful for your efforts to help me.

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You have to assume there are multiple people with the same name and approximately the same age. If I had to guess I'd say that the one baptized in Rochester to Dinah is the pauper who married Elizabeth and lived to 85, dying in 1852. Your Stephen died before the censuses started in 1841.

One thing I didn't mention is that "otp" in the marriage record means "of this parish". So it was Winifred who was from Maidstone and Stephen was from Brenchley itself, a parish to the south-west towards Tunbridge Wells. This is a long way from Rochester although, it has to be said, Lenham isn't much closer.

The other point of interest is that the marriage was by license not by banns. This was unusual although there are many possible reasons. Sometimes records of licenses or 'allegations' survive separately from parish records as the licenses were handled at diocese level. I'm not an expert on Kent but the Canterbury Cathedral Archives (in Canterbury) and the Kent History and Library Centre (Maidstone) for Brenchley parish records seem the places to look. I'd consider finding a Kent-based researcher to investigate.

Finally, I noticed other copies of the marriage transcribed online but with Winifred marrying John Brenchley on the same date. This is obviously a transcription error but it suggests that John was on the record as her or Stephen's father.

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Hello Matthew
You make some good points here.
I have considered some of the points that you have made, except the last two ones.
In fact, Winnefred's father is John Crowder, so that could possibly explain the "John" in the transcription.
Which brings me to an important point concerning this type of research, namely the lack of images and the "uneven" quality of the transcribers.
An image is essential in order to be able to check the transcription.

One point you haven't mentioned, is the fact that the census record for "my" Stephen B. may have been lost.

I will see if I can work this problem from the other direction, i.e. find all Brenchley families in Kent, and eliminate obvious non-contenders.
Also I will see if there are any surviving allegations
I was hoping that some research had been done already, but I am not able to find anything useful.