I am trying to link up the various branches of the Cowmeadow family in Ruardean. I am speculating that the William Cowmeadow who married Pleasant Jordan (died 1804) is the same William Cowmeadow who is shown on this site to have married Mary Hatton in September 1804. The parish record states that in September 1804 he was a bachelor so that presents problems. An early re-marriage may have been a necessity as he had been left with two young children.

I wondered if anyone has anyone has any information that would prove or disprove my thesis.

Carole,
My information regarding William Cowmeadow who married Pleasant Jordan is that he was the great-grandson of William Cowmeadow b1700 who married Elizabeth Pen in 1730 at English Bicknor. After Pleasant's death he married secondly Hannah Harris in 1803/05 in English Bicknor.

By Pleasant he had Esther b1801 and Hannah b1802. By Hannah he had Ann 1811, Sarah 1814 and Elizabeth 1817.

William died in 1853. I believe that Hannah died in 1862.

I hope that this is helpful.

Peter

Thank you for that Peter. There were obviously two Williams born within a few years of each other. You were right to suggest they must have all been related. Many branches of the family seem to have been living in Moorwood in the 1841 Census. I have only just started to look at them and hope I won't admit defeat.

Carole

Have you looked at the transcriptions of the various marriages? If so did you notice that when William married Pleasant Jordan and Hannah Harris he signed the register? This prompted us to look at the signatures and they look very similar so it would appear that the information from Peter Preece is correct.

Admin

Thank you for checking the originals. I was sure Peter was right. I had speculated that that ages given on census returns were incorrect rather than that there were two William Cowmeadows
born so close together.

The problem with trying to disentangle the Cowmeadows is that they repeatedly used the same forenames. Most men were called William or James in the 18th century but they repeatedly called their children Hannah, Hester or Cornelius as well.

I better brain than mine perhaps will one day disentangle the relationships.