Gideon's wife - Eleanor or Mary?

[Thomasin]

Gideon Keith and Eleanor from Princes St and later from Silver St baptised seven or eight children between 1760 and 1779 at St George in the East - except for the oldest, Eleanor, who was recorded as Helena Keith, daughter of Gideon and Helena, and baptised at the St Vincent Street Scotch Church, Stepney.

I have been unable to find a marriage for Gideon and Eleanor, but I have found one for Gideon and Mary Brown at St George in the East on 22nd January 1760. This would be ideal timing for the birth of 'Helena' on 16th November that year.

Mary may be the daughter of Robert (mariner) and Mary Brown, Art. Lane, [?Artichoke Hill?] baptised 30th September 1738 at this church. The only Eleanor Brown in the area seems to be the daughter of John (mariner) and Hannah, Wms Ct, baptised 2nd September 1739, but she died shortly afterwards.

Do I assume that 'Eleanor' and 'Mary Brown' are one and the same?

[Megan Roberts]

Instinctively I would say no, because there would not appear to be any way that the names Eleanor and Mary could be confused, or mistranscribed, but having looked at the originals on Ancestry and FMP and FamilySearch I realised that Gideon Keith is a very unusual name, and therefore it would seem to be stretching the bounds of coincidence to have 2 Gideon Keith's living in the same area at the same time; one of whom is married but apparently without baptised children (if any), and the other apparently unmarried with lots of baptised children.

I think that if it were me, I would note down the possibility that Mary and Eleanor are one and the same, but I do not think that I would be convinced that this was true.

Sorry to sit on the fence.

[Thomasin]

Join me on the fence, Megan - there's room for two.

You are right in that Gideon Keith is an unusual name. It's also open to mistranscription or misspelling. There is a court case in 1775 (he was accused of assault) where in one entry his name appears as Jordan Keith.

Then one of the baptisms - John Keith, 26th August 1770, again St George in the East, again Princes St - but the parents are given as Samuel and Eleanor. I can't find another Samuel Keith at all, and assume (I'm doing a lot of that) that it should have read Gideon.

Now if I could find an Eleanor Mary Brown ......

[Mutley]

I cannot find anything other than that you have found.

The names Eleanor and Mary do seem poles apart and with all those children she was always Eleanor, other than Helena which is so close but not Mary?

Trouble is there does not seem anything else online and Gideon Keiths are few and far between especially back then.

I think I'll paint the fence and think about this one.