Prove or disprove - challenge!

[Spangle]

This is a bit of a brick wall and a bit of just pure confusion so I wondered if someone might be able to help me make sense of it please.

What I have for pretty much certain is this:

William Churchill ILETT was born Walworth, Southwark in 1816. His occupation on the censuses is given as paper stainer, which I understand means that he made wallpaper. He was my G G Grandfather and extended family met over the net are adamant that he was a calico printer whose family followed their Huguenot calico printing employers from Hertfordshire down to East London and then beyond to South London. The name Ilett is largely peculiar to Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire in the days before William's birth, so that figures.

William's father appears to have been John Ilett, also a paper stainer, born London 1793, and his mother Ann Parrott, born 1877. It is in 1851 that William is described on the census as a cutter to calico printers, in Wandsworth, which supports the Huguenot theory as this is a well documented area where the people of the faith settled to carry out the trade.

After John Ilett though, evidence is sketchy. I have made the fatal mistake of identifying a possible father for John but not adding the source of my information and now I have forgotten where I got it from! My records from a couple of years back tell me that I had decided that John's father must have been Joseph Ilot, born Codicote, Herts, in 1765. I THINK I got this from the IGI but am not sure! What I do know is that I have no more on Joseph as of course this was before the census records so where he went after his birth is a mystery.

I had been getting really cross with myself for ages and then I found this: - https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=P...CYy0yQTb3tCaDQ

It's a patent granted to Joseph Ilett, calico printer, of Stratford, Essex, in 1809.

So, this all fits the hearsay evidence and the small amount of logic I can bring to the matter... but how on earth can I prove or disprove that this Joseph Ilett is the father of my ancestor John?

I would really appreciate some help here as I can't see the wood for the trees!

[Spangle]

I can't help with your problem Spangle, but I can possibly add to the confusion.
Paper Stainers were also employed in the stationery and bookbinding trades, making marbled endpapers for books.
Apologies if I've added to your woes ...

Arghhh! You so and so Finbar!!!!

[dtbraven]

I know this is a long time ago, but are you still monitoring this thread? I think Joseph Ilett is the father of John or maybe William. Joseph's first wife was, I think, Mary Churchill.

Joseph Ilett is my 4x great grandfather.