People search
(married name will be ignored if broad check is ticked;
a broad check includes a search for nicknames, married names and other alternative names)Where were they from?
Search for places, see all people in the tree with events in that place, and (where added) see places marked on a map with photos, links and other information about the location.
![Samuel / William GOTHAM, [Did he exist?]](img/male.jpg)
Samuel / William GOTHAM, [Did he exist?]
Est 1832 - 1881 (~ 38 years)
Has no ancestors but 55 descendants in this family tree.
Set As Default Person 
-
Name Samuel / William GOTHAM Suffix [ONS gp] [Did he exist?] Relationship 
with Teresa Ann GOATHAM Born Est 1832 - * If he existed * (see notes at end of page) - based on approximate dob of his wife
Gender Male Nota bene May not have existed Occupation Blacksmith - Shown on his son Thomas's marriage PR entry and on his wife's death certificate (which was registered by son Thomas)
Died Between 1870 and 1881 - Described as deceased when his son William married in 1887 as well as in the 1881 census, but named as father of Maud in PR (entry for her reception into the church in 1886, which also records he had died by then)
Notes - In the censuses Ann (or Hannah) is shown as a widow, and when her sons Thomas and William married they named Samuel, a blacksmith, as their father, as did Maud when she was received into the church. That it was Ann's daughter Sarah who married John Westaway is confirmed by children of the marriage being with their grandmother Ann Gotham at the time of the 1891 and 1901 censuses, but Sarah described her father as William Gotham, vetinary surgeon when she married and despite him being Samuel when she was received into the church Maud also named him as William (deceased) when she married, though she did still describe him as a blacksmith!
But did he exist? I can find no evidence of his baptism (but this would probably have been pre 1837 and not all are online), nor his marriage or death (which would have been post 1837 and should be indexed), not can I find him in any census.
When 'son' Thomas was born his mother's maiden name was recorded as Gothen, according to the local BMD index, while the GRO online index does not show a mother's maiden name, suggesting she was not married.
I have not found a birth registration for son William or daughter Sarah, but, when daughter Maud's birth was registered her mother's maiden name was recorded as Boulton. Was this part of Ann's covering up her single status?
I have seen a tree which suggests Ann was a Gotham spinster - this sounds likely, but I have not yet made contact with the tree owners and found out more.
Person ID I301466 All | All in the Goatham / Gotham One-Name Study , All subjects of the Goatham / Gotham One-Name Study Last Modified 4 Jan 2015
Family Ann GOTHAM, b. Abt 1834, Market Drayton, Shropshire, England 
, d. 11 Mar 1914, Hospital, The Union Workhouse, Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, England (Age ~ 80 years) Married - It seems Ann was probably not married, and her blacksmith husband Samuel a fiction.
When her daughter Maud's birth was registered, though, she gave the maiden name of Boulton. Perhaps this was the surname of Maud's father.
Whether Ann's children had the same father or (as seems more likely) different father's I do not know.
Children4 children Last Modified 14 Feb 2017 Family ID F300495 Family Group Page | Family Chart