The William Garratt you are talking about is (almost certainly) my great great grandfather. I have identified William Garratt son of Shelah and Hannah only as "best candidate" e.g. age, unfortunately I have no sound evidence for this choice.
My great grandfather was John Raybould of Cradley, one of the two children (possibly a third, but that's another story) a William Garratt had by Mary Raybould, and Alfred and John both took their mother's name. I have the copy birth certificates for my great grandfather John Raybould (25/10/1867) and his brother Alfred (18/05/1865), also marriage certificates. No father is named on either birth certificate. However, their christenings (church) and marriage (civil) records are more useful. Alfred was christened twice: the first time on 2 May 1867 with mother Mary Raybold named but no father given, and secondly on 13 May 1867 with parents William Garrett Raybould and Mary. There is no such person as "William Garrett Raybould", of that I am sure. John was christened (once) on 2 May 1867 and no father was named. Alfred and John both married in 1887, Alfred on 26 June no father named. However, John married on 2 October, and his father was named as William Garratt, chain maker. Their mother Mary married James Yardley on 16 July 1876 and he adopted Alf and Jack as his sons. James is known as "Grandpa Jimma" in our family.
I have identified William Garratt son of Shelah and Hannah as "best candidate" e.g. age, unfortunately I have no sound evidence for this choice. So I am reluctant to see William Garratt identified given the lack of any real evidence as to which one he was.
There are two further complications to all the above, both arising from Notebook 2 of the Reverend James Hesselgrave Thompson Vicar of Cradley, aka the "Vicar's Diaries", now residing in Dudley Archives by brilliantly transcribed for us by Barry Blunt and Margaret Bradley. For the most part the notebooks are as good as the census, better in some ways (e.g. some information about where people worked and who was a brother or sister of who, even when living in different households), but also suffering from occasional errors inevitably. The complications are both in the entry for William and Rosanna Raybould (parents of the above Mary Raybould, my 3 x greats), in which he says that also in the house, as well as daughters Mary and Ellen, are William, Alfred and John, "by Caleb Woodhouse", all illegitimate. Now, our transcription of the original diary has a full stop between William and the other two, so the "by Caleb Woodhouse" may not refer only to Alf and John and not also to William, or it may be a transcription error, or perhaps it is a full stop when it should have been a comma. Probably we will never know. But the mention of Caleb does add another unknown, not least because this is probably one and the same Caleb Woodhouse who married Ellen in 1875 (and they went off to Chicago). My best guess is that Caleb was lodging in the house and the Rev. Thompson wrongly assumed that he was the father of the little ones.
That's what I know about William Garratt father of Alfred and John Raybould of Cradley. If anybody can add to or shed more light on this, please let us know.
Nigel Brown
www.cradleylinks.co.uk
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