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Thanks for your help. I was very tempted to agree that JAMES KNOWLES who married MARY BROOKMAN was the same person but I have doubts. However may problem is that I have seen no Kingston Seymour records prior to 1728 and I have records of too many JAMES KNOWLES at Kingston Seymour between 1728 and 1743 to be able to properly match them up. 

The baptisms you mention fall between Sept 1729 and November 1734. Two of those children died. Each of those records state that parents are JAMES & MARY KNOWLES. So who is the JAMES KNOWLES who was buried 24 May 1734 - 2 days before MARY KNOWLES, daughter of JAMES and MARY KNOWLES and 6 months before ELIZABETH KNOWLES was baptised ?  1734 was obviously an eventful year for the KNOWLES family because in February 1734/35 HANNAH daughter of wid. KNOWLES was buried. The only HANNAH KNOWLES I have record of was the first child of JAMES & MARY KNOWLES born 1729 so does that mean that MARY was a widow ? But that does not make sense as the only JAMES KNOWLES recorded as buried prior to Feb 1734/35 is the one of May 1734 ! The widow MARY KNOWLES was buried 9 January 1742/43.

But there is another JAMES KNOWLES who was married to an ELIZABETH as the burial record for ELIZABETH KNOWLES of 19 August 1742 states "wife of JAMES KNOWLES". Other than this record I have no further information on this couple.

To add to my problem there are yet two more JAMES KNOWLES - the burial records show a burial of JAMES KNOWLES son of JAMES KNOWLES of Cleve (is that short for Clevedon or Cleeve near Yatton ?) buried on 15 Aug 1742. Kingston Seymour implies that they have a connection to that parish.

I clearly need more information and a trip to Taunton appears necessary to see records prior to 1729.

Thanks again.

Adrian

We must have members other than myself who also belong to the Somerset & Dorset FHS but our members often seem shy of answering queries!  The Somerset & Dorset FHS have in the past published transcriptions of individual parishes but not, as far as I know, a total survey of the two counties.  They do have a facebook page which is fairly active and members do answer queries on that.  

For your Somerset parishes outside of North Somerset I would suggest FreeREG (for transcriptions) and Ancestry (for images of Somerset Parish Records).  You could also try a query on this Research Forum - you never know who might read it and even come up with a suggestion for you!

Many thanks, Peter, for the information concerning Sussex FHS - no one from Weston-super-Mare FHS seems to belong to Somerset & Dorset FHS as well! My ancestors may have strayed outside the W-s-M perameters in earlier generations so I am interested to know if Somerset & Dorset FHS offer such comprehensive aids as W-s-M. 

I have had a look at the Yatton Parish Register images on Ancestry. The entry for James (3 February 1744/5) is as follows: "the son of James & Mary Knowles". The entry for William is as follows: "the son of Mary Knowles widow".

It is quite clear from this that James the elder died some time after 3 February 1744/5 and before 27 July 1746. The burial at Kingston Seymour on 19 January 1745/6 fits nicely within this short timespan and provides pretty compelling evidence that this was your James KNOWLES.

Incidentally there was a marriage of a James KNOWLES to Mary BROOKMAN at Kingston Seymour on 12 June 1729 and several children of that marriage were christened there. It is possible that this was also your James KNOWLES.

Dave Erasmus