I sympathise with your need to find the parents of Jesse JAMES.
First of all - the term alias does not necessarily mean that they are hiding from the law- it is often used when a child is illegitimate and brought up by their mother's new husband taking his name or perhaps they are told who their real father is and take that surname.
It is interesting that neither Jesse nor Sarah gave a father's name when they marry, although it looks as if Sarah NORRIS was the daughter of Isaac and Mercy NORRIS (nee BATH) who were married in Farrington Gurney 21st Sept 1824.
In this case if you follow all the baptisms on our transcriptions for children of Jesse and Sarah JAMES in the Cheddar parish registers after their marriage in 1844 you will find 9 children - four of whom are entered as JAMES commonly known as BROOKS. The first 6 children all died as children, (see Burial Records) leaving just Isaac Norris JAMES (1859), Hannah JAMES (1864) and Jesse JAMES (1867) living.
However on the 1871 census a daughter Elizabeth is mentioned - Similarly there is a son Robert with them on the 1851 census, aged 10 months. There are christenings for both of these but with parents’ names given as Jesse and Jane JAMES and in Robert's case the surname is JAMES alias TUCKER! Perhaps Sarah was known as Sarah Jane? So it looks as if there could have been 11 children.
On a slightly different tack - on the 1st Oct 1832 there was a marriage in Cheddar of an Eliza WEEKS alias BROOKS to Uriah DAY which was witnessed by a Jesse JAMES. According to the 1851 census Eliza was born in Cheddar in 1813 - could she be a sister to your Jesse JAMES? On July 11th 1813 there is a christening in Cheddar of an Eliza WEEKS d/o Hannah WEEKS (no father mentioned)
There is also a marriage on the 19th Aug 1854 of a widower, Robert BROOKS, aged 64, to a widow Hannah TUCKER , aged 60 who gives her father’s name as George WEEKS.
Looking at the 1841 and 1851 censuses you will find that Hannah was previously the wife of a James TUCKER.
There is a marriage (on the CD available from Bristol & Avon FHS for Bristol Marriages) for a James TUCKER to a Hannah WEEKS on the 5th Nov 1819 at St Mary Redcliffe in Bristol. It was not unusual for people to travel to Bristol to get married at this time.
From our transcriptions of Cheddar Baptisms there are christenings for 6 children on James & Hannah TUCKER (4 on the same day!) but their birth years can be assumed from the census entries starting in 1820
Member, Colin Middle has suggested to me that Jesse JAMES might have been christened as Jesse James WEEKS and simply dropped the WEEKS. Just to add another red herring - there was a James WEEKS who was christened in Chew Magna on the 11th May 1817 as the natural son of Hannah WEEKS from Bishop Sutton. No mention of the name Jesse though.
I would think that the Jesse JAMES who assaulted his wife Sarah in Cheddar was most likely your Jesse JAMES - ages can be very approximate on documents like this.
I realise that there is a lot of information here which might be confusing but it might be worth your while to reconstruct the JAMES, WEEKS, BROOKS & TUCKER families in Cheddar to see if there are any more clues. The overseers’ accounts for Cheddar might also be helpful especially if any of the families sought help from the parish. If you consult your local LDS Family History Centre they might be able to get those records for you.
If anyone else has any ideas please add them!
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