Edward Little's birthplace & baptism
Edward's birth and baptism places aren't as easy to pinpoint as we could think, so here is everything I gathered on the subject : (With some speculations on my part because some documents contradict each other )
Edward Little was born on 14 December 1911 from Sarah Little (née Hayter) and Simon Little, he was baptised in St Mary's church, Hornsey, on Jan 12th 1812 ¹
The old medieval church was first mentioned in a papal taxation list of 1291, but by the 1820s the building was dilapidated and it was knocked down in 1832. After that, two new churches were built on these grounds, but none of them remains today, the third church was demolished in 1969, the churchyard was closed in 1892. Today, only the bell tower from the first church still stands, surrounded by a park and a Primary school playground ²
Only him, his older sister Margaret Anne and older brother Cornelius Hayter Little seem to have been baptized here: Margaret Anne on 18 Feb 1810 and Cornelius Hayter on 15 Nov 1810For Edward and Cornelius Hayter, the register mentions "baptized be the Rev° Matthew Irving Rector of Redmile, Leicestershire". Given that information, the Reverant could have come to Hornsey especially to baptize them
From his baptism register and all the Ship Musters I have seen, I had always assumed Edward was also born in Hornsey ³
But one of the muster actually mentions him being born in Stonehouse, Devon ⁴
ADM 37/7848, Admiralty: Ship's Muster (Serie II) Ship: ALERT, Type: Sloop, The National Archives
From his service record, it is the same Edward Little
Given that his older brother who was just born twelve months before him is also registered to have been baptised in Hornsey, it would be unlikely the family had moved to Stonehouse to move back to Hornsey in such a short time, maybe his mother could have been staying with family members in Stonehouse at the time of Edward's birth
But for now, we can only speculate
