My great, great-grandfather, Henry Thomas Baylis, presents some challenges. Despite the 1871 Census listing his date of birth around 1827 in Salisbury, Wiltshire I cannot find him prior to the birth of his daughter, Clara, in 1862 in Carshalton, Surrey. Clara’s birth certificate lists her mother as Mary Ann Baylis, formerly Williams with an address in Braunton, Devon. In the 1871 Census Henry’s wife is listed as Eliza from Pilton, Devon. This turns out to be Eliza Mountjoy, born Pilton c. 1827 who married Thomas Flood and had four children: Jane, Rosina, Emily and Herbert. Eliza is the daughter of Richard Mountjoy and Mary Worth who had five children: Jane, Eliza, Harriet, Maria and Henry Worth Mountjoy. Henry Worth Mountjoy married Lousa Guy in 1860. Jane Mountjoy was born deaf and dumb and lived with her mother until her mother’s death and then with Henry and Louisa.
Back to Henry Baylis: he went bankrupt as a draper in 1867 with an address in Battersea. In the 1881 Census his occupation is auctioneer and he’s living in St. Giles Cripplegate, London. Eliza died in 1885 and Henry married Kate Weaver in 1886, the much younger daughter of his neighbour. In September of 1886 he was in bankruptcy proceedings again and in the 1891 Census they are living in West Ham. However, Henry died in Swindon, Wiltshire in 1892, just down the street from one of Eliza’s daughters, Rosina Flood who had married Arthur Longman and was a draper. The informant on his death certificate was his sister-in-law, Annie Wilkinson, formerly Weaver.
The only marriage certificate I have been able to find is his third one, to Catherine Weaver in 1886 which was in a non-conformist church. His father was listed as Thomas Baylis, a woolcomber. Now I’m trying to find other ways of tracing more information about Henry. Perhaps someone out there is reasearching Mountjoys and happened across the marriage certificate for Eliza Flood nee Mountjoy and Henry Thomas Baylis. If so, please contact me.